All Forum Posts by: Kyle M.

Yes, okay that makes a lot of sense. I'm currently looking at a 3br/1.5 ba listed for $110k. Description says that it is currently renting for $1200/month (month to month). This is really good and exactly what rentometer says was average rent. Now, I'm getting closer to that 1.5-2% that everyone is talking about. Some negatives about the house is no c/a, small full bathroom, no dishwasher, unfinished basement. But overall it looks like a good buy for the fact that is currently renting. How detrimental is not having c/a? is it cost effective to install it in this situation. I could really buy the house and make tenants secure a new lease without doing anything.

Regarding the FHA loan, I was under the impression that it is best to put 20% down on a house purchase. Is this not the case, especially when dealing with a rental property?

Thank you Raymond!

Good point, I won't put faith in numbers from those sites. I will utilize my real-estate agent to pull true numbers.

20% down, 30 years fixed (I'm unfamiliar with abbreviations)

2% seems high for my area, but I'm sure its attainable in some situations. For my initial buy I did not want to put much work/repairs into it, plus the fact that I want to live in it initially. So that percentage would become naturally lower. But you asked a good question when referring to how long I wanted to live there.

As long is necessary, ~2-5 years. I understand this is vague but I feel like I have two options.

1) Initially rent it out to tenants and use the profits from that property to pay for my current apartment. Is this common when starting out?
2) Buy the house, live in it and save up until I can put a down-payment on a different property where I will live and start renting first property.

My guess is that it depends on exact numbers and depends on the situation (just like everything). But is there any advice on which would be the best avenue to take?

Let me start off by saying that I have no previous real-estate experience.
I am 24 years old, $50k net worth, $50k yearly salary. I am looking to buy my own place and live in it. Eventually I want to turn it into a rental property or sell it for a surplus at the very least.

The current listing in question is for $150k and was listed four days ago. This current property is outside of a rapidly growing area in Philadelphia and it is 2br/1ba. Similar listings with the same number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and square footage (according to Trulia) are going for ~140k-180k with an even distribution. This property is in very good condition by the looks of it. The only thing that it is missing is a dishwasher and I am unsure if there would be room for one in the future. The tile in the kitchen could be modernized and unfinished basement could be finished. It has all the amenities such as c/a, hardwood floors, fresh paint, nice large bathroom, and nice bedrooms.

Now my assumption is that because the property in a developing area it will naturally have a lower risk of A) apartment not renting B) taking a hit on the property value. The assumed upsides are that I can A) charge future tenants an increased rent because of the area B) large chance of having a gain in property value. I know that there is unforeseen variance in the market, but this is a risk that I would be willing to take on for the possibility of future gain.

Let’s say I could rent this apartment for $1100 at this current moment. Also, lets pretend I hire a home inspector and everything checks out.

How good of a buy is this?

What offer would I initially come in with?

Is there any other information that I should be looking at?

Any advice would be helpful, thanks guys! I just found this forum today, signed up, and first situational post!

Hello all,

I'm 24 years old who graduated two years ago from credible university with a business marketing degree. Upon graduation I took a position with a fortune 500 company and work there still. I enjoy what I do for a living and this opportunity has created financial stability.

My short term goals are to get in the market with a large edge and buy my first home. Down the road I would like to create a second stream of income by renting it out and putting an initial down-payment on a larger house. I would welcome selling my first home at a surplus as well, but this option is secondary. My long-term goal is to have multiple streams of income from these rental properties and possibly turn it into my primary source of income.

I am from the Philadelphia region and this is the market that I am looking to exploit. I have no previous experience in real-estate but am willing to work hard at it. My primary goal of joining this forum is to develop solid fundamentals that will lead me to thinking about real-estate "correctly". And this will allow me to maximize my expectation in the future.

I have learned a lot from forums about other subjects and I look forward to becoming a member of this community. Any suggestions that you guys have would be great, thanks for reading!