All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

I would just be careful hopping back in now as interest rates and low inventory are making it very difficult if you aren't finding your own off-market options to buy. I would get back to local real estate investor meetups so you can connect with locals to the area and kind of get back in the game slowly that way.

There isn't enough information in here about the current state of the house to be able to advise you, but I would think #3 is a definite no as it seems unnecessary from a cost perspective although that market has scale to accept it. Are you sure you can add 2,000 SF on such a small lot? I don't think that seems likely. With the limited info, I would say #1 is your smartest option but there are a lot of variables missing.

Why do you think the city would approve that and how are you planning on getting plumbing in?

You are asking all spreadsheet questions, which is what every investor who has been investing more than twenty years will tell you is wrong. A brand new calculator is just that, a calculator. It has nothing to do with real estate if you have never done a deal like this. You have to walk these properties, understand where the hidden costs are outside of the spreadsheets, and understand the geographic appreciation trend and migration and population as well, none of which will be in the questions you are asking.

If you are trying to come up with a way to finagle the occupancy requirements while using an amazing loan (that you earned based on your service) like a VA, I would say you are starting off on the wrong foot. The only thing you should be doing with a VA loan is using it the way it is intended. Not all VA loans are owner-occupied as the VA gives you an allotment so you can have multiple properties with VA loans depending on what they clear you for.

Those are video game calculations. You can't decide which one to choose based on the minimal information you provided. That's not even the tip of the iceberg; it's so far away. Have you bought commercial multi out-of-state before?

I have at least ten colleagues who have done flips or BRRRRs in Philly. Almost all of them have done very well, but you really have to know Philly block-by-block. You live there now? If so, you know how the neighborhoods break and that the appreciation trajectory can be diametrically opposed within a block. The wholesalers in Philly are comparatively decent in my opinion and there are still deals there.

To be successful in Miami, you would need to have some serious capital to compete with the groundswell of experienced investors and developers. Are you saying you left real estate in 2024 and want to come back in 2025 to wholesale in Miami? Why wholesaling?

The BRRRR strategy was great a couple of years ago, but it's much harder to do now because of the high interest rates. It can be done in smaller towns, but the margins are still very tight. All of the BRRRR propaganda was from when rates were very low. Where do you plan to find your deals? Unless you are finding off-market opportunities direct to seller, I can't imagine the deals working on BRRRR.

Exactly. Automation with human oversight. The majority of people are using AI the wrong way. It's like a rough draft or an assistant, not you. It's like investors who hire property managers and don't manage them - they lose money.