All Forum Posts by: Joshua D.

There is 1 bedroom on the central floor and the other 3 are upstairs

Hey Jason! Thank you so much for your reply! Yes, the homes being so close is typical in that particular area. They basically all sit on top of one another. Our parcel has 2 houses on it, and I was thinking it would be a bit of a struggle to get someone to buy two houses so close together. For renting, no problem, but selling yes, I thought the same. Might have to find a creative selling point, such as someone maybe house hacking by living in the first house and renting the second house. Not sure if I can separate the parcels and sell separately or not down the line. We are just going to rent them for now. Great thought on the bathroom situation for the 4bedroom house! We must have gotten lucky on this one, as the bathroom is downstairs on the central floor and it is a full one. When we flip one day, adding a 2nd bathroom upstairs would be a great idea, agreed. There is also a shower in the unfinished basement (strange)

Bump

Thank you so much Brent! That makes total sense, as the house NEXT to the 138k house sold for 68k in 2010. 

I think our houses would reasonably be worth 85-90k, once fixed up. The area is somewhat up and coming, we have a bunch of hotels coming in as well as corporate chain restaurants such as Chili's, Texas Roadhouse. building small shopping complexes, etc. So due to the market trend analysis that these corporations would do before putting those businesses in, it makes me feel fairly confident that the area will continue to grow.

And GREAT! That makes me feel much more confident. Sometimes I can get so excited over a deal that I want to make sure that I'm actually getting a deal....LOL

Thanks Brent!

Anyone, I'd love your thoughts! Always looking to learn and see different views to make sure I'm not missing anything.

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Hey guys! Nice to see you Matt, and all of our other PA peeps! Always great to make new connections and friends. Anyone have any group meet ups that happen around the area? We could all start to meet up around the Pittsburgh area and pick each others brains, see what's working for everyone.

Hey Nick!

Great job on the cash flowing property. It sounds like you are off to a great start. Is your market strong enough to rent it out as a full time rental in the winter months? Agreed with a poster above on renting to corporations if possible, we'd have some great success with that on short-term leases and charged easily double our usual asking price.

With 60k, I would do several things. First, start making those around you know that you are investing in real estate. Put it out on FB. Maybe they know someone who wants to sell and you could buy below market value, potentially.

I also like the idea of putting 30k down on 2 properties.

Have you looked into tax sales? It's a volatile market and VERY risky, but PA is a tax deed state and you may have some success there, if your threshold for risk is somewhat higher. I say this because MOST of the homes need extensive work, but it's worth it if you can get them for a song.

Know any realtor friends?  Make some! They can keep you in the loop on properties that they have for sale that they can alert you to.

Just some ideas! Good luck my man! Wife and I started last year and are just tomorrow getting ready to close on our 7th unit tomorrow. We love it. Best thing we ever did together!

Hey guys!

My wife and I just put 2 houses under contract yesterday. I'm adding pictures, below.

The first house is this yellow brick 4 bedroom/1 bath with an unfinished basement.

The second house is the red house behind it (2 houses on 1 parcel) and it has 3 bedrooms/1 bath and a garage that needs fixed.

They each have separate parking next to the houses, so even though it looks like they share a driveway, they don't. The red house behind it has a little alleyway that leads into a small driveway to the left of the house.

OKAY, so down to numbers. On the tax site, it is appraised by the county as the following:

Base Year of Valuation:	01/01/2003
Current Land:	15,440
Current Building:	71,260
Current Total:	86,700

The seller originally wanted $90,000 for both, but we weren't able to pay that. They called us back 3 months later and accepted our offer of $50,000, because they became very motivated due to some family health issues and an ailing grandmother, who owns the home.

OKAY! So we got both for $50,000, and the insides of the houses are completely livable. Just need some cosmetic work such as paint, maybe some flooring, outdated borders around the walls removed, etc.  All in all, it shouldn't take us more than $5,000 to fix up both houses.  (The inside of the brick house is gorgeous. Beautiful 1920's woodwork, brick fireplace, high ceilings, open floor plan. Second house is solid and nice too, doesn't need much at all, carpet won't even need replaced. )

The house to the left of these sold for $138,000 in May 2005, pic below:

(I normally wouldn't worry, but we had a realtor around here tell us that she thinks both houses would only be worth $70,000 because there are 2 houses on 1 parcel and its hard to pull a comp for that, but that would be her guess, and that worried me. How would that be possible if the house next door sold for $138,000? And the county site has ours evaluated for $87,000? Aren't the county sites low?

Anyway, the neighborhood is good, I'd say a low B or high C. Rent should be $700-$850 per house.

Would you have bought this deal for $50,000?

How do you think we did? We close tomorrow and are paying cash.

So im looking at a deal and it will easily meet the 2% rule but honestly not sure if house is worth the money but in that case should you still purchase? 

Hey Steve!

Happy ending to both stories so far, thank God! We knew the duplex was a problem as soon as we saw it. We were new to investing and didn't check things well out enough, but boy have we learned! :)

We bought the duplex for $2,000, and before even putting in our names (which would have cost $800 just to transfer the title and fees) sold it for $1,200 and let the buyer pay the $800 to transfer it. It was well worth it just to get it out of our hair.

The 5 acres, we paid the executor of the estate of the prior owners $500 to sign a confirmatory deed, clearing the title for us to sell it. It is currently under contract for $37,500. We've been experiencing some minor issues getting to closing (turning the electricity back on, the water, etc.) but feeling somewhat confident that we should be able to close. If not, we will find a cash buyer and turn it for a quick profit and put that money into other rentals.

We've actually acquired 1 duplex, 2 single family houses, the 5 acres, and just bought another last month at the judicial sale ( a lot more informed this time around lol) so we've gotten 5 properties total this year, hoping for another 5 next year. We are loving this real estate game, lots of work but it's been totally worth it for us. We really enjoy doing it together and love the way real estate offers such profit margins when you buy right, renovate on a budget and rent. We use the BRRR strategy and love it so far!

Just wanted to give everyone an update, thank you so much for your advice and caring enough to lend your knowledge, BP has been a huge part of our success so far. We hope and pray for more blessings  and good deals on RE to continue!