All Forum Posts by: Eric Greenberg

If you ever find your self by Fishtown reach out. Happy to meet up if Im available. 

Take the time you need to feel comfortable. It most likely will take longer if you go about it on your own vs getting in the room with folks who are doing what you want to be doing. Id start saving $X or X% and put that in a high interest bank account if you think you may make a move in the next year. I wouldnt put alot into a Roth IRA if the goal is to buy a property soon.

Thats a pretty broad question. Id also note one persons ‘safe’ maybe very different than anothers. Best to get some folks on your team that buy/invest in Philly and know it well. 

The FB group Philadelphia Landlords Connect is also great to search/ask specific questions to folks who know the area. 

Like Alan said I would not get into Philly for an STR unless you really understand whats going on now. Our city is much too disorganized to believe even with the correct zoning now, that it couldn't burn you later.

Id either go LTR or MTR. 

For our area where it spans so many classes it would matter on the area, type of property, and what type of renting youd be doing (long, medium, short). 

There are a few local credit unions folks here like getting commercial loans through (PFCU, American Heritage Credit Union, etc). Id join the Philadelphia Landlords Connect FB group and ask/search since everyone in our group is local. 

I dont house hack any but the biggest thing to verify multiple ways is that you have the correct zoning in Philly for whatever use you are looking for. There is a high percent of multis operating illegally and getting a variance is a large time/money suck. 

On top of that look into all the other recurring costs that are associated with multis in the city for your underwriting. 

Best idea is to work with a great RE agent. Id take @Matt N. up on his offer to help.

To prep at home find out your budget and see what has sold lately in your price range. That will tell you what neighborhoods you can and can't afford. Then look at zillow/FB/etc to see rents for those areas. If any of those meet or exceed your buy box, drive over from NJ and go check them out in person to see if you really want to be in those areas. 

You are looking for 1 one bedroom townhome in philly? Like a condo or actually a townhome? Most townhomes here would be newer builds and would be 3+ rooms. You can find condos in the studio - 2 bedrooms and older rowhomes that are 1-2 units as well. 

If you are in Philadelphia then you can use  https://atlas.phila.gov/ to look up real estate taxes. Then utilize BP rent estimator/zillow/FB/ect to get a good sense for rental rates (be careful as you really need to know the dividing lines of neighborhoods). A solid agent/team will help you out with all of this