All Forum Posts by: Kenneth Dai

Welcome to the BP forums, Frank! Good luck as you begin your journey. I'm always glad to see another new member in Massachusetts. Kenn

Hi Alex, Welcome to the BP community... there is certainly a significant amount of information already posted in the blogs about what to look for when investing out of state. To summarize some of my favorite tips: Subscribe to the local business journal or news to see what is happening in terms of new businesses or investments in the area. Check out the rent to price ratio, and how many people rent versus own. Check out information on a tool like neighborhoodscout.com to find out aggregated information about a region. I think there is a lot you can learn about areas these days without physically visiting. However, before you really do pull the trigger on purchasing, it is in your best interest to spend some money actually visiting a location and seeing actual property. Plus, I know I have gained so much from just speaking face to face with a provider. Good luck!

Matt Mahony I have solar panel installed on my home. Most recently, we had an appraisal done as part of a refinance. The appraiser note stated that solar panels were too recent of a phenomenon, and too little data existed for whether they increased home prices. I personally think of them as a feature of the house that probably doesn't add value at this time. But, it might make the home seem more attractive to buyers if they are aware of the benefits of solar energy.

@Nick Smith and for anyone else looking... Larry Fried's article is on the BP blogs:

holy grail blog

I haven't purchased a property with Norada Real Estate, yet, but I thought I would at least add my experience so far with Ron Manabat.  I had a nice, extended conversation with him about my investing goals and how well they aligned with what Norada offered.  At no point did I feel he was pushing me to work with Norada, but he did present a nice value proposition in terms of having a trusted/experienced partner.  Also, I give him kudos for observing that I already have some experience owning passive sources of income (its something I forget to mention and that other providers often don't ask about... when all goes well on a passive investment, I guess it is easy to forget to mention!).

Bottom line - talking with Ron made me much more likely to choose to work with Norada, and hopefully I'll have follow-up posts on an actual property purchasing experience sometime.

@Dan Pezzano Welcome to BP!  What I've noticed is that if you need help with tax preparation, tax strategy, etc, it doesn't have to be someone local.  I haven't seen our CPA in person for years now even though we are both based in Massachusetts, and I'm planning on switching to a firm in Arizona this year.  It's actually really great these days being able to work with talent all over the world using web-based accounting programs like Xero or Quickbooks Online, along with the ability to securely upload documents.

Good luck in in your search.

Just as a follow-up from previous post:

As part of other parts of due diligence, I called a few investors who work with MACK currently.  All three owned >7 properties with MACK and thought all the actual numbers lined up with the pro-formas.  In fact, from speaking with them, MACK seemed like an excellent company to work with and invest with.  These folks had all purchased 2 years ago or more, and so had a few years of data (beyond the first year rental guarantees).

So, at the end of the day, I put MACK on my 'check them out again someday' list.  I'm still interested in the Chicago and surrounding areas for properties.  But, as Jose Flores pointed out, the posts on BiggerPockets are quite disturbing, and there isn't much else in the way of posted reviews to counter them.  I was heartened to hear the positive verbal input from other investors/references who invest with MACK, but that wasn't enough to make me fly out there to meet the team at this time.

Note that I do not own any MACK properties, nor am I planning on purchasing any within the next few months, so I'm posting this purely to add to the overall discussion.

@Mariana K., you are very welcome! I'm excited, as well, to see some more REIA groups forming in Massachusetts. I always prefer speaking to folks in person for networking purposes.

Hi @Mariana K.,

Welcome to the BP forums!  Always glad to see another Massachusetts member.

I found that just reading several of the big posts and a several of the articles on this site helped a lot with determining good options.  Also, there is the Ultimate Beginner's Guide (www.biggerpockets.com/ubg) that provided me with a lot of the basic information and helped me formulate what kind of niche I wanted to go into, as well as how I wanted to handle financing.  On top of that, I have found just talking with some loan officers/brokers helped to clarify some options.  I'm sure there are many good ones on BP who could provide useful information.  Finally - I saw something about a Real Estate Investors group meet-up occurring for folks near the Quincy area/south shore in general... check this post... around page 3.   

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/86/topics/346752-boston-massachusetts-south-shore-meet-up

Good luck!

Hey @Matthew Cassanelli, Welcome to the BP forums!  If you check on the meetups listings or else do a general Google search, the meet-up in Wareham, MA should show up.  There's a meeting every first Wednesday of the month, and I think some months, the meeting is even on the Cape (if you don't like to cross bridges).

Good luck, as you start your journey... I'm sure you will find a wealth of information just on the BiggerPockets site.