All Forum Posts by: Paul Novak
Paul Novak has started 21 posts and replied 149 times.
Post: Looking to buy my first investment property
- Rental Property Investor
- Wisconsin
- Posts 149
- Votes 114
Quote from @Wale Lawal:
Quote from @Lolo Druff:
I am looking to buy my first investment property, and my goal is to continue building this portfolio every year until I can live off my rental income entirely. I have about $400K to deploy, but would prefer to buy several duplexes rather than 1 more expensive building. I live in CA but am open to investing anywhere that makes financial sense. Cash flow is important of course, but so is appreciation, so I want to ensure I have a balance of both. Is it wise to buy some units with high cash flow and low appreciation, and others with lower cash flow but high appreciation to diversify my portfolio?
I was looking in Columbus OH but the market is so saturated and it's been difficult for me to find cash-flowing deals there. Any deal that I've found seems to have sold within the last 2 years, and its alarming as to why it's back on market again unless they have problems with the building and/or tenants. I'm open to all suggestions regarding different cities that meet my requirements and would love to chat with some realtors who have local experience working with investors.
@Lolo Druff Real Estate Investing is not like Trading Stocks or Crytocurrency.
Real Estate Investing requires some deep thought and research from you as an Investor.
Having 400k to deploy to multiple duplexes is a great start but you have some questions to ask and answer yourself. Questions like the ones below
1. Why do you want to invest in Real Estate?
2. What are your investment goals and can you achieve the same results with other asset class?
3. What real estate strategy do you want to start with? Start with strategy
4. Are you going for cash flow or appreciation or a mix of both?
5. What are the markets that support your goals and ROI expectations?
6. On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your risk tolerance level? Like every investment asset, real estate investing is not risk-free.
And many more.....
Answering these above questions will allow you to ask your potential real estate agents the right questions.
Remember that the quality of your questions has a direct correlation to the quality of the answers you get.
Looking everywhere is not the best way to go about it. Do your own research based on what is most important to you and your risk threshold then go from there.
I will recommend you learn more from this forum post here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1159104-overl...
Goodluck and keep us posted.
Really good points and questions Wale Lawal. I couldn't agree more with defining your why and understanding your purpose before jumping in!
Post: New rental investor
- Rental Property Investor
- Wisconsin
- Posts 149
- Votes 114
Nice to meet you. I have only been investing for a few years in Sheboygan Falls and Sheboygan. Once we started we haven't looked back. Investing in real estate has truly changed our lives. If you ever have any questions feel free to reach out. I would be happy to help share what we have learned. We currently have 7 doors 5 properties with a mix of single family homes and duplexes.
Post: What are your 2025 goals
- Rental Property Investor
- Wisconsin
- Posts 149
- Votes 114
Quote from @Jonathan Greene:
This is the third time someone has tried to replicate the exact forum post in this same General Real Estate Investing group that already has 99 replies.
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1220392-what-...
Thanks for the heads up I didn't see those other posts.
Post: What are your 2025 goals
- Rental Property Investor
- Wisconsin
- Posts 149
- Votes 114
The new year is right around the corner and I thought it might be interesting hearing what some people's top goals are for next year. For me I have 3 main goals I am shooting for:
1) Pay back the debt I acquired purchasing rentals this year. I have part of a 401K loan to payback and money borrowed against my HELOC.
2) Maintain a yearly savings rate above 55% for 2025.
3) Purchase another rental before the end of 2025.
Post: What does the new EPA initiative mean for landlords with lead water pipes?
- Rental Property Investor
- Wisconsin
- Posts 149
- Votes 114
Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:
Quote from @Paul Novak:
Good question, I got one of these letters in the mail this week for one of my rental properties. I agree with you it's really vague. What I can say is I recently did a home inspection on a property which uncovered a lead inlet pipe into the house. This wasn't the service line in the street like the letter talked about it was the line that went from the curb stop to the house. We actually tested the water as we wanted to verify the property was safe before renting it out to tenants. We felt taking this step was the right thing to do. If the water would have came back bad we were prepared to replace the pipe but was told this repair would be around $8K. The water test results came back good so at this point in time we didn't do the repair.
We were nervous in talking with tenants about this issue and thought it might detour people from wanting to rent the property. To be honest no one we showed the house to seemed to care.
wow 8k for a waterline.. I would start a water line replcement business make far more money doing that than we would owing rentals :) On a related subject you have the waste lines that were clay etc. In Parts of the SF Bay Area its mandatory prior to changing owner ship to see if you have clay pipes and if you do they must be replaced with a new waste line. My Brother in law has a company that does this and hand full of realtors have him on speed dial 90% is pipe burst done in a few hours 7 to 8k per.. He makes bank !!!
Yes when I heard $8K I thought that was crazy too but it's a lot of work because they would need to bust up the foundation dig up the yard to the curb stop and rip out all the pipes. It's my understanding that the city is responsible for all the piping up to the curb stop in my front yard and I am responsible for the curb stop to my property.
Post: business funding funding
- Rental Property Investor
- Wisconsin
- Posts 149
- Votes 114
Quote from @Lateefah Mathews:
@Stacy Banks Hey there! I’d recommend starting with business credit cards that only require a soft inquiry, so you don’t risk a denial from one bank that could influence the others. There’s definitely a strategy to applying for business credit to avoid alerting other lenders that you’re shopping for credit. Several banks offer soft inquiry options, I'd try those out prior to risking the HP. Also, I recommend you have a banking relationship with Wells and Chase prior to shopping if that's the route you're definitely going to take.
Lateefah, thanks for sharing the information about soft inquiry. I didn't know there was such a thing. This is something I will have to keep in mind for myself in the future.
Post: Lots of requests for mid term rentals
- Rental Property Investor
- Wisconsin
- Posts 149
- Votes 114
I am about an hour north up in Sheboygan Falls and I have seen many mid term rentals on the market and it doesn't seem like they are getting rented out. I do all long term but its something I have noticed when doing research on setting rent prices.
Post: business funding funding
- Rental Property Investor
- Wisconsin
- Posts 149
- Votes 114
You can I would just watching to not to apply too many places. Every time your credit gets pulled it a hard inquiry which hurts your credit.
Post: One month left in 2024 - What are your Goals!
- Rental Property Investor
- Wisconsin
- Posts 149
- Votes 114
Quote from @Carsyn Childress:
Business goal would be to purchase at least five more properties before the end of the year.
Personal goal is to finish up my real estate license before the start of the year.
Buying 5 more properties before the year is up is a crazy goal. My goal is just to purchase one property a year lol. If you do it more power to you.
Post: One month left in 2024 - What are your Goals!
- Rental Property Investor
- Wisconsin
- Posts 149
- Votes 114
Quote from @Erin Helle:
Nice! What kind of debt do you have on the property?
It was hard for me but my wife talked me into taking a bit of a break. As Coach Carson would say a "plateau". We purchased two properties last year and two this year. My wife was tired of us working to fix up our properties and not our house. While I wanted to stick the money back into more rentals I agreed with her. We took a break from rentals here at the end of this year, going into next year, to redo our kitchen. Partially a want but also things were starting to go and it was time. We have around $85K outstanding between a 401K loan and our HELOC. This is money that was used for the kitchen and down payments on our last two properties. We have become good savers and save about 55% of our total income. We are on pace this year to save a little over $110K post tax money. While $85K is no small number I am confident that we will be able to pay it back before the end of next year and still accomplish our goal of purchasing a minimum of one property a year.