All Forum Posts by: Sam Sala

I am 42 Years old. Started investing in late 2017. I own 1 SFH, 3 duplexes, 1 Tri-plex, 1 4-plex, 1 office condo and have a 9 plex under Contract. Just a few months ago I sold an additional duplex and did a 1031 exchange into the 4 plex. So starting to trade up and purchase larger units using equity from smaller units. Everything cash flows well. I find, negotiate and handle financing on my deals then turn them over to a property manager.( I still have my full time job)If I'm being honest I don't feel like a realestate investor yet and I'm just waiting for someone to find out that I have just been faking it tell I make it. But I enjoy it and look forward to acquiring larger Multi family apartments in the coming year.

@David Mills Turnkey investments I believe are a good option for investors who are very busy.  We purchased our first rental in 2011, rehabbed, rented and managed it.  Found out we were wimpy landlords.  Ended up selling it, and started 2 businesses.  After a couple three years begun learning more real estate investments.  This time because of very limited time decided to try turnkey.  

After 1 year of research, visits, interviews with property managers and some of their investors, picked one.  Good decision.  Turnkey company communicates well, properties rehabbed well, payments are regular and tenants taken care of.

@David Mills

I bought two last year from MemphisInvest and had a fantastic experience. I think turnkeys are a great way to start. You’ll need to do all your own due diligence of course. For me it was a great way to ease into real estate investing.

Need more information for what you're looking for to give you a good answer Sam. Are you looking for appreciation play? cash flow (how much)? little of both? what's your price range? Multi family? single family? Paying with cash/credit? financing? all of these are factors.. 

Hi @Sam Sala! Personally, all of my properties in NJ and CT are doing well. I have, perhaps, one tenant who stopped paying rent during this time, and another tenant who has been paying very late (but still paying), out of a few dozen total tenants. I think values, at least from what I'm seeing anecdotally around the area, have also been unaffected, at least as of now. I think low interest rates have helped that, and likely that the local (and national) rate of nonpayment of rent for residential tenants has been relatively low--a lot lower than I feared. 

One of the best reasons to invest in NJ (and particularly northern NJ) is the constant demand of people who want to be here for a variety of reasons. Even some of my vacation rental/Airbnb properties did fine during the quarantine because we ended up hosting first responders and traveling nurses--I know many whose Airbnb businesses completely collapsed. I think you'd have to almost go out of your way to find a buy and hold deal that would be an absolute disaster in this area (though, correspondingly, I think you'd have to go *way* out of your way to find a buy and hold deal that would be a complete, 100% home run). 

I wouldn't have any great hesitation in buying a multi-family in the area, provided all the other fundamentals about the property make sense. Good luck!