All Forum Posts by: Michael Lyons

Quote from @Mo Maktari:

First off everything looks amazing, well done man! Everyone already stated the obvious, décor, photography, more description, etc. In my opinion, you will have better luck listing the whole home as one. You should no problem getting $3k/month minimum on MTR. Airbnb is another great option; I just went to Philly a little while ago and would have definitely booked with you lol

I’m from Philly finishing up the rehab on my 1st MTR, so I don’t have first hand experience yet. But from my research and plan I’m about to implement, I think Mo is right and renting this entire house out would get you more bang for your buck

PM me if you’re interested in talking about MTRs in Philly, I’m very excited about this strategy moving forward and best of luck!

@Malik Ahmad Hey Malik, i’m from LoMo (hate that nickname) but anyway what questions do you have?

@Vicky Liu a quick search will show that about 80% of homes in Sugar Land are owner-occupied, so the rental demand doesn’t seem like it’s there.

i was just in the area this past weekend checking out neighborhoods in Houston and the surrounding areas. it seems like a much better place to live than Houston, but from an investing perspective, not so much

@Kara P. exactly….. you just proved my point.

i said it doesn’t matter where you live, you can send your kid to whichever school you please (contingent they get in obviously). you don’t need to live in a certain catchment area to go to a certain school….. for example, i grew up in the “Sharswood Catchment”, and went to grade school and high school nowhere near that. on the flip side, just because you live in a certain catchment doesn’t automatically mean you go to whatever the top notch school in that catchment is, or actually any school in that catchment.

all of the real estate listings you mention using schools as a selling point in the city are wrong because it matters 0% where you live

@Sara Finley in the city of Philadelphia there is no “zoned school”. you literally send your kid to whatever school you want.

Now, do people send their kids to the closest school? Absolutely. But you don’t have to, you can send them to whichever school you want for whatever reason you want.

@Jimmy O'Connor that’s actually really surprising that Grays Ferry’s average is about the same, i honestly didn’t dive deep into the numbers and would of never guessed they’d be so close thanks for relaying that info. 

i actually had my eye on something in Grays Ferry but was a tad worried about an exit plan as i assumed it wouldn’t appreciate as much as Whitman or Pennsport but looks like i was dead wrong as you mentioned Feinbush has moved into Grays Ferry. Just goes to show that i need more research and can’t just assume that i think i know the area as well as i think i do because i’m from here. Now i think i’ll take a second look at that with the info i have now, i’ll be sure to credit you with an assist if it all works out lol

@Michael Lyons If interested i can give you a literal block by block A/B/C class breakdown of Whitman or Pennsport, it’s not as vastly as different as the block by block breakdown as neighboring areas, but there are still some blocks that are definitely better than others.

This is in terms of where i’d live and i know each and every one of these blocks like the back of my hand, but at the moment i wouldn’t invest where i wouldn’t like to live, which is why i invest specifically in these 2 neighborhoods because of how intimately i understand them. Obviously other people invest in places they wouldn’t live, i’m just not at that point yet

@Michael Lyons and how could i forget Point Breeze. I don’t really understand all the recognition it’s been getting. As a kid you didnt go anywhere near the area west of Broad, north of Snyder, east of 28th and south of Christian and i still believe this to be true, it’s still alot rougher than people want to admit.

Side notes:

-Gray’s Ferry isn’t anywhere near in the same category as Whitman or Pennsport.

-why did you group LOMO in as one neighborhood when it’s actually about 5 different ones, but specifically picked out Dickinson Narrows/Wharton/Newbold to be their own

-Not knocking your list as all i think it’s awesome and pretty much as good a list of neighborhoods as you’re going to get, i’m just pointing out my own perspective from personal experience

@Jimmy O'Connor Interesting. While i agree Wharton/Dickinson Narrows/Newbold probably have more upside but they are extremely block specific. One block will be beautiful with bunch of new builds, next one 500ft away it’ll seem like you’re in a different country. I’m taking the established neighborhoods of Pennsport/Whitman all day over any of those. I will say i am biased though because i’m from Whitman lol and i would be leery of a buy and hold in some of those pockets

@Mark Edler Very interesting and glad it worked out for you. Which neighborhood is it in?