All Forum Posts by: Nick Rutkowski

@Kenny Colato

House hack, you’ll live for free and own an investment. I did it at 23.

@Mikhail Shapiro

I own a duplex I use as an Airbnb/college housing. I’ve been quite successful running it this way, I might convert fully college students. My advice is buy just outside of the college neighborhood limits. You want to limit parties, have responsible students, and quiet works best. Having a non-central location would help mitigate the party throwers. Make sure the parents are responsible for any damages done, this can be done by making them a cosigner to the lease.

@Tomás Gonzalez

You’ll need to do your homework and find the right real estate agent. Try cnyrealtor.com and look up the agent directory. There are a handful of investment agents, you’ll just have to find them and vet them.

Why are you picking the north side?

@Furrlo Roger

1 and 3 make sense. I’ve quoted people for a 6 weeks of work and it turned out to be 12. I’ve also had to do extra work because I accidentally broke something while fixing something else. Can’t understand the point of 2. If you’re suing someone, isn’t it up to them to pay for defense? I get if they win you should pay their lawyer fees but not upfront. That’s a lawyer question. Good luck!

@Logan Singleton

Not much happening in the north country. It’s losing its economic opportunities for a while. Try going south towards Fort Drum or north towards the college towns.

@Jane H.

Depends on the state, some places allow kickbacks others don’t. If I was you, I’d take her advice but go with a different insurance company.

@Rafael Martinez

My mortgages are from my local bank and aren’t sold on the market. Unfortunately, I’ll have to pass because I’d do more harm to my community.

Now my Wells Fargo and Chase loans are another story. But I’m refinancing out of those with my local bank.

Maybe a better solution would be take your money out of big banks and go with the local small bank? What do you think?

@Carolina Holy

Ithaca is Gorges and the real estate makes great returns. I GC in the area and can help with your projects.

@Jaylin Keys

Welcome to BP. Educate yourself by reading the forums and blog articles. It's a good first step in your REI journey.

Learn to raise capital. There are many ways to do this, you’ll need to figure out a way that works for you.

Get your connections, you’ll need a lawyer, contractor, agent, accountant, lender, manager, employees. So on.

Buy a house, you can read all day but if you don’t apply what you learned then it’s pointless.

Chicago is cheap and a good area to get started if you’re strapped for capital. You could easily afford a multi family house under 100k. Granted the condition and location.

Landlording takes tough skin and an iron stomach. A lot of pressure is on you and people generally have a bad impression about landlords. Don’t expect anything to be easy with people.

Good luck.

@Kemona Palmer

Two weeks for the amount of the work to be done seems unrealistic. That was my first red flag. Ditching you was a huge mistake on his end, he should at least finish the job even if he underestimated the time frame. Better to finish late than not finish at all.

Paying in full was your mistake, next time half up front half at the end. You knew getting ditched was a risk, you should have planned accordingly.

Depending on how much the job was I’d talk to an attorney. My guess is you paid a couple thousand so you might have a case in small claims. Who knows how far it’ll get. You might be better off cutting your losses and giving him a bad review on social media. A bad reputation hurts people more than losing money. Pictures work the best.

Stinks you have had this happen to you, hope this doesn’t stop you from pursuing your real estate goals.