All Forum Posts by: Nadeem Alamgir

I meet my first mentor on here. They're on one of the podcasts and I reached out to them and connected. Find someone who's doing what you want and reach out to them. Be persistent, follow up. They ignored me at first, but I was persistent and provided whatever value I could.

 No shame in trying. 

@Kevin Day

Most inspectors don’t do lead safe risk assessments since it requires separate licensing. You’d typically hire a licensed lead risk assessor for that. I can recommend someone in Garfield Heights. Love that pocket. 

 

@Senda Gopalakrishnan

Here's some common strategies: 

1. You can house hack. Live in one unit, rent the rest out. Lower living expenses while gaining landlord experience. Easiest way to get started. 

2. You can buy for cash flow. I know it's a bit hard in Cali to do that, but what many investors do is invest in smaller more affordable markets with a favorable price to rent ratio. 

3. You can flip. This is basically like full time job. You have to manage rehab + timelines. 

4. You can BRRRR. Buy, rehab, rent out, refi, and repeat. This is also another full time job because you're managing rehab and timeline. This one is also something that might be harder to do in Cali starting out so many investors go out of state. High risk, high reward. The reward is you can pull most or all your money out here and continue to buy and build up equity in all angles + potientally cash flowing. Risk is that if you don't do location + deal due diligence properly and work with incompetent contractors, you lose money.

@Syed Ahmed

Same here, I met at least two mentors on this platform that has helped me tremendously in my real estate career. The platform is what you make of it, there's so much value to take. 

Welcome to BiggerPockets @Jamiu Omananyi

$400 for snaking a sewer line does sound pretty steep. Unless the lease says otherwise, you'll have to eat the cost for this one. 

"Can’t find a tenant that qualifies: 3 times the rent in monthly income, pass credit check and criminal background check"

^^ Not knowing where and what the condition of the unit is like, this is the issue here. 3x rent + credit with a clean background knocks out a big chunk of renter in most ohio markets, espically if rent is higher than the area avg. 

Just sounds like your tenant criteria is too tight or there's a potential market mismatch. 

I would reach out and work with an experienced property manager asap so they can set some expectations here. 

1. Yes, property management does that.

2. Property management picks up leases, keys, and anything else worth handing over after closing.

3. You should ideally reach out to property management before getting under contract, but most investors end up finding someone during the contract period. They can start working for you immediately after you close.

4. Most general home inspectors don't include lead safe risk assessment or inspection. You would need to hire someone else for that unless the inspector offers that service.

Agreed with @Caleb Brown.

Almost all investors and agents would agree that house hacking is the safest way to get started. You lower your living expenses, experience what it's like to be a landlord. 

The other typical strategies are you either buy for cash flow, appreciation, or you make improvements to force equity for example flipping or BRRRRs like you named. This could be a light renovation or a full one, it doesn't matter, but you're forcing equity. Each approach requires a different skill set, and the numbers are run differently. Flipping and BRRRRs are, in my opinion, the hardest since you're managing rehab + timeline. 

Agreed, it's a volume game, and yes, some of these guys are scammy, but if you can filter them out, you'll find deals you won't see on the market. Even with their assignment fees added on, the value add deals make a lot more sense than most MLS deals.