All Forum Posts by: Cory Mccarthy

@Richard Ball, where can i get NOLO?  is it available here on BP?  also could use a recommendation for a good CPA that really understands real estate investing.  luve in Fenton but glad to travel 30-45 minutes in any direction for a quality CPA.

@Bradley Scruggs, I certainly didn't mean to discourage you from looking now as I strongly believe there is no better time to start than right now. What I meant to say is that you may wish to stay local. I understand what you are saying about Panama City being expensive, but I believe that you may be dismissing the area surrounding you a little too quickly. I personally live in a pretty affluent area myself (at least for our neck of the woods) with most houses selling in the $250 to $600K level or more. Almost all of them are very well kept up and primarily sell at Retail for top dollar. But if I draw a line around my area in about a 20 Mile radius in all directions, that area does in fact include many more affordable areas. Once I started looking in that area, not only did I find those more affordable areas, but I also started running across a few products here and there right in my own back yard. It is a little like finding a needle in a haystack and you really need to expand your sources of information to include not only the traditional MLS sites like Realtor.com and Trulia, but also places such as Craigslist, Auction.com, Hubzu, Homepath and maybe even EBay. You may be very surprised at some of the places you find homes listed, they are not all on MLS websites and you just might find that needle in the haystack. I was quite surprised to find some of my own and I too had almost completely discounted my area as not being a qualified location to find a bargain in, so I was not going to Farm it. I now have one about 3-4 miles from me that is selling for about 30% of the average for homes in the area, granted it needs a lot of work, but let's face it, that is in fact how we are most likely to make good money. Look harder at your area, expand your horizons a little and keep searching. you may very well be surprised at what you eventually uncover. Best of luck to you!

@Russell Brazil, Delusional is a perfect way to describe most of our politicians these days, that's for sure.  Agree that there will always be something to invest, we just may to work a little harder or look a little more thoroughly.  Thanks for chiming in.

welcome @Bradley Scruggs.  I tend to agree with @Sam Ball that Warren can be tricky and just starting out investing, out of town can be much more difficult as well, particularly for a first time investor.  It requires a significant team in place and that in itself is tough to assemble from a distance, but I acknowledge it can be done.   I myself am pretty new and haven't yet done a lot of deals yet other than one buy and hold about an hour from me, but I am looking now for some flips and not going to stray too far from my roots that I know best.  Figure it is better to start local, get my feet wet and grow from there rather than to start from a distance.  Several of J. Scott's books talk about local vs. out of state and he was convinced that you can always find something within a short distance.  At first I didn't believe that of my area as almost all of what I was looking at was strictly retail and held no opportunity for sweat equity or buying at wholesale levels, but the more and more I look, the more and more opportunities I am finding.  Not all great, but since they are close by, it is much easier for me to go view them and weed through them and I have found more deals than I originally thought I would and with each one I see, am learning a little more about what to look for and consider and getting a much better definition of the local market itself, which I also find helpful.  Long and short of it is, I personally would recommend finding a more local area to start off with before attempting the more difficult task of taking it on the road.  There will always be time for that later on if necessary, but it is easier to learn on a local basis.  Just my two cents.  Best of luck to you and thanks for your service.

@Darren Budahn, I have thought that all along ever since he announced and continue to even now as well, but the poll numbers still don't seem to indicate that and the electorate is so upset with the status quo, we might just all be surprised. But the real question here is what happens if he does get elected somehow? How do markets respond and how will it impact REI?

@Chris Mason - LOL, love the sarcasm and analogies.  Hell, I would love it my tenants, who are NOT section 8 BTW would just clean and sweep once a month, good luck on the paint job!

@Charlie Fitzgerald, While many of us will agree the size of government is way out of control, the question you really have to ask yourself is whose fault is it; the Dems who want to give everything free to everyone possible to secure their votes for eternity or the Repubs who have the spines that are roughly equivalent to jellyfish. Frankly I blame them both equally, which is why I think you suggest to try something new, and I couldn't agree more, but allow me to redirect slightly. What I am really hoping to get at here is not who we should elect, that really could get ugly on here, but rather, based upon whoever wins, what are likely to be the effects on markets important to REI. Will interests rates go up or down, will property values stagnate or go through the roof, will unemployment explode, will tax changes make it better or worse for REI, etc. etc. etc. Any additional thoughts from you or others on this topic would be appreciated.

@Chris K. - can't stop laughing at your comment!  Never really expected it to, but I was bored.

@Charlie Fitzgerald, what do you expect to change in the market as a result of a trump win that will make it a better environment for RE investors?

thanks @M Marie M. for your input.  Glad to hear you're an historian instead of a politician, and that you were somehow able to thrive and benefit from the collapse.  Shocker to hear that the area around DC thrived thru the downturn! At least the areas where the politicians and lobbyists typically live, but still sounds like the C/D areas suffered along with all the rest of the country.  Strange how that works, huh?  Funny how the politicians of the world can benefit the most by directly causing one of the worst economic collapses in history by artificially impacting markets and then the gov is probably the only sector to have grown exponentially thru this period as a result.  Go figure...