All Forum Posts by: Patrick Young

I just did, thank you!

Thank you all, this has been so helpful! I'm starting to get a good grip on what is a "good deal" versus what just looks acceptable. It's very interesting to hear how everyone has slightly different requirements and expectations for their properties. I just have to determine what mine are going to be. 

Hey all,

I'm in the RDU area and found a property today that the numbers seem to work quite well on. I'm looking for a real estate agent in the area to help me take the next steps. I'd like to run a few comps and get some of their advice on the area/neighborhood and get some more information on the place and then potentially look to make an offer if it all adds up right.

I'm still trying to build my team in the area, so even if this one doesn't pan out I will be looking for more!

Great information everyone, thank you for the responses.

@Alex Corvin Congrats on your first deal! That's good to hear, and definitely something that I should be focusing on more. The properties that I have liked so far have been around 1.1-1.3%, so they should be passing that test. I'm still working to find the area that works best for me, so the first step is trying to make sure that I am analyzing them correctly.

@Carl C. Wow, those are some great returns that your seeing! I think that may be a product of different markets. Our general rent range looks to be 750-1000/month, so I'm not sure how we could possibly look for a cash flow like that. Thank you!

@David Faulkner That's a very good point! Do you generally see that nicer neighborhoods = lower day one cash flow and higher rent growth? I have no interest in the sketchy, lower end areas even if it would result in greater profits. Can I look up records like that on places like Zillow and Trulia?

Hey Everyone! I'm working on getting educated and analyzing as many deals as I can as I'm trying to nail down which market I want to get into in the Raleigh area. I'm curious what cash flow requirements you have for your properties in order to pursue the deal. What I've seen so far is the better deals on the Zillow, Realtor.com, etc are looking like they cash flow $130-170/month for both single and multi family. I'm looking in the $60-100k range. I've seen the $200/month number thrown around a few times, is that what you generally shoot for? I guess if you are able to offer and end up for around a 10-20% discount that would help your cash flow increase as well. I'm interested to hear what y'all think, especially anyone in Raleigh/Durham or Fayetteville!

I've been wondering the same thing Ronnie. There seems to be a lot of them out there, but it's hard to tell if they are updated or not. I don't want to spend the time to analyze them if they were foreclosed upon 6 months ago and are already long gone.

Interested to hear about everyone's opinions and experience with them.

Hey all,

Long post below and I apologize in advance haha.

I recently became interested it real estate investing and found bigger pockets shortly after. After graduating from college in May of 2015, I spent the first year or so focusing on personal finance (budgeting, saving, creating a plan, etc.). I have a good hold on that now and my next step is to put my current and future savings to work. Real estate is attractive to me because it is more hands on than just sticking my money in a mutual fund and watching it grow. After a year of watching stocks everyday, I already know that I hate the lack of control over what happens. It seems to be an area where you can grow as a result of hard work and proficiency. I like my current job and career track, so I see this as more of an investment opportunity to provide future wealth and comfort and potentially leading to an early retirement as opposed to quitting my job and going full time.

I'm looking to get into buy and hold and acquire my first property in the next 3-12 months. I want to continue my education on the topic before I jump into it. Right now I live in Knightdale, NC, right outside of Raleigh. Based on some initial analysis, I'm looking at Greensboro and especially Fayetteville as two markets that meet my criteria. The prices are lower which would allow me to start soon and there is a solid variety of SFR in my range (40-75k or so). If anyone has any experience in either of these areas or the RDU area in general, I'd love to discuss it and hear about what you've seen. My career track and company likely has me headed towards Charlotte, so that is another area that I'm interested in.

I do have a few questions that came from starting to run analysis on some places using mainly Zillow but also Trulia and Realtor.com that I wanted to get your thoughts on.

1) When houses are listed on Zillow as foreclosure rather than "For Sale", what exactly does that mean? I mean I understand what foreclosures are, but they consistently are way lower than the "Zestimate". Would I really be able to purchase these at that price, or are they likely to end up maybe between the amount foreclosed and the Zestimate?Do people submit bids between those two and hope they get accepted?

2) I see a bunch of properties that listed as for auction. Clearly the starting price for the auction is significantly lower than the value of the property. Is it worth my time to look into these and potentially work to go to the auction? It honestly seems like a mess/a lot of time invested when I could be researching properties that I actually have a shot at instead.

3) How accurate are the Zestimates that I'm seeing? I have a feeling that they are off and I'm sure that I will get a much more accurate number running comps and working with a real estate agent. Just starting off, it's difficult to get past when I initially pull up a property and the list price is 20-30k below the Zestimate because that looks so juicy.

4) What are everyone's thoughts on creating an LLC for your "company". Is this something everyone does, only a few people do, somewhere in between? What I've read so far makes it seem quite attractive.

Thanks for making it this far and I'm excited to join the community!