All Forum Posts by: Bogdan Cirlig

Also check Zilpy.com (disclaimer, it's my company, but the thread is asking for this info)

Great points. I personally think that if you are in any business and don't have a website you're as good as dead these days. Especially with the new population "millenias" who were born on the Internet and breathe hashtags and instagrams, you want to be "cool" because that's your new wave of customers. I am very biased to judge the quality of a company/product by the quality (look and feel) of their website. Does it look "Applesque" or it's an IBM type of site? And it's not about attracting more business, it's about being in the know, not obsolete. When clients look up to you for latest info and trends, looking "old school" doesn't serve you at all. If you are full of customers great, but you may start losing them slowly.

It depends on many things, for example, I do it to also lower my Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). You can't ignore the fact that the single biggest tax break W2 income earners have is the mortgage interest tax break. If you are in the higher tax bracket you effectively can save 1/3rd of your mortgage interest $$. Take a look where you live, see rent vs own comparison, account for all the things after tax and see if it makes sense to get your own pad.

As Elizabeth said, you can get an FHA with 3% down or so (see the limits for your county). Make sure you account for tax, insurance and have a net bottom line after tax. If you hunt down good deals you might get a fixer upper and get going (if your skills are good to do light fixing, painting, applis).

I would say Mia Beach is a highly speculative place due to it's amazing tourist attraction and a lot of festivals happening all the time.

Look at below numbers. What I don't like is the renter density and vacancy amount:

Also the prices are insane:

In my opinion, you are late to consider that strip unless you buy for speculative purposes (i.e. buy low sell high fast, flip, fix etc).

Also Miami Dade is generally a high crime area, with good parts yes, but you need to know precisely "boots on the ground" what you are doing and where.

Look to start with something that will cash flow and you are able to cover the vacancy from you other income IF it comes to that.

 Umm.. bit confused. Census tract is the smallest geo unit you can get, (there are census blocks, smaller, but meaningless for statistical purposes in this context) smaller than a zip or neighborhood. Also Census tract is very uniform as it's designed to be that way and it includes a certain number of households (less than 4,000 people so generally around 2,000 households) hence the geo area of a Tract can vary in sparse vs densely populated areas of a city. You want such charts to be at Tract level (which is the point, we do provide those charts at census tract level). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Census_tract

Good question. There is an inverse relationship between property price and rent amount. The higher the property value the lower that 1% and I think there will always be that relationship. As you pass 150k or so range the percentage will start dropping fast. That has been the rule. In my observations, the high cash flow low price properties don't appreciate as fast as higher end ones.

I live in Silicon Valley (lol yes) and here a $1mm 3 bdr sfh "flies" off the rental market in 1 weekend at $4000/mo rent. For many, that's a terrible idea to buy and hold, but you need to account for the fact that a lot of such inventory was purchased when it was 500k not 1MM hence those mortgages are covered 100% by the rent amount.

It's also not mandatory that the "herd" uses a sound rationale when making investment decisions. There's always gonna be a huge amount of irrational investors with loads of cash in dear need to leverage it so your 20% down will get you a $1MM SFH that will rent for an amount that covers 100% your operating cost hence, investors see it as 5x multiplier (via leverage) of their liquid cash and hold onto it because it's a high appreciation market (point in case San Fran Bay area sees 15% appreciation in past 2 years... u-hu.. bubble bubble they scream).

Oh definitely it is me. I checked with moderators and they advised me to post the content of our blog directly in here and remove any self promo links. I posted it for the face value of the info, being in "starting out" category. But you are right, the report is an case study for newbies. Another great example is, Katy, TX area: AMAZING to pick up cash flowing properties in the $100k range with $1,300/mo rent. I plan to write specifically about good investment areas as I come across them and run them through the "grinder". If you'd like to highlight any areas in the US, send me a private message. Disclaimer: Not to be interpreted as investment advice. I'm not licensed to provide any advice.

 Follow the link in my sig. Can't post directly as per forum rules.

 Thanks or feedback. I answered directly via PM.

 What about Schools, Crime, Price & Rent trends in past 12 months and also foreclosure rate in the area? Don't buy just based on numbers, the rest needs to pan out too. Your tenant might move out and you might have troubles renting out again if area degraded in past few years. Do you have the cross streets as well as property type beds/ba/sqft? I can give you a more detailed analysis.

I don't think I will pay per showing, generally I bundle several prospects on close timeslots so I don't go there every hour. I prefer to have open house and have all of them some within 2-3 hours. Then I prefer to pay the rental agent for his hourly time to be there OR pay him/her 50% of the 1 month rent upon leasing. Since you mentioned it's a high demand rental area, probably paying by the hour is better than 50%.

In high demand rental areas I see 20-30 apps on one house that pour in less than 1 week. I'm sure I don't want to pay per showing bur rather per hour for that person to be there and babysit the property.