All Forum Posts by: Alan Fischer

@Ramon Cuevas that would be great - I'm tied up with my W2 job for a little bit, but I will be more available when you're getting to El Paso!

@Ota Odibo, welcome!  What don't you like about the market on Oahu?  I live in El Paso, but don't see it as a great buy & hold market.  Although it's easy to find single-family houses with monthly rent >1.2% of their value, property taxes are approximately 1.99%.  At least for me, that's a hard pill to swallow, since that's a direct hit on the cap rate forever.

@Poosana Sunnanonta, that's a tough break.  The combination of high property tax and low appreciation have me looking elsewhere, namely Savannah.  How have you recovered since that bust?

@Chris Salvato this is a really interesting discussion, and 8 months later, I'm curious what route you ended up going.  How did the data compare to what you actually found when you started looking for properties?  As someone looking at properties in many of the same places, a significant factor I don't see in your analysis is property tax.  How did you account for difference in operating costs or cap rate between the markets?

Most importantly, (where) did you actually take the plunge?

Despite the irony of welcoming the first El Paso member to welcome me, welcome Jim! I'm looking forward to learning together.

I'm Alan, and I'm here because of a series of events. I bought my first house to be a rental when I moved out. The town's population and housing demand plummeted, and it turned out to be a bad investment. I got a bad taste of real estate, and have been investing in my IRA instead. I recently started listening to the BiggerPockets podcast at the recommendation of a BP member, and between his success and lessons learned from the podcast, I started reconsidering real estate. Even more recently, I did thorough analysis of my retirement plan, and I realized it's not going to get me to where I want to be. Then I talked to my parents who are nearing retirement, and realized they have significantly less than I will, and that's not for lack of working. Finally, I've been bettering my real estate education and gaining courage through talking with my best friend about investing. So here I am, ready to take the plunge.

I live in El Paso, TX but I'm also looking at other markets including Savannah, GA.  I am looking to buy & hold, and I would like to start talking to property managers in El Paso, Savannah, and other potential markets. 

Thanks to Brandon for the webinar last night and to everyone involved in putting together all the great resources I've been reading on BP!