All Forum Posts by: Jason Maguire

I'd look into your local fair housing laws a little bit & see what they say. My props are in NY, and according to NYS rules, you cannot deny housing for people currently in treatment or who are "recovering addicts"- it's technically a protected class in my state.

If you do not want to renew leases you may want to see if there is anything else you can get them on, but you do need to tread somewhat lightly with drugs. Definitely can be interesting situations.

 Hi @Kyle Dube for Out of State properties, you can always call a general insurance provider like State Farm or a bigger brand and have them give you a quote on the property or have them give you a quote on a similar sized property you are looking at- once you get that #, then you can use that as your estimate for similar sized props in the area.

I think Nicholas answered all the questions above, but i definitely re-iterate to go to the local counties website and find the property/ school tax from the previous years. This will give you the exact # of taxes paid and you can plug those #'s into your rental calculator.

Hi Jeff,

I get this is a foreclosure, but are you saying that a 49k house will rent for 950? Or is there any crazy work to be done on the house? That seems like a crazy deal to me if it's already "turnkey"??

But i'd take a little bit more look into the rent- i am not familiar with the Pittsburgh PA market but 950 does seem high for a foreclosed house at that price... once again i'm not sure what current rates generally go for but just my first thought.

Only other thing is 5.1% for interest seems kind of low- i'd conservatively target the mid- to high 5's just to get a better idea with #'s as that's where rate are currently fluttering at....

Hi Wade,

I'd recommend becoming a Pro member here at BP. With that, you will get access to hundreds of hours of old videos, seminars, boot camps, calculators etc. I think especially starting right out, that will be more than enough info that you'll need & comes at a very good price. There's also other great resources including a bunch of beginner books in the bigger pocket book store, which is linked above & are great for just getting started in Real Estate.

Reach out with any questions

Hi Gina,

I'd recommend using the "Network" tab above & filtering to RE Agents as well- BP will ask you a few questions on what you are looking for and will try to connect you with someone in the area. Best of luck!

Hi Desmond,

That is a great question. At one of my rentals where i make my tenants do lawn/ snow care, i provide them with a simple push mower- just a basic $250 one from Lowe's. I have off street parking so i provide heavier duty shovels for the walk-ways & call it a day.

I found this to be a better option than to pay someone for lawn care, as i would most likely be spending more than $250 bucks a season on lawn/ snow removal & i also don't have to worry about making calls or staying on top of the contractors- I've been doing it this way for 2 years now and have zero complaints... i also think a lot of tenants subconsciously know that their rents would be higher if that service had to be hired out, so a lot of them will gladly go mow or shovel. Just depends your preference!

Welcome to BP! Definitely wish i started RE when i was still in college. Including the podcasts, Bigger Pockets has a book store with books ranging on a wide variety of topics from LTR's, Flips, STR's, Wholesaling, BRRR, etc. You can also go to the "networking" tab above & try to connect with local investors in your area.

I'd recommend diving into those as well and soak in everything you can. Best of luck in your journey!

As @Paul De Luca said above, have you tried offering cash for keys? You could always attempt that as you are already a month over when her lease ended, could potentially get her out if the price is right. I would assume you don't want to waste anymore of your time at this point.

If not, you will have to follow the guidelines in your state through your local attorney.

Hi William,

Welcome to BP!

There is really no easy answer to this, but you need to do your due diligence into the area's you are looking at. A couple of big questions are what area's are you looking at, are you looking at Class A,B,C or D neighborhoods? How much cash flow are you targeting? Are you targeting a cash flow rich environment, or do you want to gear more towards appreciation?

I think once you answer a few of the basic questions, you can start looking into more specific area's and start analyzing properties. Once you really dig into the area, i would start pulling comps in the area & see what they are renting at. You can also at "tools" above, go to "Rent Estimator" put in the address and it will give you a rough estimate of rent in the area given there is enough data.

From there, i would pull school & prop tax from the previous year and plug it into my rental calculator on BP. I closed on a duplex a few months ago using this method & was less than 50 dollars off on my calculations of what i'd be paying. Lastly, connect with a rockstart team (Lender & Realtor) in the FL area you are trying to invest to get a better idea of trends & the right places to be.

Sorry for the ranting of info, but if you have any questions please reach out!

I don't have any experience personally, but a few of my buddies have used Meerkat Pest Control for their properties & have never had any issues. It's kind of a niche market & after a google search i can only find about 3-4 ones with solid reviews.

Meerkat Pest Control

Orkin Pest Control

Ehrlich Pest Control

I am also located in Albany, NY & would love to connect!