All Forum Posts by: Joe Pitrolo

A guy I Know in Pittsburgh has an older home 1910 in an lower income area with a mixture of nice homes and abandoned ones. He is willing to let the home go for $3000 or back taxes. My guestimate is the house needs $15 k worth of repairs, but could easily be rented for $650 to $750 and valued at $20k to $30k.
I live several hours away. I could buy the house and start contracting the work out, but I find these projects always take more time and money than estimated.
Let's say I get a $100 option on the property, up and get an inspection for another $350, I'm only gambling $450 now. If the inspection is decent, I could do the work myself if it is less than expected, or flip the contract.
Any experienced wholesalers thoughts? I'm just wondering if my numbers are that promising or If I should just pass on this deal and avoid the headaches.

One thing is for sure, in our physical world, "Spirit Matters!"
The trinity of man is Spirit, mind or soul- mind and emotions and physical, or body.
I think Einstein said the greatest form of understanding is revelation.
Jesus said in the Gospels that God is Spirit and those that worship Him must worship him in Spirit and Truth. Jesus also said that unless Jesus Chooses to reveal Himself and the Father, man cannot accept God. In other words, man can only humbly accept the Truth of God, which is outside of himself. Man cannot receive the grace of God by intellectualizing or soul searching, it must be received through God's Spirit.
Jesus said that unless you become like a little child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. To piggyback on another post, He also said that The Kingdom of Heaven is within you!

Marc, That is a good idea I may consider for future deals.
Also, in the future, I need to find homes that are livable and just let the buyer do the work. I am getting overwhelmed with fixing these trailers up.
I will have about $3000 in a 74 model trailer. Lot rent is $150. My plan is $1000 down with $450 per month-$7500 asking price. How do you decide on a price?
I just typically would like to double or triple my investment.

A formula I hear that makes sense- you want to be able to make your money back in six to twelve months. So if lot rent is $200 and you will clear $300 per month with $500 per month payments, then the most you would offer is roughly $3600. That is if you don't do any work. The less work you have to do the better.
I would definitely go look at the place and take your contractor or inspector with you. A home that old may have major issues, such as floors, mold, electrical problems, roof or window problems.
Also, you may want to offer the seller $1000 down and payments.

Marc,

Buyers are what motivates me. I get calls off the hook from Craigslist and the local add bulletin. It is all free too.
It is weird with Craigslist, sometimes I get calls 20 days after posting.
My concern is that are always additional costs. I am running into having to have new service for the electic because that was shut off.
My nature is that I worry alot about getting things done and getting my investment back quickly. Well, with mobile homes you can do this, but it still takes 8 mos. to two years. I just have to be patient.
I figure on these two deals, I will have around 6k invested which could be paid off in 10 months. Then, I could have 10k loan at 12.5% interest. Just have to be patient especially when I am spending on credit cards.

From what I understand, Judaism is unique in that it is the first religion to embrace a monotheistic God. All other religions up until Judaism embraced polytheism or the worship of many Gods.
Judaism was also unique in that God related directly to man by creating man, Chosing him, redeeming him, delivering him from bondage through redemption out of Egypt and giving man laws to live by and rules for worshiping the one true God Yahweh.
The uniqueness of Judaism and Christianity is that it is what God does to reveal Himself to mankind. He chooses us, save us, forms us and calls us into a true relationship with Himself.
Religion is more man's understanding of God and deals with Man's attempt to bridge the gap of guilt or mystery about God. I think truth occurs when God reveals Himself to Man through past, present and future interventions. The interpretaion of this is where things get unclear. Christians believe that God has fully revealed himself and intervended completely in Human History throught the birth, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, revealing the One True God.
In summary, religion is man's interpretaion and way of relating to God. Relationship and revelation is when God reveals Himself and the true nature of his Character to Mankind. Christians believe he has accomplished this through his son Jesus Christ.
I would reccommend a book by Lee Stroebel- the Case for Christ- ( I believe)

Jim,
Do you accept early payoffs? I'm offering a 74 2/1 bath and considering a price of 5,500. I'll have $2,000 in the home. If someone gives me 5k, I'm tempted.

Anthony,
I think I would keep some of the renters, try to raise the rents with HUD if possible.
This way you will have a guaranteed income while you are rehabbing individual units. In the meantime, you may be able to rehab some of your renters (get them to clean things up and satisfy your standards) I personally like section 8 because it is guaranteed and some of my best renters are section 8.

Burg has some high taxes also. They have school taxes on top of the property taxes that triple the property taxes.
Agree with Mr. Stuart that you can't just take burg as a whole, there are many parts.

74 2 br/1ba for $800
Lot rent of $150 mo. includes garbage
repairs estimated at $1000 to 1500
Rent for $450 clear around $275 per month- paid off in 10 months.
Or I can sell for 5,500 with $500 down and $500 per month.
I'm leaning towards selling because of the liability of being a LL.

I can also put an older model 77 decent 2 bedroom beside this one for a total cost of around 3k- sell for 6, rent for $500.
Why do these deals not excite me? Maybe because until they are paid off, I worry too much? Maybe buying 70s model scares me. To me, this is like getting some valuable practice in real estate because currently I don't have a lot to play with currently so I'm trying to get in the game with the chips I have. I'm sure I will learn and make a little also. My motivation is lacking.
Anyone have a bigger picture view?
:D