All Forum Posts by: Kevin Manafi

Hi @Helen Mastanduno,

Welcome to the BiggerPockets community and congrats on starting out on your real estate investing journey! I'm an investor and investor-agent based in Northern New Jersey (mainly Bergen, Hudson, Essex, and Passaic counties). I'd be happy to connect.

@Benjamin Furney Quickest/easiest way is usually to Google "____ County Sheriff's Sale" and it will take you to a site for that specific county with all of the procedures for the auction as well as a list of all properties scheduled to be auctioned. Auction.com and similar sites also aggregate this info so it's all in one place.

@Levi Brandwein Best way to be sure is by calling the town/municipality and seeing if the building is, or has ever been, registered for rent control.

Hi @Ally Coghlan,

Congrats on starting off your real estate investing career and welcome to the BP community! I'm an investor and investor-agent based in Northern NJ (Bergen, Hudson, Essex, and Passaic counties). Happy to connect!

Hi @Yangyang Jin,

Welcome to the BP community! I'm an investor and investor-agent based in Northern New Jersey. Looking forward to connecting!

Hi @Daniel Goodman,

It's always a positive to have multiple exit strategies on a property. Especially with a flip, being able to pivot to a buy-and-hold in the event that the market or ARV is not where you thought it would be by the time the project is completed.

Hi @Will Garner, welcome to the BP community and congrats on getting started on your investing journey. There are plenty of different ways to get started and it all depends on you and your particular situation, real estate interests, resources (both financial and non). It goes without saying that educating yourself is definitely the first step, and given that you're here on BiggerPockets, I assume you've done that already. If you haven't, I highly recommend the podcasts, books, and other resources to get you familiar with real estate investing.

Besides that, you should try to network as much as possible to find a mentor or people you can provide value to in exchange for the opportunity to learn from them and/or shadow them. For most of my clients first getting started in real estate without experience, I recommend a rental property or house-hack. You learn a tremendous amount from owning a rental property--how to maintain reserves, deal with tenants, property management, etc.

@Albert Johnson When it comes to home inspectors, you typically want to go with the "Goldilocks" approach---you don't want an inspector that is so cautious that he notes every tiny little thing on his report, confusing you and creating a ton of concern for no reason (these are generally the deal-killers); you also don't want an inspector that is so careless that they don't really note anything for you. You want the inspector that is in the middle--someone who knows how to deal with investors and only call attention to things that you should actually have on your radar. These inspectors will only really note things that are and should be of concern to you and won't bog you down worrying about tiny little items that are no big deal.

I agree with others in that inspections are really a leverage tool for us as investors/buyers to get credits on properties, but they are also a super valuable resource for getting to know your property inside and out. I highly recommend attending property inspections as a newer investor as you learn a ton of valuable info (given you are working with a good inspector).

Hi @Joseph De Lorimier,

There are plenty of strategies for finding off-market properties: direct mail campaigns; social media ads; bandit signs; wholesalers; driving for dollars; and more! Networking is the name of the game. The more people know you buy off-market properties the better.

Hi @Ekrem Bermek, congrats on moving into the next phase of your house hack!

You are correct in that you should notify your insurance provider so that they adjust your coverage to a Landlord's Policy. You do not need to notify your bank/lender.