All Forum Posts by: Ryan D.

@Ugochukwu Opara crushed it! Where in West Philly are you buying?

@Troy Sheets looks great! I'd add the  Civil Docket to the list for finding outstanding judgments and other potential liens on properties. And  Philly.com has a lot of other resources with regard to outstanding L&I condemned homes, details on post sheriff sale properties, current use of properties, and plenty more. 

It depends on how active/passive you want to be with the $500k you've saved up. It also depends on your lifestyle and monthly expenses. Are you looking to be a voluntarily "starving" artist? If so, 500k is more than most people will ever need. If your yearly expenses are below $25,000, congrats you're retired if you dump that cash in some passive ETFs and ride the rollercoaster that is the stock market. 

If you need more than 25k/yr to live then you should be more active with the money. Look at joining a commercial loan broker's syndicate and start doing hard money loans. The return will be higher than the stock market's average return and you'll be learning the real estate business while making a nice passive return. If you want to be even more active, then look at building a multi-family portfolio. The possibilities are endless for people looking to invest in real estate with a tenth of the cash you have. All that matters is your desired lifestyle and how active/passive you want to be with your money. Congrats on the nest egg, it's quite an accomplishment!

 @Jimmy O'Connor nailed it! Couldn't agree more. We just put a property under contract in West Passyunk which is wedged in between booming Point Breeze/Newbold and Girard Estates. West Passyunk is a little further along than Grays Ferry due to WP's commercial activity but both are largely the recipient of Point Breeze's affordable inventory drying up. This is something that has played out for decades in the Philly neighborhoods. Graduate Hospital to Point Breeze to Newbold/West Passyunk, NoLibs to Fishtown to Kensington, etc. 

Comparatively, 19125 & 19123 zips are incredibly cheap compared to other booming neighborhoods in other cities like Chicago's Wicker Park for example. But that's how Philly has always been. 

Denver, NYC, San Fran, and LA come as no surprise but Philadelphia? According to this article by Rentcafe, "Denver is lit right now, as millennials would say; as the city has four zip codes in the top 20 fastest-growing in the U.S. In total, 3 zip codes out of the 20 are located in Los Angeles, 2 in New York, 2 in San Francisco, and 2 in Philadelphia."

The article tracks where millennials are flocking to over the past 5 years according to the most recent US Census data, published in Fall of 2018. Below are the top 20 zip codes in the U.S. with the highest growth in the millennial population. 

Pretty unbelievable to see Philly mentioned amongst those cities but seeing the transformation of 19123 & 19125 over the past decade, it makes sense. 

Admit what you do not know. You have no clue if a recession is coming and neither do I. I trade the stock market full-time and firmly believe in timing equity markets. As for real estate, ha! No thanks. This is a long term game here. If you want to play short term go trade stocks.

Unless you are flipping, a recession should be something you should be excited for. Buy $SPY puts and go buy a property that you can value add, be levered at 75% equity and cash flow after accounting for capEx, vacancies & property management. Then rent it, refinance it and go do it again.

I've never dealt with a short sale before and unfortunately there really isn't any good information on the pre-existing threads here or on the blog. There seems to be a lot of variables and it doesn't seem like every short sale has many consistencies. The question I have is what information can I request from the listing agent representing the bank that is different from what is provided on the listing? I read a blog post here stating I should request a statement of information and the title report that was run by the listing agent prior to making an offer. Any short sale experts here?

Here's what I know thus far:

List price is 100k

Sold in 2008 for 110k

Listing price reflects the lender's appraisal. And I'm responsible for a 3% facilitation fee. 

Any update on anyone else buying in Frankford? I really like the long-term prospects of the area but don't see it being anything great 3-4 years from now. The El will always drive growth but I don't see how this area can improve with everything from North Kensington (Somerset, K&A, Tioga area) being pushed north. 

I walked a few blocks today around Frankford Transportation Center and it seemed a lot nicer than Arrott or Church Stations. ATC looked pretty bad. But as with most neighborhoods in Philly, it's block by block. 

Ground floor frontage for both lots must be used for commercial. Here's a guide explaining uses by right: Page 9 is CMX2.5.