All Forum Posts by: Larry Turowski

 I just sent you a DM on this platform with my phone number

There are literally hundreds of us active in Rochester. Not all on BP. Shoot me a DM. Happy to pay you for a deal or just tell you my thoughts.

I agree with others. So many red flags here. He sees something in you? You have potential?  He’ll personally mentor you? Don’t worry about funding? Be ready to break ties with important people in your life?!!

But the biggest red flag is your homework, refining your vision / pitch. It’s all so vague, something to get you excited and dreamy, something to feel good about, but accomplishes nothing.

In college they have classes called weeder classes early on in engineering majors. They are designed to be difficult, to see if you got what it takes to get through the next few years before wasting too much time. He should have given you something hard—like analyze 100 deals end make 10 offers. This is all feel good stuff he gave you. You’re in the R&D phase. You can develop a vision after you dip your toe into real estate, do a couple deals, and find out if it is even for you. He’s either after your pretty face or your pretty pocketbook.   

Are you from Brockton, Plymouth, New Bedford, Cape Cod? I used to be. And I still occasionally do deals there.  I'd love to connect.  Actually, I have a specific need right now.  What do you use to write up private offers?  Mass forms 501 and 503?  Or do you do use something else?

I’m with @Joe S. most of my deals—and all since maybe 2012—have been off market. Either ones that I found myself or through good wholesalers. And there is no mystery to it. Here is how to find them:

Networking

Wholesalers

Driving for dollars

Bandit signs

SEO

PPC

Facebook ads

Cold calling

Mailers

Billboards

It may not be easy but it is no more difficult than being a realtor. Realtors do many of these same things. How do you think deals get ON market?

@Amanda G.

> Single Family Homes $150-175K

This is your problem. I’d echo what everyone else is saying. You’re unlikely to get these to cash flow with a standard purchase. I can BRRR these and make them work (buy them at lower price points, rehab so my total cost with purchase and rehab is 150-175k and  now they are worth 180-210, refi out at 70%, extracting 136-147k so that I’ve left only 14-28k in the deal, and rent them out. My cash on cash will be much better than yours but even then it’s not a very attractive deal to me.

You should lower your price point to 100-125k. You can get decent houses in C-class neighborhoods and do fine. And I’ve had great experience with S8. 

@Logan Jamieson look, I get you. It IS frustrating. You could have bought a house, or several, that would have doubled in value. But that frustration will kill you. First—and I struggle with this, too, when deals get away from me—you need to cultivate gratitude. A lot of things are going right for you. Your job, your savings, sounds like you have a supportive dad, you live in a place you evidently love, you’ve had exposure to the business. Second, you need to realize you are looking with 20/20 hindsight. Nobody knew prices were going to double. Nobody knew interest rates were going to go  shoot up (and nobody knew we were going to face a global pandemic). But what if prices are going to double again? And what if interest rates are going to go into the double digits. I don’t think they are but what if? You’ll be kicking yourself for missing the opportunity again. All you can do is work with what you know now and what is a reasonable expectation for the future. There are deals now. You just have to find them. 

@Helene Goodworth

You said: Please tell me this is as good as I think it is. I feel like I am missing something. 

You should be looking to prove it wrong, not prove it right. You’ve already gotten some good feedback here. This does not pass the sniff test at all. S8 tenants (not bad but price is extremely high for S8 type tenants), house looks rough according to you, absurdly low taxes. I have a feeling you’d get killed financially if you bought this. Prove me wrong.

And how does this compare to other deals in the area. You should look at 100 before you decide on one. 

 I have to disagree here. The law does not apply to small landlords, those with fewer than 10 units.  And it is not about personality conflicts, especially with larger landlords who are often going to have management in place.

The biggest problem is the limit on rent increases. I and other investors have bought 10+ unit building or packages that are in disrepair, run by landlords with no funds or inclination to rehab them and as a result were rented at very low rates to tenants who wouldn’t complain about all the problems. Now nobody can buy them and put the funds in to fix them up because they won’t be able to raise the rents to justify the investment. These places are just going to continue to deteriorate. 

 This is a perfect example of the price collusion that agents deny exists because “commissions are negotiable.” Does anybody think the railroads had a written agreement on pricing? It was all a wink and a nod but collusion nonetheless.