All Forum Posts by: Brady Boyer

@Joanna Gossett Thanks for the advice.  I will take it into consideration and perhaps look to start investing sooner than planned.  

My name is Brady and I just graduated from Penn State this May. I will be moving to NYC in August, and I am eager to start investing in real estate as soon as possible. I have been reading books about real estate since high school and took numerous real estate classes in college. I want to use a buy and hold strategy once I start investing.

My issue, and what I want to get your opinion on, is that I have about $60,000 in student debt. My plan is to try and pay this down aggressively until I get the balance down to around $20,000 (which I anticipate taking 4-5 years) and then try to start buying investment properties. While paying down the debt, I have also budgeted to save 15% of my income, so that when I get my debt down to around $20,000 I will have built up enough money for a down payment on an investment property. My reasoning for this plan is that I don’t want to take on too much risk with that much debt, and I am skeptical if I would even qualify for a loan with that much debt as a new investor. What are your opinions about this plan? Do you have any suggestions? Has anyone else experienced a similar situation?

In the meantime I would like to start getting familiar with the NYC market and surrounding boroughs. Does anyone have any suggestions on which markets outside of NYC work best for a buy and hold strategy?

My name is Brady and I just graduated from Penn State this May. I will be moving to NYC in August, and I am eager to start investing in real estate as soon as possible. I have been reading books about real estate since high school and took numerous real estate classes in college. I want to use a buy and hold strategy once I start investing.

My issue, and what I want to get your opinion on, is that I have about $60,000 in student debt. My plan is to try and pay this down aggressively until I get the balance down to around $20,000 (which I anticipate taking 4-5 years) and then try to start buying investment properties. While paying down the debt, I have also budgeted to save 15% of my income, so that when I get my debt down to around $20,000 I will have built up enough money for a down payment on an investment property. My reasoning for this plan is that I don’t want to take on too much risk with that much debt, and I am skeptical if I would even qualify for a loan with that much debt as a new investor. What are your opinions about this plan? Do you have any suggestions? Has anyone else experienced a similar situation?

In the meantime I would like to start getting familiar with the NYC market and surrounding boroughs. Does anyone have any suggestions on which markets outside of NYC work best for a buy and hold strategy?

@Tim Puffer Thanks for the advice.

@Jason Bott Thanks for the information.  And at what point in the buying process would you inquire about a quote on the actual property? The due diligence step? Or before the property is under contract?

 @LuAnn Vigen Thanks. I kind of figured that the homeowners policy would not cover damage due tenets. How did you cover that cost then? Were you putting money away into a Capex fund? Or did you just have to use personal funds to cover the cost?

@Joel Owens Thanks, that helps a lot.  

I am currently working on trying to become better at analyzing deals (essentially get more accurate inputs so my output coming out of the calculator is more accurate). I had a couple quick question for you investors.  

1.) Are property tax rates different (higher) on an investment property than on your primary residence?

2.) Should I budget for property taxes to be higher than what the previous owner is showing on their pro forma assuming I am buying the property at a higher price than the current assed value listed by the county?

3.) Is it generally more expensive to insure an investment property than a primary residence?

4.) Would the homeowners insurance cover any damage caused by tenants? (For example if I have to evict them and they knock down walls etc.)

Thanks for any help you can provide!

@Brandon Turner Thanks for reaching out.  I will definitely get familiar with this resource. 

Welcome!  Where in PA is your current rental property located?