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All Forum Posts by: Jim K.

Jim K. has started 77 posts and replied 5317 times.

Post: How many properties?

Jim K.#3 Investor Mindset ContributorPosted
  • Handyman
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Posts 5,466
  • Votes 13,781
Quote from @Andrew Freed:

@Jim K. - I disagree, you can live in a mindset that everyone is out to screw you or that everyone has the best intentions. I choose to live my life thinking the best of people. Yes, it may screw me from time to time but it's a better way of living than thinking the worst of people. Just my two cents. 


Clearly no one has ever tried to steal your identity yet.

Post: My Opinion on Building Generational Wealth

Jim K.#3 Investor Mindset ContributorPosted
  • Handyman
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Posts 5,466
  • Votes 13,781
Quote from @JD Martin:
Quote from @Jim K.:

The practice is called "blockbusting."

Wikipedia article: Blockbusting

 I knew that but figured most of our readers didn't and I didn't want to make it needlessly complicated :) . However, in the case of most of the "white flight" cities after the riots, no prompting was needed by anyone and there weren't any inflated prices as the white residents were willing to sell to anyone just to get some return. 

I'm actually sorry I brought it up, in retrospect.

Post: My Opinion on Building Generational Wealth

Jim K.#3 Investor Mindset ContributorPosted
  • Handyman
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Posts 5,466
  • Votes 13,781

The practice is called "blockbusting."

Wikipedia article: Blockbusting

Post: My Opinion on Building Generational Wealth

Jim K.#3 Investor Mindset ContributorPosted
  • Handyman
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Posts 5,466
  • Votes 13,781
Quote from @Scott Mac:
Quote from @Jim K.:

It's not a picnic being raised with real money, dynastic wealth. I used to go to school with the son of a famous Greek shipping tycoon, crazy rich, net worth up in the hundreds of millions. He hated his life, constantly talked about committing suicide, drank like a fish and crashed his car routinely (his father's people always replaced it, even once got him a fake yet valid license to drive with). Good guy deep down, and I would not wish what the money did to him and his family on anyone.

Then in grad school I had an undergrad friend whose father was an exiled Russian count. The apron strings were so tight on this boy it was incredible. He'd never had a date that wasn't set up, never dared to touch any of the other children of Russian nobles he was set up with, had no idea how to kiss a girl. At 20. Would you want that for your son?


I had no idea you were that well off. 

In your posts you come across as a kind of go to the 7-11 and get a Big Gulp and burrito for lunch kind of guy (nothing wrong with that, most everyone likes soda and burritos) vs table cloths and 3 forks.

I remember you once said you learned this business from your Grandfather.

Did he pass his properties to you?


LOL. My grandmother lost it all after my grandfather died suddenly at a young age. I was raised on food stamps in upstate NY. I met these people in college and grad school, which I attended thanks to both need-based and merit-based financial aid.

Post: So many options, which is the right one?

Jim K.#3 Investor Mindset ContributorPosted
  • Handyman
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Posts 5,466
  • Votes 13,781
Quote from @Brad S.:
Quote from @Jim K.:

@James Dale

Here's my perspective on calculating ARV: @Johann Villalvir  

But you also need to know that the whole "science of appraisal" is becoming more and more guesswork and the profession becoming ever more desperately in need of reform as the years go by. You can't trust that you'll get a good appraisal, not at all, not in the slightest.

Please explain?

 OK. In my considered opinion you're all a bunch of flim-flam artists and Zillow.com does 3/4 of your job for you.

Post: How many properties?

Jim K.#3 Investor Mindset ContributorPosted
  • Handyman
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Posts 5,466
  • Votes 13,781

@Anthony Freeman

Hey Tones, would you paint a sign on your back for identity thieves in order to impress strangers? This is a Google-searchable open forum.

So the only people who brag about how rich they are on BP are gauche AF and/or trying to make money off you one way or another. Stick around, read between the lines, and you'll figure things out soon enough.

I don't even have a car, by the way. Just put me down as a broke-a$$-broke wannabe. I won't get offended.

