All Forum Posts by: Rob Sawyer

Welcome Kevin! Although still a relative newbie myself in many ways, BP is an awesome resource that will serve you well. Check out the podcasts, articles, webinars and more. Start member searching and connect with those around you or others you think might be interesting, there are many on here who want and are willing to help. Earlier this month, I attended a BP meetup in Syracuse and another in Albany. From Utica, you could hit either one without too long of a drive. 

I've recently started a regular monthly Syracuse one on the 1st Tues of every month if you're interested. Not sure of a Utica area one yet but ours will be very casual, just a chance to get together and exchange ideas and knowledge and will have investors with various levels of experience to talk with and learn from. For instance, I can answer questions on how to start an LLC in NY if you'd like to do so and it fits your RE strategy but please research it and make sure it's what you would like to do.

Connect with me and I'll keep you posted on our meeting or others that might interest you.

Building on the success of a recent meetup of several BP'ers in Central NY, and the lack of a casual exchanging of REI ideas and knowledge in a conversational format in the area with the intent of actually learning from each other and helping each other succeed, I've decided to start this group and have a regular monthly meeting on the first Tues of every month.

This is geared toward all of us learning from each other regardless of our experience level. There will be no membership fee and no "selling picks and shovels to miners" or other "sales pitches" but rather an informal get-together to talk about REI in the region, what's going on, best contacts to get stuff done and how to maximize deals for everyone.

There are a number of us who are very experienced and skilled and many who are newbies trying to learn and figure this stuff out. All are welcome who are interested in knowledge sharing, not knowledge hoarding/selling. Networking and sharing knowledge are critical to success in REI and I hope to maximize both in an informal gathering over a beverage of choice.

Our next meeting will be on Tues, Oct 3rd at 7pm, location TBD. Our last one was held at Coleman's, which worked fine but I'm looking for suggestions on where to hold future ones so hit me up with your thoughts on a decent place, quiet enough to hear each other talk and room to grow our numbers, preferably with low prices! ;) I'll post the location soonest based on input received. All other thoughts and suggestions on how to make this the best REI event in the area are welcome!

Thanks!

Rob

Rob Sawyer, Founder/CEO, CNY Vets Enterprises LLC

Hey @Lauren Minkoff, I'm a newbie but think hard money lenders are best suited for flips and BRRRR deals as they typically want to get their money back out to lend it to someone else, either through the sale or a refi. I'm looking for a private lender or seller finance for a buy & hold res-multi and hope to find either in short order. Will let you know what Iearn that may help you. Best of luck!

Hey Drew.  You can always print "Address Service Requested" on the envelope which should prompt the USPO to indicate any forwarding address on file for the owner,although if there is none on file (many times the case) it will not help you.

You can also get a Skip Trace done to try to find them. It's basically a Big Data sweep of all available public records on the person but sometimes pull erroneous information from someone else with the same name so need to review carefully. Nonetheless, it should give you some numbers and/or emails to try to smoke them out.

There are several providers of this service out there and most have a fee of some sort attached.

It can be frustrating (hence our earning our profit margin) but it's doable. Like most of real estate, it's a numbers game where the more letters you mail, the better chance of some of them finding their way to the owner.

Hope this helps and best of luck to you!

@Collin Schwartz - Congrats on a fantastic start Collin! Truly impressive! 

Any advice on starting that kind of trajectory without a HELOC available for downpayments?

Hey Laura! Thanks for putting this together. I'm from Syracuse but looking to expand my network while learning more about REI. Looking forward to meeting you and everyone!

Hey @David Zuber. Thanks, and same to you. I did serve in the Navy for 32 years and retired out of the Reserves in 2012. 

It sure does change your perspective.  I grew up in New Woodstock and went to high school in Caz. After the Naval Academy and deployments around the world for 15 years, I moved back to the area to help my Dad retire out from a family biz and raised my family. My time in Iraq really cemented my interest in helping Vets catch a break.

The deals ARE out there, it's just a matter of finding them amidst the frenzy of local competition. I'm trying to stay out of the fray and concentrate where others aren't looking so hard but that cuts down on opportunities as well. There's a balance here somewhere.

Let's def get together before the Colemans meeting and bounce ideas off of each other.  Shoot me a PM.

Hey @Michael Lembo, welcome to the forum. The Onondaga REIA meetings are decent for networking but many times they have sales pitches from various RE "experts" so I've found them less helpful than I had hoped. You can pay a yearly membership fee or a la carte as David mentioned above. I'm looking for a more relaxed and informational group concentrating on how to do stuff from actual local experience, not stuff to buy to "help me" do stuff. Just my two cents.

Hey David. I'm local in Syracuse and fairly new as well. I look forward to connecting with you and, like you, finding out more about the better investment areas in the region. I'm trying to help Veterans get into homes under market while acquiring a few multi's for more permanent income growth. 

I grew up southeast of Syracuse and have lived in the FM area for the last 20+ years.  I recently moved into the Meadowbrook area but am slowly adjusting to finding my way around the city and thus far prefer the east side although learning about others. Unfortunately, finding a decent multi-family on the east side and in the eastern burbs at a reasonable number has been difficult.

Anyway, let's connect and network to find more BP'ers in the area so we can all become more successful.

Hello BP. I'm relatively new to REI and after floundering for six months or so (but learning all I can) trying to help fellow military Veterans find decent homes in the region, I would like to find/join any REI networking groups in my area. There is one local group I have attended a couple of times but it's sales pitch after sales pitch interspersed with talking with people who are fairly pessimistic (all for a sizable membership fee, of course) rather than just good solid networking with people who are excited, experienced and are willing to share their knowledge. I'm big on networking and bring extensive sales, marketing and people skills to help others but have been unsuccessful finding others who are actually willing to follow through on offers to help other people.

I'm also very interested in investing in other areas of the country due to better growth and opportunity but have been trying to cut my teeth on my local area so I can better see how the whole process works. Unfortunately, it's been very slow going.

Any advice and/or motivated connections are most welcome!

Thanks!