All Forum Posts by: Evan Parker

I have a question for those of you who have experience investing in a poor area of town.

I found what I feel to be an amazing deal on a multi family property that would give great returns, however, it's in a poorer area of my city where there are quite a few abandoned buildings scattered around and very poor quality housing all throughout its immediate surroundings.

------>The unit itself doesn't seem to be in bad shape, it looks like it only needs to have a few windows replaced. Without me actually having a full building inspection, that's what I've been able to pinpoint from the naked eye. 

However, there's even an abandoned house/buildings literally two doors down from the unit I have looked at that has a broken in back door where you can tell people likely have gone in and out of that house and probably still do go in and out. 

BUT, when I drove around, the houses there seemed to all be occupied so finding tenants doesn't seem like a likely issue, truly the only problem is it's a lower income area, and the houses/surroundings definitely show that it's of lower income. 

Any experience in this kind of market in terms of success of your actual investment? Any suggestions?

I have a question for those of you who have experience investing in a poor area of town. 

I found what I feel to be an amazing deal on a multi family property that would give great returns, however, it's in a poorer area where there are abandoned buildings scattered around and very poor quality housing all throughout its immediate surroundings. 

Any experience in this kind of market in terms of success of your actual investment? Any suggestions? 

I have known people to use Click2mail.com . It has a decent amount of features and is able to be used with your lists that you get from list source easily. 

 How was it?

Hey BP Family! 

I have a family member who is near and dear to my heart, and they've come to me for advice and I unfortunately don't have enough knowledge to point them in the right direction. 

They are in their early 60's and just found out that they have a little over $40,000 from an old job's retirement account that they had in their early 20's. The company gave them the option to either get it all in a lump sum, or disperse it out over a select number of payments. 

Just to give perspective, they have worked very hard their whole life, is still working just as hard, and never really had anything to show for it, lived very modestly and never acquired any kind of wealth nor a real retirement account. I say that to say, this $40,000 is truly a very large amount of money for them to see. 

They're located in Houston, TX. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I even get a tad emotional thinking about it because I just want the best for this person and I fully recognize that this can be life altering if handled correctly. 

@Michael Upshur

Ditto 

@Cody L.

Dang that's awesome, props to you for being able to help someone secure a deal of that magnitude. What made you decide to mentor that person for so long? Did you know them personally? 

@Account Closed

That's very impressive. I would be extremely curious to understand how you buy $200k houses being only $5k into the deal. Are you talking tax liens? 

@Account Closed

Great response. I am in no way anti-education, quite the opposite. 

Keep in mind, the more capital you have as an aspiring IT professional, (or in your case law professional etc..) doesn't directly increase to your likelihood of success in that field. Essentially, we don't pay our employers for a slot in their line up, our credentials/degree gets us a spot.

With REI, you do have to pay your way in, in one way or another ,in order to get your first property. Keeping that in mind, the more money you're able to keep in your learning phase, the more likely you are to touch success once you decide to act --- Sure you can find some private lender who likes you to give you the money and somehow manage to get your first property(s) for free with none of your money, but let's be honest, that's extremely uncommon and definitely shouldn't be someone's game plan lol--- 

A. If I go to Apple and say, "I know everything about software engineering, I took xyz courses, have xyz degree, and I can add value to your project by applying my expertise in xyz technology, I want this job." They would interview me and say "Great, you're hired" and then proceed to see if I can provide the value that they think I can. Based off of my credentials/degree.  

B. If I go to a someone selling a home and say, "I know everything about REI, I took xyz course, and I know that this deal will be lucrative for both of us, I want this house". They would look and say "Great, it'll cost you $140,000 and it's yours". Now, I go to the bank and say the same thing. Bank says "Great, we just need 15% down payment and it's yours." Acquiring the deal is based off of my capital that I can eventually bring to the table somehow. 

See the difference? 

Now translating this to my original statement, keeping these two examples in mind, let's take the average adult interested in REI... It may have taken them 10 years to gather $25,000 of their money that they feel comfortable investing and putting toward their REI aspiration to change their life. The random deal above would cost them at a minimum $21k just to get (Not even including any work that may need to be done). If they started on their journey by paying $5-10k in courses they would now have only $15-20k and not be able to make the deal....However if they spent their starting out time on forums, podcasts, free books from the library, REIA meetings, online resources, etc.... they would still have around $25k and arguably more knowledge than what would come from a few seminars AND be able to secure the deal. (More initial capital, higher chance of success).

I also posted this in the "Starting Out" section lol....but without being too drawn out, I'm not saying REI education isn't worth it. I'm saying when you're STARTING OUT and are bombarded with so much information, understanding that capital is the game, it is not wise to immediately jump in and start throwing your hard earned, potentially limited, capital at beginner courses BEFORE trying to utilize all of the FREE resources you have at your disposal.

And trust me, if it were at all possible for me to be an IT professional without a degree and the money (even though I went on a full-ride scholarship) I would have definitely done it. But that's just not possible. Neither is it possible for law. No matter how many law articles you read, no one will hire you without your degree. However, It is possible to be a successful REI without spending large amounts of money on your initial education. So I'd like people starting out to be aware of that fact. Their money is very valuable, so it should be spent in the most effective of effective arenas, and I do not believe that beginner run-of-the-mill Facebook ad REI seminars qualify.

@Joe Villeneuve

I agree with most of what you said. 

I agree that of course it's not an inherently negative thing to spend money on education. Education is the crux of this game we call life...But so is money. Therefore, it pays to first be a bit educated about what you may potentially spend your money on.

For example, If someone comes to me and has $15-20k that they would like to invest and try their hand at making a better life for themselves, the last thing I'd tell them to do is jump and spend $6k of that on a beginner's seminar. (Especially before they've even done their own learning or reading).

As you mentioned what is being taught in a lot of the beginner courses that are marketed in the ways I indicated, is very basic or outdated at best. But as a beginner, if no one ever tells you to be wary of some of those seminars, you may none the wiser. So now instead of $15k to invest you're down to $9k and all you have to show for it is beginner sales knowledge that could have been acquired by literally reading just one book, for free, from the library. 

The reason I called them a scam is not because they take your money and run in the literal sense. But courses like that take your money and leave you with outdated information or poor information. I call it a scam because going into it, they (the 'teacher') know they're about to provide some trash information, and hope that the students don't know. 

You, sir, are someone I'd be happy to have a sit down conversation with. Great dialogue.