All Forum Posts by: Mike A.

No.  Spend your seed money and you get one use out of it.  Use it, and you can get an infinite number of uses out of it.

Your seed money (cash) is your most valuable asset...don't spend it, use it.

Example:  $100k in cash

Option #1:  Spend it all on 1 property
Cost = $100k
# of properties owned; Asset(s) value = 1; $100k
Cash Flow/property; total = $10k/year;$10k/year
# Years to break even (profit starts) = 10
Asset value (5% appreciation/yr) after 1 year = $105k
# of years to buy next property (assuming same way) = 10
Cash flow at end of 10 years = $10/yr
Asset value at end of 10 years = $265k

Option #2: Spend 20% on 1 property, leverage the rest
Cost = $20k/property
# of properties owned; Asset(s) value = 5; $500k
Cash Flow/property; total = $5k/year; $25k/year
# Years to break even (profit starts) = 4
Asset value (5% appreciation/yr) after 1 year = $525k
# of years to buy next property (assuming same way) = 1
Cashflow at end of 10 years = $215k/yr (PM me and I'l show you the math)
Asset value at end of 10 years = $4.975M


Depends. Some people do not want (or are able) to go through the who mortgage process. Quick story, when I was first starting out I bought a few cheap MFH's (under 90k each) with cash. When I went to the bank, since they were in C/D areas, no bank wanted to finance them. The issues were they didn't like the area or I didn't have enough experience.  I went to Key, TD Bank, Chase, etc. So I bought them for cash (sold each for at least 30% profit two years later).  Two years in I found a deal on a complex in a good city, but not the greatest area. Still couldn't get a bank mort. (and I had a decent FICO score and very little debt), so I went to a private lender who gave me a loan at 6.7%, with closing costs near 30k on a 500k purchase. Long story short, a newbie has to pay their dues first and learn the business and gain experience first prior to going into a bank and getting a good loan.  I've since sold off most my low income properties and in A and B areas. I have two left that are in C areas. One is being sold and the other one cash flows amazingly with little headaches.

@Mike A. for sure!  Does TC have a payment lag time? 

I'd suspect that Cozy's primary drivers of revenue are - minimal interest made during that hold time, people paying for faster transfers, the tenant insurance they offer, and the tenant screening services they offer.

And then there is that eventually switch-flip that surely is going to happen when they hit a critical mass.  You know the one where free becomes freemium and you're looking at "just $5 per month) for what was free.  That's what I suspect anytime it's this difficult to see where a company makes any money.

Not sure, as they accept Stripe for CC, Dwolla for ACH and Paypal. I would probably only enable Dwolla and Stripe. Paypal can be a nightmare if the tenant does a chargeback, I know it is on eBay.  I agree with you on the free to premium charge, but their service isn't up to par to charge yet. It's getting there, but it's lacking a variety of features.

https://imgur.com/gallery/coxp...

I'm following this closely!  I have been thankful to have Cozy starting out and, having seen Appfolio from the pro PM side I'm shocked that people pay so much for it when Cozy delivers so much for free, but some limitations of Cozy keep building up and crossing that 40 unit mark highlights those limitations for sure!

Molly,
There are two monthly meetups (Norwalk & Fairfield) that are attended by experienced and new investors. They may be good places to gather the info you are looking for about the CT market. These simple meetings to network (no sales pitch/sell you the program). PM me if you want the websites/emails for them