All Forum Posts by: Bryan Smith

@Corinne Hassinger, in the Scranton area you can find some great cash flowing properties but the downside is the lack of appreciation.  One of the reasons I invest in NEPA is that I have found the area has plenty of small multi family properties available for sale.

I don't know your current living situation but house hacking is a great way to start real estate investing.    Wishing you the best on your real estate endeavors.

@Joe Splitrock and @Amad Osman, Thank you for the input!  I'll contact apartments.com and hopefully I can get this corrected.  

I was notified today that my Cozy account will not be moving to apartments.com because one of my properties is classified as commercial (5 units).  I'm now in the process of searching for another similar platform.  Not all Cozy accounts are being transitioned to apartments.com. 

@Lizbeth Vaquero what is the plan if you acquire the properties? Are you going to flip them or is this a buy and hold? If you intend to flip the properties, the ARV and rehab budget have to be dialed in. If you plan to hold and BRRR some or all of these properties then the ARV will also play an important role as it will be your forecasted value in a potential loan for a lenders loan to value ratio. Lower market value properties are typically found in less desirable sections of town and have a higher cap rate because their value is low. A property listed for sale below market value could be priced low to account for deferred maintenance. Both of these scenarios can produce an above average cap rate and may look good on paper but could be a costly mistake. I would be very cautious of a property with an extremely high cap rate. In the Scranton area, 10-14% cap rates seems reasonable. I have used the cap rate calculator at https://apartmentpropertyvalua... if I want to get an estimate on what a property's cap rate is.  Wishing you the best on your real estate endeavors.  

@Samary Agosto, I invest in the Scranton area.  I'll send you a request.

Does anyone have any recommendations for settlement services in the Scranton/WB area?

Thank you.  

@Kevin D.  Yes, Landmark is publicly traded.  Fidelity is close to $2 billion in asset size and Landmark is (approximately) $300 million in asset size.  In my experience the larger the financial institution, the worse the customer service is to smaller real estate investors.  Thank you for offering some recommendations.      

I was disappointed when I was informed that Landmark Community Bank is being acquired by Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. From my experience anytime a smaller community bank is acquired by a larger publicly traded bank, the customer service declines for customers that are small real estate investors (like myself). My primary contact at Landmark has already resigned and is no longer with Landmark. I have begun the process to refinance my existing loans with Landmark to another local bank in the NEPA area. I have found success in establishing relationships with smaller community banks and credit unions. I wanted to create a post to inform anyone else who may be banking with Landmark Community Bank.

@Adam Guiffrida  I invest in Scranton but do not live in the area and wanted to thank you for making the investors voice be heard.  

Does anyone know of a product or a service that provides addresses and names for a designated specific area of a town?  If this product or service provides mailing assistance that would be a bonus.  I would estimate the area I'm looking at has a few hundred properties and I can not locate a product or service that provides me what I'm looking for in that quantity.  I have no desire to attempt this manually by looking up every property on the county's website.  Every response that helps me out, gets a vote from me. 

Can the BP community help me out?
 
Thank you in advance!