All Forum Posts by: Elise Bickel Tauber

We have overseen dozens of BRRRs for our investors that have been extremely successful. Jim is right though, you need to have a property management company who has a process set up to truly oversee the renovations and preferably good contractors who have a track record of completing BRRRs. I cannot tell you the number of times our investors have found their own contractors that come in 50% of the price for the bids we collect for them and decide not to have a project manager to save money and the contractor will run off with the deposit or more (sometimes the copper too). You have to be strategic and have the right teams in place.

Hey Phillip! This is brilliant. It always seems that you have a fair number of neighbors who love the fact that the ugly house on the street is being fixed up but almost always you have at least one neighbor who is upset about the work. I think this would be great to try!! 

Hi Chiwei. We work in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Our investors are seeing a bit better returns and deals in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is a little more landlord friendly especially when we are talking evictions and such. If you think about looking into Pittsburgh I would highly recommend Austin Daniel. He is wonderful and really knows the areas! We have some areas at the 1% rule and areas that are even better returns then that.

Philly has some nice areas. I recommend @Account Closed if you are looking out that way. There are some good markets there as well but in the last 6-12 months in particular we haven't seen as good deals.

Hi Kerry,

We've only overseen this process in Philly a few times. Our corporate headquarters are in Pittsburgh and we've done it a ton over here. In both cities, we are required to get a permit. Some boros in Pittsburgh have extra steps as well. Kevin is right, bedrooms required two forms of egress (usually one is an escapable window), closet, and square footage requirements. Allegheny county in Pittsburgh requires a minimum of 70 sq ft where  at least 80% of the room is 6 feet or taller. 

Hi Heather! 

First I would highly recommend Austin Daniel if you decide to work with an agent. He specializes in investors and is AMAZING! 

If right now you want to keep just tracking on your own, I'm a bit old fashioned, I would set up a search for an area and track all new listings and check back in on them and write down all the info as they go under contract and sell. I keep track of everything in excel (if you don't have excel you can sign up for google docs for free and there is a basic excel program in there).

Thanks!

Hi Dave!

As @Account Closed said. The CAP rates here are great. One of my favorite parts of being an investor and an agent in Pittsburgh is that the market is pretty dependable. You don't see the bubbles as you do in other major metros (NY, San Fran, DC, etc) which means that you might not get the quick inflations, but you also don't see the large drops in prices when the bubbles burst. We have great schools, tech, hospitals, etc. which means we are consistently getting transfers in for jobs and schooling and many which are on 1, 3, or 5 year contracts who prefer to rent then buy. It's been a strong market as long as I've been investing and an agent (just over 16 years).

Chris is a great agent and I highly recommend him if you do decide to check out Pittsburgh. Best of luck!

Hi Evan. We work with a lot of investors from the Bay area. As Tony said, Pittsburgh is a great area to invest in. You can pick up a lot of properties for a much lower investment out here. If you are thinking about researching the areas to see if it is a good fit, I highly recommend @Account Closed. He works with a lot of investors from across the globe and can point you in the right direction!!

Aliquippa (IMO) is split. There are much nicer areas of Aliquippa (if you go by zip code) then others. Duss Ave, etc.  is very similar to Mt Oliver, McKeesport, Clairton,etc. 

Hey Elphine.

I highly recommend @Account Closed!

A lot of good advice here! In my experience, if a deal seems really good it's often because there is either tenant issues or deferred maintenance. If the owner doesn't have at least a rent roll to provide including tenant ledger balances, I would be weary. My owners wont be ok with sending you copies of their bank statements. I would say that it might make sense in today's no-eviction (or tougher eviction) climate, that you make your offer contingent on both sides being empty. There is obviously work that will need to be done to get at least one of the sides rent ready, but you shouldn't have too much of a problem re-renting with the tenants you (or your management company) chooses.