All Forum Posts by: John Knisely

 80/20 applies a lot in real estate. You'd be surprised at the number of folks doing 0 deals per year and some doing 50+. Averages in real estate are not a great representation. 

How to make the most money in a declining market? I think that depends on why it's declining. If inventory is rising and prices are dropping you'd want to try and find sellers that aren't trying to squeeze out every last dollar. Market becoming investor saturated? Sell and buy with investors. It's a numbers game. Being locked in a niche can be a blessing and a curse depending on the market support for the specific niche.

For PA transactions there is no requirement to involve a real estate attorney. This is not true for every state...Delaware state, for example, requires a closing attorney.

For a standard single family or small multi-unit generally there is not a major need for legal counsel but depending on the complexity of the transaction it may be advisable to consult an attorney. Most agents in our area use standard PA Association of Realtors contracts and forms, which are pretty thorough and encompassing. Similar story on leasing. Most of the small portfolio investors I know and work with get by with these forms and create addendums for specific rules and regulations.

It definitely doesn't hurt to identify several potential options to work with for when you might need them (evictions, lease disputes etc). It is way easier to have that tool in the toolbox before you need it than trying to scramble for it. An attorney could help based on their experience to explain loopholes of your lease terms or things that might be unenforceable or potentially violating local housing laws. Most of the information on maximum security deposits and other general requirements can easily be found online.

Feel free to message me if you want any more info.

Hey @Joshua Cruse welcome! Glad to hear you are planning on attending. I haven't been to the any of the Chesco REIAs yet but am definitely planning to attend soon. Lots of good resources there, DIG in particular which I'm guessing is the one you are referring to. Hope to see you there soon!

Hey @Adam Simmons welcome to Biggerpockets!  As a fellow M-F (and Saturday-Sunday) grinder I hear you loud and clear. I really appreciate the sentiment of positive community impact and responsible development. Far too often the profit-craze seems to shine through too much. Sounds like we have a similar philosophy, I'm going to shoot you a connection request and we can chat.

Hey @Aman Gulati, let me ask...why Philly and not Chesco area or even Wilmington/Newark since you are in Kennett? Lots of B/C areas to be found in those areas as well.

FYI I am fairly certain you can't "pay off PMI sooner" unless you refinance these days. Prior to June 2013 this may have been the case, nowadays the number I hear from my lender is 11 years of PMI if you put 10% down when you purchased, otherwise the PMI will stick with the loan until it is paid off (refinance or paid full). This doesn't necessarily mean PMI is a bad thing, but certainly something to be avoided if possible. Or purchase knowing that a refinance down the road may be the smart thing to do.

Hey @Ryan T. welcome. Hope to see you around the Philly area man! Lots of investor competition in the area as you will find out. I highly recommend checking out some of the REIA networking groups. DIG, RING, etc. Meetup.com is a great resource for finding these events as well as some which are posted in the Events section of Biggerpockets.

Generally I'm in the camp of @Nick G., but @Jim Brewer brings up a good point regarding flexibility to close the deal in multiple ways. The only thing I would say is, as a licensed agent, generally your broker should still be getting their split even on your wholesale deals, which could be a downside or a necessary "evil". That is my understanding anyway, if anyone has opinions that the wholesaling licensee can still keep the entire wholesale fee I'd love to hear it. Perhaps this is a state by state and broker by broker situation.

Hey @Jeff Schleyer, I'll echo what a few others have said. I think the place looks nice but I compared it with other recently settled rentals in Manayunk and it is priced on the high side for 4/1s . 185 Gay St, Philadelphia, PA 19127 is a 4/1 that went for $1650 a month with tenant paying all utilities. I think some light staging and some brighter photos would help drive traffic to it. Depending on how soon you need to rent it, I might drop the price down to $1750 or $1700 as well (people do look at the Zestimate, and in this case its not actually too far off). $1650 is median rented price for the 4 br places within .25 miles of your property (last 180 days) on MLS.

I won't claim to be a Manayunk expert (I did go to PSU though so maybe that helps qualify me haha!), but it does seem like 1 bath to 4 bedrooms may be a turnoff to people. Nobody wants to wait for someone else to use the facilities. You also might be fighting the fact that people have already moved around for the summer and are mostly settled into their apartments for the year.

I can email you some rentals straight from the MLS if you want to see what has been recently rented in that area. There is plenty of data for it. Shoot me a message with your email address if interested.

@Amia Jackson awesome story and perseverance! Like a lot of the podcast guests say, perseverance and drive really sets apart the successful ones from the failures. 90% of the issues just required a phone call...I have found this to be true as well, sometimes it takes a while to find the right person/office to call but once you get to the right person they are usually able to take down the barrier pretty easily.

Great story and looking forward to seeing you around at Philly area at some networking events.