All Forum Posts by: Michael James

@Denzel Herbert I've tried Bridgeport, those duplexes move way too fast. Two got away from me. The way they were structured would of allowed me to live for free. 

You're not doing anything wrong, 2% is definitely difficult in the Philadelphia area. You may be lucky to get a bit over 1% in average neighborhoods and less in high end neighborhoods. You may have to look for neighborhoods that are trending upwards to get the bonus of property appreciation.

Denzel Herbert try Conshohocken, Bridgeport, Phoenixville for low taxes. Or the city. You can also check the tax rates in the county website and that can help you narrow down your search.

@Kelsey Marshall congratulations!!!!  Hopefully, everything goes smoothly for you!  Take pictures of the before and after work, I always enjoy seeing people's progress and successes!!! 

@Kelsey Marshall that sounds exciting, hopefully you can pull off the financing.  Did you ask the owner what he was doing with the sale of the property?  If he's retiring, perhaps owner financing at a higher interest rate may peek his interest, until you established 20% down on the property to refinance through a traditional lender? 

Jerry Yang welcome! One detail with MFP in Philadelphia that you may want to check is to make sure it's a legal duplex. There are quite a few properties that are not separately metered and will most likely never be able to be separated because of licensing and inspection. Just keep that in the back of your mind.

Mark Solomon welcome! It definitely will help having some experience already. Philadelphia is definitely a pretty happening market. Some of the bad neighborhoods are actually good neighborhoods now which would really help with property appreciation for you.

@Leann Lilly, I only make drop offs at Crozer when it's the crisis center.  

@Leann Lilly you either don't sleep or you share my wacky hours of work.  I actually live in the Drexel Hill area currently, and work in Chester County so I'd like to keep it local as well. I'm hoping my unusual hours will be an advantage moving forward. 

@Leann Lilly I have been searching for multifamily properties that have some positive cash flow. No experience of being a landlord yet. Hopefully that will change shortly. I've worked long enough as a police officer to know that I'm going to stay out of the 'war zone' neighborhoods. I don't think I could muster the patience for that type of  commitment yet