All Forum Posts by: Jake Recz

I am in no way qualified to answer your question but form what you said, I would definitely try to do an inspection. If it was me I would send a certified letter to the tenant. Chances are the tenant will try to avoid the inspection at all cost. Even if you don't get a chance to do the inspection you can claim in court that you tried. It is going to look much better if you go to court well prepared. 

Hello guys just wanna throw this out there to see what you think. Let's say I buy a two family house that generates about $800 profit every month. That's after all expenses are paid. The taxes keep going up yearly. Aren't those taxes going to go up enough in let's say 20 years that the property is gonna stop generating cash flow? What happens then? This seems absurd. Am I missing something here?

Thank You! :) Your post just reminded me of a question I was going to put in my initial post. 

We asked the bank for $100,000 and that's what we got pre-approved for. Is there a way to find out what the maximum is that the bank would approve us for? We do not plan on buying anything over $100,000 but the curiosity is killing me. 

Hello everybody!

I have not been on here much lately. I spend most of my free time now trying to save as much as possible for that downpayment. I'm sure you all know how "fun" that is... Well just recently me and my wife got serious. We started driving around and looking at properties we found online to get a feel for different areas. We found quite a deal in East Orange that was close to transportation but a few days later that property turned out to be under contract. It was back to the drawing board and we decided to go and get pre-approved first before we do anything else. Long story short, TD Bank pre-approved us for $100,000 at 3.865 for 30 years. As a matter of fact that was done on the spot. Pretty exciting. No skeletons in our financial closet so hopefully the bank won't say no once we go back. They are also letting us put 10% down with no PMI. The program is called Right Step.

We spent the whole weekend looking at properties that are affordable and will generate good consistent cash flow and I must say that being in NJ it is not easy! We found a few interesting ones in Roselle, NJ. Not the best area around but we gotta start out somewhere and with a limited budget that little town appears to be an option. If anybody has some experience with that area please share your thoughts. 

I looked through craigslist and the rents seem to be up there at around $1000 to $1100 a month. If everything was to go according to plan it is possible that one unit would pay nearly all expenses and we would be able to live almost rent free and keep saving for the next REI. It sounds almost too good to be true and... That scares us. Quite a lot actually.

Anyway I'm gonna go back to running numbers now. I just wanted to share and thank you all for getting us hooked on investing! I was thinking at first that I will be asking a bunch of questions on here, but truth is that the questions have already been asked and all I gotta do now is to just use the search function on the forums! :) 

I hope you all have a great week! 

@Dawn Brenengen My favorite destination was Europe. It gets expensive very quick! haha It's great to see new places but once you use credit to fund the trips suddenly every trip starts to cost double because of interest. Truth is when you're young... It doesn't matter one bit! 

@Ceril S. The flood insurance cost is definitely something to look at. It is already creating issues for the two family I was looking at. I spoke with the insurance agent today and getting a quote alone seems to be difficult. I can already imagine how high the quote is gonna be once I do get it... The flood ins cost will go up. I suppose its a good idea to leave some room for that expense to climb. I'm glad I decided to get a quote before even considering submitting an offer.

@Gabe D. Thanks for the tip! I have been busy for the past couple days and didn't even see your post. Im in the process of changing jobs... Once I get all settled in I should be more active around here and possibly attend a meet up. Funny thing... You mentioned you wish you were that motivated at 24. I wish I was as motivated at 16 as I am now! I wasted a few good years haha Like I said earlier I'm in the process of getting a job. I filled out all the paperwork recently and they offer me 5 days of vacation a year. Not bad considering my other job offered 5 days off after 2 YEARS! Still... Just reading the policy I started shaking my head. To work one full year, so I can be able to go on vacation and spend 5 full days with my family? Uhh... That's not enough days for me. I HAVE to do something to be more independent from outside employment. 

@Raymond B. Thanks for the tip! I think I finally got it working. We'll see once I post.

That's great! Congrats! I did not expect to see anybody from the area here. This forum is amazing! Way to go with locating tenants! I've been on Craigslist for the past 6 months trying to see if units in Manville are getting rented and your experience reassures me that this town is a good place to invest. Most people I know would never purchase anything in a flood zone! You mention the flood zone and others look at you as if you're crazy lol To me it's all a numbers game! I noticed there were a few multi family properties in Manville. I just concentrated on one for now trying to learn as much as possible about it. I have a feeling the insurance is gonna kill the deal though... Too bad. I'll go on to the next one if that's the case! I didn't hear about the Thursday meeting but I'm curious as to what they come up with. Again congrats on your purchase! 

Hello again! I must say I did not expect that much response to my post. Thank you! I already feel at home here. I plan on participating here as much as I can. 

To answer some of the questions, I'm looking for properties all over NJ and I would not mind going over to PA either. NY state is also an option. I'm mostly interested in multi family properties but if a single family home comes up and looks like a good flip I'm ready to jump on it to make some money for future investments. I can do a lot of the work myself. I suppose that can save a few bucks and increase the profit at the end. Anything local where the numbers make sense looks good to me! 

I'll set up some alerts when I get on the computer. I'd love to attend a local REI meeting to learn more about the business.

@Justin Fraser To answer your question, I'm looking in Manville at the moment. I have one that looks quite interesting but it's in a flood zone... I called the flood ins agent and I'm waiting for a quote. I already saw the place and it needs work due to the last flood. So far it looks like I'll have to skip it as the agent said the property has been declared a total loss a few times already. I expect the flood ins rates to be just too high to leave any room for profit. There must be a reason for that property to be on the market for so long already. I'll be posting more about it in another section of the forum soon. I definitely want to get some feedback from experienced investors before I even make an offer on that place. 

@Brian Hall I watched the recent podcast and joining came with so many perks and materials that I just had to jump right in. I'm hungry for all the knowledge lol Plus the deal analysis calculator offered to pro members is truly AMAZING. 

Again, thank you everybody for welcoming me here. I'm looking forward to interacting with all of you on the forums and learning more about REI.

If I could go back to when I was 17... One word of advice. Stay away from credit cards. Build your credit but don't apply for every card that they send you in the mail. Pass on toys on credit ex. Expensive cars at such a young age. It was nice to have a new sports car when I was just 18 but looking back at how much money it cost me I would NEVER do it again. I could have saved that money and have a nice down payment now on an investment property that would cash flow every month and make me money. Good credit is good. Living on credit is financial suicide.

Hello everybody! I just joined not too long ago. I did some reading and I gotta say that this place is very addictive! There is so much great information being shared here that once you start reading it's tough to stop! I'm from Central NJ. I've been thinking about real estate for a while now but I had no idea where to start so I started with reading about it. Reading about it a whole lot. Ever since I was a little kid I always wanted to do something different than those around me. A 9 to 5 is not my thing. I like to fix things, build things, and solve problems! Something about buying a two family house and living rent free in one of the units excites me very much. So many people I know hang on to their jobs and pray they don't get layed off just so they can keep paying that 30 year mortgage on a single family house that is eating them alive. All while they call their home an investment... I learned one very important thing from the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and that was that an investment makes money for you. I don't plan on buying a single family home until I can afford that luxury. I'm 24 years old and I think it's the right time to start. I'm looking forward to learning from all of you and starting on the path to success and stability offered by real estate. I already have my eyes set on a two family house in my local area. The house needs work and if all goes well it might be where I'm gonna start my adventure with real estate. I'm sure I'll be posting some questions about it on the forums, although I have to say that utilizing the search function already helped me a lot!