All Forum Posts by: Josh Caldwell

@Leah Robertson  I believe you are looking at the wrong numbers.  What you need to know how this investment will affect cash flow.  What are you high and low cash flow probabilities?  You can get rental estimates on rentometer.com, but pay attention to where they are pulling the data from.  You might need to ignore some of the data.  If you know rental income and cash flow, then you can see if spending the extra money will get you the return you want.  Your numbers aren't relevant unless you plan on flipping this property. 

There is an inverse relationship between safety and cash flow. In general, the worse the neighborhood, the better the cash flow. The bigger question is how much risk are you willing to take on.  The is another ratio to be aware of. The worse the neighborhood, the harder it is to sell a property (in general).  Great areas with no crime are easy places to sell a house. 

The first thing you need to figure out, is how bad any particular street is. You can get a crime heat map by typing the address into trulia.  

As for property management, I cant help you.  I dont know any good ones up there. 

BIG RED FLAG on the GC.  His estimate is not complete, which means your numbers are not complete. You need to get the entire scope of work out of him, or his replacement BEFORE you even think about moving forward on this project. 

Boiler heater is actually better that forced air, it gives off an even heat through the house.  There are two problems to consider here.  One is that you cant add whole house AC without major renovations. I dont know where you house is, so I dont know how important AC is to your tenants. The second problem is the repairs.  Many HVAC guys dont know what to do with a boiler if there are problems.  I have seen boilers last 50+ years, but at some point, it will go bad. I would line up a boiler repair company and have them check out the system before I bought the property. I would try to make the seller pay for this service.  Put that in your offer as a due diligence clause.  Then I would keep the contact info for whoever evaluated the system. 

The City of Pittsburgh is it's own kingdom.  the suburbs are all pretty similar but dealing with the city can be challenging.  They require more permits, and it takes longer to get them. The City also has some crazy rules about demolition. I have seen them for an investor to tarp an entire house. You will find that a decent number of the skilled tradesmen wont work in the city.  In the suburbs, the worst you run into is the occasional pain in the *** code enforcer  

To your success

josh Caldwell

PittsburghREIA.com 

That depends. A camp ground isnt completely a real estate deal, it is a business.  The questions is, what is the current strength of the business, and what can you do to improve that?  You are looking to place a value on the business as it is at this moment.  Then improve the business, usually through marketing and management, to increase the value of the business. A camp ground has to be evaluated the same way you would with a hotel, trailer park, or even self storage; where both the value of the real estate and the business come into play 

I get my best deals by contacting non owner occupied property directly via direct mail campaigns.  The real bargains are almost always off market deals, and for those, you need to initiate contact with the potential seller. 

In PA, they sell tax delinquent property at auctions. Allegheny county (Pittsburgh) just did the first online auction in the state. Every other county is still doing in person bidding. PA doesnt sell tax liens, so the auction is your only way to purchase tax delinquent property and each county has a different website listing the properties for sale. 

@Jeff Shea  Most realtors frown on creative finance for one of two reasons. They either dont understand it, or they fear they wont get paid.  Start off by explaining to them, that they get paid first. then explain to them that you will construct the offer   Even then, the listing agent isnt likely to understand what you are talking about. Agents understand the cookie cutter version of how to buy a house.  They understand ban financing, and that is about it; unless you are dealing with an agent who is also an investor.  BP is a great place to find one of those. 

I rarely look at listed property.  I prefer to deal directly with the owner.  That way there are no restrictions on our negotiation other than my own creativity. I probe the owner to see why they are selling and what they want to do with that money.  Then I offer them a deal that fits their situation. 

@Jerel Ehlert  Yep, that sure blew my mind !!!