All Forum Posts by: Justin Gottuso

@Riley F.

It’s been five years…

What have you learned from these properties that would help/add value to others? You’ve shared some wisdom already like do your DD with 16% vacancy rate and having cash reserves to weather vacancies, what else?

I’m looking into a 17 unit multi family rehab project in a small town of 1000 people that’s 15 minutes from a city of 50k people which is an hour east of Columbus Ohio.

Thanks!

@Andy O.

7 years later… did the seller ever come back (or die?)

Have you since then invested in small rural town at all with multi family? I’m exploring a 17 unit rural multi family rehab project and looking for BP folk with experience with this. Thanks!

@Omni Casey so awesome!!

@Jacob O'Malley

Great job having a plan and getting into house hacking straight out of college!! You can replace your 60-70k income over time then snowboard 🏂 whenever you want 😉

Why not save up $5k and take a month long exploration trip to your top three states/cities? For such a big decision taking some time to check places out will pay off big time.

I grew up in california then moved to Columbus Ohio, and I love to snowboard. California is very expensive. Colorado is less expensive but still fairly expensive on average. Utah is less expensive than Colorado and has great mountains (I recommend steamboat springs from my experience).

If you want to add Columbus/Ohio to your trip I’d be happy to meet up.

@Patricia Steiner I just learned about the Deferred Mortgage option while talking with a private money lender last week. It fits my investing strategy of using cash to get the best deals and be more competitive with the advantage of getting my cash back pretty soon. Flips will help me replenish and grow my down payment fund too. I’m looking for more ways to make the process quicker too.

@Bjorn Ahlblad

This is exactly the difference between my parents and I LOL. They are in their sixties and ‘winding down' so they want to pay cash and have fewer properties. I'm in my mid thirties with goals to replace our income and scale. Different goals and stages of life. That said, I also paid cash for our first two properties as the deals were ‘cash only'. Now I'm in the financing process to get our cash back to do more BRRRR and flip projects.

@Kyle Tom @s@Sara Booth

Yes great points. I analyzed lots of deals my agent would send me, getting to know what a good vs great deal was. Then a great deal came along and I seized the opportunity- I didn’t have the whole team of people at that point but it grows over time as you learn more and as you need professional services. Like how I built a relationship with an insurance agent when I needed insurance- but I’d still recommend networking and getting to know different kinds of people in the industry.

@Sara Booth I’ve found BiggerPockets and real estate investors and RE professionals very willing to help and share knowledge and skills. And putrid your ideas and goals out there let’s people know what you’re trying to do. Maybe fill out your BP profile and share your story too.

@Sara Booth

Hi Sara. Great idea! I was born and raised in LA and moved to Columbus in 2020 with my family and started actively investing (see bio for the story).

I'm just about to start flipping and doing BRRRR deals in Dayton (west of Columbus), Columbus and Newark (east of Columbus). I had planned originally to use all our own cash to fund the projects, but since I want to scale and reach our FIRE goals sooner rather than later, opting to go with private money lenders so that $100k can pay for 3-4 down payments on projects as well as have less invested in case it goes south somehow and I need to sell/get out.

Real estate investing is a team sport. Besides your family do you have connections with a great broker/agent to source deals, contractor for the rehab, lender if you decide to go that route, etc? I’ve spent much of this past year building relationships and it really pays off. Maybe network on BP and in the Facebook groups and next time you go to cleveland meet up with them to share your goals and tour some properties and neighborhoods.

@Nick Anderson

It’s marketing. I’ve seen his YouTube ads this past year and he’s trying to sell his courses and mentoring program or trying to get you to jump into Bitcoin. Which are the same things many other ‘guru’s’ are saying. He’s a salesman trying to sell his products. If you don’t want or need what he’s selling, don’t read too much into what he’s marketing.