All Forum Posts by: Kevin Albert

@Ryan Dossey Hey you made money so it sounds like a happy ending to me.

@Ryan Dossey I know this is an old forum post but I was just wondering how this story ended?

I was just wondering how many people follow the economy on a larger scale.  If you have given any though to another potential recession of if you expect to see continued growth. 

A bit of background info:

The last time the interest rates were dropped close to 0 percent we had the housing bubble.  The extremely low cost of borrowing caused people throughout the country to overextend themselves causing the problem back then.  The interest rates have now been at 0% for 7 years.  This has no doubt encouraged investing, especially in the corporate sector which now has something like 2.5 trillion in high yield bonds.  This is twice the amount of corporate debt back in 2008. On top of this the quantitative easing programs have recently run out of money and the stock market has slowly begun to stagnate with little growth throughout the year.  Oil prices continue to fall decreasing profit margins for a lot of large companies, but also increasing them for a few.  The total worldwide debt is now over 200 trillion dollars and many countries have stagnating economies, especially in the developing world.  How can this debt ever be paid back?  

I don't know if this problem will come to fruition in the next 5 years or the next 50 years but I think it's something to follow.   

@Account Closed  If you already know how to sell on ebay that's half the fight haha.  If you want to scale it up just go to local goodwills, thrift stores, flea markets, and garage sales to find items to buy low and sell high.  If you're genuinely interested in learning more about it just shoot me a message.  You'll have to work at it but you can definitely pay off your 26k debt within 6 months.

The key to making money is thinking outside the box.  Look into selling ebay and amazon.  It requires virtually no start up money and you can make between 50 and 100 k per year if you really hustle and put in the time to understand the system.  Anything you want to learn about both the platforms can be researched on youtube (what to look for, how to sell it, how to ship it).  I thought that I'd just throw this option out there for you because a lot of times college isn't the answer.  I have 2 friends that graduated with business degrees last year and both make less than 35k a year and have about 100k in debt.  If you're going to invest in an education you have to really know if its worth it.  What are the chances you'll get a job when you graduate?  How much will this job pay?  Will you have to move out of state to take the job?  How much will college cost?  You might also want to give Dave Ramsey a listen.  When it comes to personal debt management he really knows what he's talking about.   

I'm definitely interested in what you're doing with this.  Even though I'm not far enough along in my investing career to help with your beta testing I'll keep you in mind as I progress.   

That's where it really gets hard to predict.  What I can tell you is places like Squirrel Hill,  the Strip District, and parts of Mt. Washington have consistently been some of the nicest and most expensive parts of the city.  Lawrenceville and East Liberty are being "gentrified" and see the largest flow of younger residents to the area along with rising prices.  Oakland is mainly just a college town.  South side is a mixture of college kids and residents. But predicting what part of the city will transition from high crime with large levels of abandoned houses to a great area to live is more of a gambling game.  Some say Homestead with the addition of the waterfront and the recently built Shop n' Save, Some say it might be Garfield due to it's close proximity to East Liberty, and some even say Arlington.  I would personally stay away from the North Shore, the Hill District, and Homewood, but there's people on here that invest in these areas too.  

Living here for pretty much my whole life I really don't think you've missed the boat.  Sure there are parts of Pittsburgh that have tripped in value the last 5-10 years (East Liberty), but I personally believe the transformation is just beginning.  A few years ago Pittsburgh was voted the most livable city in America and the constant trend of population decline throughout the last 50 years is just about bottomed out.  With that being said I'd definitely say get to know the city because some parts are starting to recover while others continue to decline.

I'm currently in Pittsburgh too.  I have yet to get into real estate investing myself but I really appreciate the time you took to share this.

Thank you everyone for the warm welcomes! @Devonte Dinkins I don't know if I could even imagine taking out more loans, but I would definitely be interested in learning about how you financed your first deal.