All Forum Posts by: Kenneth Hynes

Marie Welcome from a former NY transplanted to West Coast BP is a great resource. Full of great tips and reads. One tip that I picked up here is while you are starting out and saving money for your investments, start driving / visiting areas you would like to invest in so you get a feel for prices, rents , house conditions etc, and visit and look at lots of homes and open houses so your eye get used to looking at repairs / upgrades that are normal in a particular market. I really dont think you can look at too many properties, and the more you look, the more knowledge you will gain for that market Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice. And you get the benefit of having over 100 past ones to catch up on. ken

@Stephanie Brown

Welcome to BP.     Are you new to the PNW as well ?

BP is a great resource. Full of great tips and reads. One tip that I picked up here is while you are starting out and saving money for your investments, start driving / visiting areas you would like to invest in so you get a feel for prices, rents , house conditions etc, and visit and look at lots of homes and open houses so your eye get used to looking at repairs / upgrades that are normal in a particular market. I really don't think you can look at too many properties, and the more you look, the more knowledge you will gain for that market

Check out the free  BiggerPockets Podcast-and ASKBP podcasts with interviews and a ton of great advice. And you get the benefit of having over 150 past ones to catch up on.

Rusty First I would echo what Ned said. Important to have reserves even when taking over tenants you should ping your realtor a reputable PM company on average time for your units. Another tip i found here on BP was before you buy , post an ad on craigslist and some other media to determine interest level in your units. that way you have a better idea on market rents and vacancy times

Aija Welcome to BP> great communityu to learn about investing and to meet network with people. please feel free to say a little about yourself and your investing goals ken

Chris Great work on the house hack and building equity in your investment while you live in it. Are you planning a similiar strategy got Georgia ?

Congrats Okeoma Looks like a great 1st property - your due diligence seems to have paid off Questoin for you. what is youir plan for handling inhherited tenants . you mentioned they were long term. Are you going to have thm go through a screenign process when they re-up their lease ? did you get a copy of their origial tanant application from teh previous landlord ? my next step is going to be purchasing a small MF and one of my worries would be what to do with bad inherited tenants . I Also like how you broke your actions into progresssive steps . Brandon would be proud ken

Stanley - Aer you planning on all cash offer or you going to use financing ? Most banks it would be hard to get a residential loan that small.

Great work Ka'Ron :0 always good to hear other people getting their 1st investment locked up :) Can you elaborate on how you got the lead on the triplex ? was it MLS, realtor erferall ? and was teh battle with the seller or other bidders again congrats

Brad Is your intent to buy and hold the properties for cash flow purposes ? If so I would echo what Kyle said, unless there is some way to value add to the properties to increase cash flow. What aother expenses does the current landlord have? You are not accounting for regular maintenance, any utilities (water, trash, sewar) vacancies , or CAPEX. just estimating 10% for each of these put you in aegative cash flow each month do you have a current rent roll for the

Rick --

While I have not seen a dedicated book on the topic , there are plenty of resources to help you get started. BP did a podcast (early one, in the 30s i think) with James Vermilloin about Real Estate investing while he was in the Air Force. PLus I believe there is an ASK BP podcast onthe topic.
Plus there are several current and former military members on the site, so just browse thier Forum and blog posts to get some other insights

Ken