Post: My Opinion on Building Generational Wealth

Jim K.#3 Investor Mindset ContributorPosted
  • Handyman
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Posts 5,466
  • Votes 13,781

It's not a picnic being raised with real money, dynastic wealth. I used to go to school with the son of a famous Greek shipping tycoon, crazy rich, net worth up in the hundreds of millions. He hated his life, constantly talked about committing suicide, drank like a fish and crashed his car routinely (his father's people always replaced it, even once got him a fake yet valid license to drive with). Good guy deep down, and I would not wish what the money did to him and his family on anyone.

Then in grad school I had an undergrad friend whose father was an exiled Russian count. The apron strings were so tight on this boy it was incredible. He'd never had a date that wasn't set up, never dared to touch any of the other children of Russian nobles he was set up with, had no idea how to kiss a girl. At 20. Would you want that for your son?

Post: Target area maps

Jim K.#3 Investor Mindset ContributorPosted
  • Handyman
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Posts 5,466
  • Votes 13,781

@Bjorn Ahlblad

Wow, gee, thanks so much, Bjorn. You know, I've never told you, but your standard comment about why you need real estate in your retirement (because you'd never be able to figure out the registers at Walmart), that really is solid gold. Hope you're doing well.

Post: So many options, which is the right one?

Jim K.#3 Investor Mindset ContributorPosted
  • Handyman
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Posts 5,466
  • Votes 13,781

@James Dale

Jim, I'm adding my voice to the chorus here.

Here's the main thing driving my advice: you're new and green. I would most definitely not get into significant renovation on your first investment buy. Play it safe, play it smart, minimize your beginning risk. There's so much to learn, especially about tenant management, that getting into renovations now beyond a cleanout, basic painting, and cosmetic repairs just adds too much risk. As far as getting into BRRRR goes, sad to say, there's more baloney floating around about profitable BRRRRing than any other real estate strategy out there. The truth is that BRRRR is not at all typically an entry-level winning real estate strategy.

Here's my perspective on calculating ARV: @Johann Villalvir here in the thread is, surprisingly, pretty spot on as a new poster (welcome Johann). But you also need to know that the whole "science of appraisal" is becoming more and more guesswork and the profession becoming ever more desperately in need of reform as the years go by. You can't trust that you'll get a good appraisal, not at all, not in the slightest.

I can talk about duplexes for days, and how to bring up their value. If you can find the right duplex and move into it while you rent out the other apartment, it's a great strategic move. But the key thing to understand is that a duplex, triplex, and quadplex's values are calculated by lenders much like a single-family, based on square-footage estimates, numbers of beds and baths, and prices in the neighborhood. That's not really what the place is worth to a buy-and-hold rental investor, however. What I do is pretty simple. I look at a duplex and figure out what I could reasonably charge for rent for both apartments if I renovated them. Multiply that by 100, and that's what I can afford to pay to buy and renovate the duplex. This is often called the 1% rule, and it works fine here in my area.

Not sure how well it will work in yours, but it's worth knowing about as a benchmark for buying single-family and anything up to a quadplex. After a quadplex, you have to get into commercial lending, and the rules/requirements are quite different.

@Dave E and @Nathan Gesner have both sounded the right alarm about leverage. You cannot afford to lose this money. An easy baseball analogy here is that you're looking for a single, and you'll settle for a bunt. This is not the time to go after every pitch swinging from the heels.

Whatever you do, don't look at the very cheapest properties on offer in your area in the very worst neighborhoods and start calculating how much money you could theoretically make on them. No beginner has ever made a dollar on properties like that in the history of real estate investing.

I know our approach seems painfully slow, but the people selling you fast-fast-fast money in real estate, especially on a first deal, are typically dishonest get-rich-quick schemers. Play the probabilities. Prepare for the long slog ahead.

One last thing, what I'm advocating is exactly what my wife and I did on our first rental buy. And we live in a duplex today. It worked for us, and it has a good chance of working for you. Good luck to you!

Post: Target area maps

Jim K.#3 Investor Mindset ContributorPosted
  • Handyman
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Posts 5,466
  • Votes 13,781

Anybody got a clear process for either printing out or buying large-scale high-quality wall maps of target areas? Large enough to see individual lots. Please, not looking for vague generalities about printing out from Google Maps or anything including the phrases "It should..." or, even worse, "maybe you could try..." I spend way too much of my time dealing with it-shoulds and maybe-you-could-trys already.