All Forum Posts by: Michael K Gallagher

@John McAllister congrats on the house hack!  I also did a house hack and used Zillow in its entirety.  Their 10$ fee was well worth it and I use their entire system.  The screening, the application process, the payment portal all of it.  Its been great and extremely user friendly. I also marketed on "rentals.com" but had all the leads from rentals.com apply via zillow anyway.   

@Sean Beksinski congrats on jumping in! Small multi family is a great place to start. If you have not already considered it, from personal experience I cannot say enough good things about starting with a house hack. It lets you learn to manage your own properties and to understand what goes into that. I feel it positions you better to hire someone to manage your portfolio later, and it lets you use an FHA loan to get into it as it will be owner occupied. I am not familiar with Maryland as a market however so I am not sure how feasible that is. I'm in Columbus OH where you can still buy a well rehabbed duplex in a decent area for the mid $300's...So might be a little different.

As far as resources I've loved the "house hacking success" podcast and their youtube channel is great.  I'm also loving "crushing it in commercial real estate" which is more about larger multi family units but the advice on self managing in it is absolutely amazing! 

If you are interested in what Columbus has to offer in more detail don't hesitate to reach out.  Happy to share my own properties numbers or to show you some others that are available currently.  cheers!

@Michael Zagorsky interesting take and I can for sure see how you would get there....to tell you the truth I have the opposite experience. Granted I only have 3 doors, and am an agent but the most valuable info I've gotten out of the podcast are the Sunday mindset episodes. However, I go into the episodes understanding that each person and situation is extremely specific and its impossible to give sound advice to apply to the many given that REI is so location and personal goal specific. I use it more as a gut check to ask myself "am I doing the right things? am I really working as hard as I could be? Am I working on the correct things?" These kinds of questions help me take their broad information and focus it down to what is applicable for me.

You are absolutely correct that the topics are more broad and general business focused lately...I'm just finding it more advantageous but I'm also probably at a different point in my journey.  Have you found any other shows that are fitting your needs more closely?

@Theresa Harris great suggestion. Having the police reports in writing and as evidence can be very powerful.

@Rick Harmon did you’re realtor get that other offer signed as a backup? That would have been my strategy. I’ve sold and bought all but 1 of my properties in backups. **** happens and it gives you a leg to stand on and negotiate assuming the backup still is interested...

@Nikita Jain I'll jump on the Ohio train here!  Columbus is a great market to get into, especially in small multi's.  Cleveland and Cinncy are also similar price points and rent rates, I'm a little biased to Columbus as I live here but there is certainly great deals throughout the state depending on your goals.  And as you can see those areas are well represented here on BP. 

At first glance the assumptions look sound.  I am not familiar with the Dayton area as much as I am Columbus but I do know an investor from Az who invests in small multi family in Dayton, and a flipper who is very intimately familiar with Dayton. Happy to connect you if you'd like an opinion from someone familiar with the area or experienced with out of state investing in that city.

@Darrell Bratton Congrats!!! thats so fantastic.  Excited to see what scale you get to! Cheers

@Jimmy Marsh what a pain in the A**! so sorry you're going through this.  However, as many others have stated without looking at the actual contract its hard to tell.  But usually you can only back out during DD period, again as others have stated.  So if you are beyond that you are essentially saying you agreed to the property as it was.  

While frustrating and annoying and certainly it feels crappy to get lied to like this I'd encourage you simply to re-run the numbers.  Regardless of the roof issue or not being able to have a vented dryer...do the numbers still make sense, and can you simply take your licks and make the best of it.  If this kind of thing takes the deal form a good deal to a bad deal.  Then It might be worth consulting a local real estate attorney.  but if a new roof and vented dryer take it from a good deal to a bad deal...I'd honestly question if it were a good deal to begin with. But thats just me!

@Eugene Lubman I would second what @Anthony McEvoy suggested.  Run your own numbers on the appraisal and make sure that it makes sense to you.  And if it does look good, then it would be up to your agent to negotiate with the listing agent. My approach would be to point out that if they were to drop out of contract with you that they essentially now know what it will appraise for and would then only be looking for buyers who would be willing to cover that appraisal gap.  RE-listing a property is always a pain, so it would depend on if they have any signed backup offers or not.  

As a side note when reviewing the appraisal I'd also encourage you, as its a multi family, to ensure they are using the correct appraisal approach.  Just using market sales comps and not the income approach can really make a difference.