All Forum Posts by: Rich O'Neill

@Amar P. I believe they are sometimes called stamps yes. Make sure you don’t confuse that with Tax CERT, which is just explaining how much of the RE tax is due and how much each party owes of the proration. 

@Nevada Kaler I am sorry to hear your husband's health is failing. Sounds like you are in a tough situation. Best of luck to you both. 

I live in Chester County and while I don't invest much here (Delco for me), I am local and hopefully can help somehow. Please let me know if there is anything I can do. 

You found a great community here. You will do great! 

@Angela Romero My whole portfolio is in Delco and can confirm it can be a great place for cash flow. Over the last few years values have shot up and I have not seen rents keeping up at the same pace, so it is a little tougher now, but overall I like working with the municipalities rather than the city. Generally much easier to get work done. There is also a decent amount of multifamily inventory in Delco, so that should help your cause. 

I started out buying C class properties and it has been super beneficial, but I am moving towards buying higher end now. I learned a lot in he C class rentals and it made me a lot of money, but I read once that nobody ever got super wealthy off of cash flow. Real wealth is built with appreciation, and that is how I have made most of my money in my properties, if I really boil it down. I wouldn't have made anything if I didn't buy something.

If I knew then what I know now, I still would start with the same type of property. It got me started sooner, taught me lessons sooner, and minimized my risk, since I didn't start with much. It gave me the option to go for higher end properties. 

Now, I am NOT telling you to go buy in a war zone. That is a whole strategy in itself and takes a very specific kind of person to make it work. Buy decent properties with nice cash flows and decent tenants. And don't sleep on Section 8, especially after 2020. If you make the place "bulletproof" then there are some nice returns to be had investing that way. 

Get after it! Good luck! 

@Angela Romero In your closing costs, are you counting the 4.278% transfer tax? That is often split between buyer and seller, but make sure you know what that number is on each deal because often wholesalers charge the whole thing to the buyer. 

6% is probably an appropriate "ballpark" for closing costs, but make sure you understand that extra tax, along with all of the other fees that go into a closing, including loan points if you are using a lender. 

Most suburban townships that I know of do not have any limit on rent increases, but I believe Philly does. If the rental is in Lower Merion then I believe you can just straight out give them the 2 options as long as they are not in a longer term lease. 

@Jim White check out PFCU. I use them to refinance my rentals after we renovate them. They have good terms and rates. Underwriting is stricter than most I have dealt with in terms of the actual collateral, but if you have clean units with good cooperative tenants then it won't be a problem. 

@Michael Lutes One thing to keep in mind that I have dealt with in the past is when the zoning is incongruent with the actual use, the city can give you a really hard time pulling building permits. I had one we were doing a cosmetic rehab on a single family where the zoning was CMX and they wanted full architects drawings and a whole bunch of other junk that didn't make any sense. They also wanted us to get a commercial building permit which meant it was going to be minimum 8 weeks to turn around. 

If you can get away with not getting permits or you aren't planning on doing any work, then it shouldn't be an issue, but if you have a major renovation planned or you think it might need one down the road, then it is something to keep in mind. 

@Irfan Raza sheriff sales opening back up will be a good thing for supply, but won't it take a while for the cases to actually make it through the court system and get to the sale? My understanding is that the courts have also been closed meaning the foreclosure cases cannot advance forward toward the sale. Am I mistaken there? 

It's going to be a crazy end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 regardless as the last of the restrictions go away and things find a new balance. 

@Joe DeBella All good points above. I'm not licensed in NJ but several of the agents in my office at Vanguard Realty are licensed in both NJ and PA. The office is in West Chester, PA, but like @Shawn Mcenteer said the physical office is rarely important. Take a look at their commission model and see if it fits your goals.