All Forum Posts by: Rob L.

hey @Roy C. I work a full time job and have a real estate business on the side too. So it keeps me pretty busy. I have a habit of stretching myself too thin and then figuring out a way to make everything work. I imagine your be able to do the same. If I were you I would do both and develop a plan for managing your time so you can do both. 

Of course it depends on the type of RE investing you want to do, I only have rentals so it doesn't take up a lot of the time and I don't personally do the property management anymore. It allows me to focus on the business, not working in the business. 

Hey @David Cohen Welcome to the site! 

Your doing the right thing by going to REA meetings to gain knowledge and network. I don't know who the REIA admin is who is offering the coaching and no need to name drop but I figure anyone that needs to charge you a monthly fee to coach probably isn't the best person to learn from anyway. The best mentors are the ones that have already made their money and are looking to give back to the community. She seems like she is profiting off mentoring and not real estate...

Hi @Cheryl Prior! Welcome to biggerpockets. You have definitely found the right place to learn more about real estate. 

I'm local to your area and your right most of the 2-3 families in our market are fairly expensive especially closer to boston you get. I have rentals in Lawrence and Haverhill that cashflow but I've had to buy them ugly and in need of work. Then I make improvements so we can increase the rent in order to cashflow properly. So it can be done but it takes some work.

But, to answer your question you will probably not find many places around here that fit the 2% rule or 50% rule. Every market is unque, ours you tend to see less cash flow but higher appreciation and lower vacancy rates. It won't last forever but its pretty easy right now to keep my properties at 100% occupancy. 

haha @Bryan L.  I've heard them use the term on the podcast lately. It just means you buy a multi and live in it owner occupied and rent out the other units. 

@Michael S.  I would run the numbers on both. I just did it as me and my wife are in a similar situation and the numbers looked way better if we bought a two family for us to live in.  Ultimately, you need get your wife on board for which ever idea you go with. Luckily, around my parts you can find two families in nice family friendly neighborhoods. 

Hey @Andrey Y. , 

So cash on cash is calculated by dividing your cash flow before tax by your cash invested. So if your purchasing a place all cash then you would do something like this, 

Gross rental income - Operating expenses = Net Operating income (normally you would subtract debt service too but you wouldn't have it in this situation)

You would then divide that left over number by the cash you invested. 

Now with numbers, assuming a 100,000 purchase price all in cash

30,000/annually rental income - 15,000 misc exp= 15,000 in operating income. 

15,000/100,000 = 15% COC.

I'm sure others can improve upon what I did here but the best and easiest thing to do is to search the resources area and download one of the free deal analysis spreadsheets. I have one I've customized too if you need it. It makes it so easy even someone who is terrible in math like myself can figure it out....

Goodluck! 

Hey @George Pappas . If I'm looking at a place that is vacant I search on craiglist. Its the quickest way to get a feel for what the market is getting.  I limit the search to the same town/area the rental is in and look at the following, 

# of bedrooms 

# of baths 

Once I have that I put all the rents into a excel spreadsheet. When I have 10 or more data points I look at the average of all the rents. This gives you a general idea. I also take out any places that have certain amenities that the subject property does not have and take them out. 

Its worked well for me. I've had success by offering the same amenities that the top rents  offer and asking for 50-100 dollars less. 

Nice @Zoran M. , The place looks like it has some unique features. 

Hey Zoran, 

Looks like you have a great project in front of you. I'm excited to see how it turns out. Do you have any pictures of the inside? With 130+ in rehab I'm assuming it needs a lot of work. 

Hey Mugu, 

Welcome to the site. Its the best place out there to learn about real estate, hands down. 

There are a lot of variables to your story and what you want to do so I would ask myself,

What is your goal with real estate? 

You mentioned your dream is to buy land and build a custom home. If that's what you want to do then I would base my decision off of what I would need to do to get there. 

Welcome @Matthew Catanzariti! Sounds like you already have a good nest egg going for your first property. I would house hack your first deal. Look for a good 3-4 family property that you can live in and rent out the other units. That's the best way to get into the market and should provide free housing for you as well so you can save more money and buy more properties.