All Forum Posts by: Filipe Pereira

Yes, absolutely @Victoria St. James. And unfortunately this isn't only a CT thing. 

However, depending on what your plan is for the next few years, you can sometimes time things just right so that you don't see tax hikes right away. For example, in some towns they only reassess every few years. So if you do the improvements right after the reassessment you may be off the hook for a few years. And if you plan to sell it within those few years, you could be off the hook for good, and still reap the benefits of the value add when you go to sell. 

That is my plan for a house hack right now. We'll see if it works!

@Ty Kashmiry - Congrats! 

What's the ONE THING you know now that you wish you knew on 1/1/20? 

Hi @Michael Donnadio, welcome to BP. Always great to see another member from CT on the forums.

By their very nature there is no set system or method of doing creative deals. The ones that work best for folks who are low on funds are seller financed deals, but even so, sometimes the sellers are looking for large deposits. 

What are you long term real estate goals? That may help you fine tune your approach a bit, or clarify where you can focus your efforts. 

Another option is to scour your local market looking for a deal. When you find a deal, have someone lined up who would be interested in partnering with you on it - some people call this a variation of "bird dogging". Best of luck!

In my market if you are buying at 1% you're not getting a good deal. A few years back market was around 1.5-1.6% but with everything that has been going on (record stocks, covid, etc) we are seeing a lot of NY & Boston investors starting to flood the CT market, so now a good deal is around 1.3% based on the 1% rule. 

I can't stress enough that this is just a "rule of thumb", however. 

@Joshua Howaniec
I got my salesperson license but never really set out to be the highest volume agent - I use my license to be able to be a property manager here in CT since it's a state requirement. That being said, once you become licensed and register with your local MLS service you will be able to create productivity reports to see how much volume agents (and brokerages) are pumping out.

I really like @Brad Miller's response here. Any sales related business is going to depend heavily on who you know and who those you know, know. It's all about contact points, network and being able to learn what someone needs through a conversation. You need to develop a keen sense of when they are "sold" so that you can then transition the conversation away from "selling" and instead move it towards engaging them as a client.

There are TONS of FREE resources about how to be a better agent online. I highly recommend Dan Wood's youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channe...

Good luck out there!

@Jamila Thompson

You are off to a great state. I also purchased my first property at 23! 

I think we need some more information here to know just how good / bad a deal this is. How much will the property generate each month in terms of gross rent? Depending on where it is (western CT varies a LOT from the hills to Greenwich), this could be a steal, or way over priced. I'd want the gross rents to be around 3K based on the current CT market. That would be 1.3% or so based on the "1% rule of thumb". 

Hi and welcome to the forums! 

You have the right idea for someone just starting off. House hacking is single handily the lowest risk, highest return way to get into real estate investing. 

As for the insurance aspect, it's always best to get the numbers from an independent third party. Often times the information in the listing P&L (profit and loss) statement is just flat out wrong. Sometimes it is intentional, sometimes it isn't. If you have a real estate agent you trust ask them for some insurance broker referrals. Working with a broker will allow you to tap into multiple insurance companies at once, as opposed to only getting a quote from one insurance company. 

Use neighborhood scout to determine crime / safety. It's been fairly accurate for us here in CT. The trick is to search by town, not by specific address. They try to bait you into paying for it when you search a specific address. Town searches are free, just zoom into the particular area you are looking at. 

Hey @Carmen Alvarado, 

@Michael Noto is based in that area and can help. 

@Michael Doherty might be able to help as well? 

Both are great guys and well educated in CT real estate at the MFR level.

Hey @Dominique Long, you should speak with @Edward Schenkel, he has set up some LLCs for past clients of mine and is well versed in setting them up. In all likelihood neither of the tax types you mentioned would apply to you as a real estate investor in the buy and hold space. Check out this link for more information. 

CT Dept of Revenue Services:

https://portal.ct.gov/DRS/Busi...

I am not a pro, but it looks like you fall under one of these: 

• 1. Business Entity Tax - If you are a domestic or foreign entity such as (S-corp, LLP, Limited partnership, LLC) and/or are required to register or file a certificate of authority with the Secretary of the State is liable for the BET tax.
• 2.Partnerships, LLCs, LLPs, and LPs -

Whatever you do, choose a limited number of colors @Syed Shah. There is nothing worse than trying to renovate a unit after a tenant has lived there a few years and not remembering what color you chose. 

We go with white ceiling, and a semi gloss beige / yellow across the portfolio. It's a nice soft earth tone that will age well and transcend the current "grey everything" fad we are in. 

Here's one of our listings right now to give you an idea:
https://www.realtor.com/reales...