All Forum Posts by: Scott Sklare

Hi all, I am Jack, a super rookie investor based in the Bay area. My partner and I earned fairly ok on W2s, and we have just started buying real estate since 2021 - bought our primary home (3B TH) in Mountain View in May 2021, and bought our first investment property (4B SFR) in GA in March 2022. We made tons of mistakes buying our first two properties (I can share them in another post if you are interested), but it is what it is, and we are planning for the next steps.

Goal:

1. (mid-term) Change to another SFR in the Bay area in 2-5 years (mainly for family purposes).

2. (long-term) Continue to grow investment property portfolios in GA (or other states). I personally like GA since I went to college there. 

3. (long-term) Involve in slightly larger real estate projects (e.g. apartment, storage, development etc.) while not quitting my job (yes I kinda enjoy my day job).

Challenges:

1. SFRs in the Bay area are crazy expensive, the down payment and mortgage payment would be a huge gap to fill.

2. My primary home has a limited upside (after all, it's a TH), and we don't see the rent outgrow the mortgage payments in 2-4 years (it's ~$4600 vs $7500 now). Most likely there's no way for us to afford the new SFR without selling the current home.

3. The investment property in GA is barely cash flowing right now. I am not confident that I would be able to cash-out refi in 2-5 years given the rising interest rate.

Questions:

What should be the right strategies for long-term planning? Currently, I have 2 thoughts: 

1) Rent out my primary home as much as possible (which would bring us ~1500-1600/month), save, and invest conservatively in the next few years (both in stock and RE). We can probably afford the new SFR in 2-5 years after selling my primary home.

2) Invest aggressively into crypto, syndication, private fund, RE, etc., and potentially delay the SFR purchase plan according to the status of the investment.

It's a hard decision to make since the economy this year is a bit flaky. I have some cash reserve on hand, but I am not sure if I should go all-in right now (or any soon). Experienced investors and senior members please advise me on how the plan could be made, and what mistakes I should avoid. Thank you all so much in advance!

Also feel free to reach out if you want to connect. I am a bit shy but I am trying to overcome that :).

HI ,

Can anyone with experience of REI suggesting what is best 10 cities to invest at current ?

Hi all! Would love input on markets good for investment right now in 2022.  Looking to invest in a rental property with cash flow.  Thanks!

Hello BP Community, 

My name is Eugene and I live in Los Angeles for the last 24 years, immigrated from Ukraine. After purchasing a complete fixer-upper house in LA and completing a full blown remodel/renovation of the entire property  for my family for the first time, it got me really hooked. I am very interested in purchasing investment properties out of state ( due to un-affordability in CA and poor state laws) and starting my RE investment journey from there. My end goal is to own multi-family properties that would allow me to have sufficient passive income to support my family. I have financed lots of RE investment properties myself ( >17 yrs -Commercial Banker), however never had a chance to own  one. 

Any recommendations or advice where I can at least start with my first investment property now. I would most likely start off with SFR and then eventually move into multi-family market. I looked into Texas and Florida thus far, however looking for any other recommendations at this point. Thanks in advance.

I am completely new to Bigger Pockets. I came across Bigger Pockets after stumbling on "Rich Dad Poor Dad". I set a very ambitious goal of earning $250K by 4/16/2027 (~5 years from now). 

Any advice on how to tackle this goal? I bought my first house for $858K. It is valued at $990K and I owe $785. I plan on moving out and renting. 

Brandon Turner suggests to plan on getting ~$100 cash flow from each property - after operating expenses. $250K is $20,833 per month. I don't think I can accumulate 208 multi-family units in this time, if I acquire and flip properties. As such I think I should buy properties in areas that accumulate in value and then sell those properties transferring the profit into 1-3 large multi-family in years 3-5.

Hi everyone. This is Hochi Yang. I am starting my real estate investing journey as I want to become financially free and get rid of my JOB. I just finished reading Rich Dad Poor Dad for the second time. The first time I read it, I was very young at the time at around age 20. I was also reading books like Think And Grow Rich and The Magic of Thinking Big around that time. So I was developing the right mindset and getting some knowledge on wealth and success, but I didn't know anything about real estate investing at the time. I was actually an active IBO through Quixtar/Amway and that's how I was introduced into those books. However that didn't work out for me so here I am now at 37 years old with a dead end job that I hate but just tolerate. I started reading Robert Kiyosaki's book again and it finally clicked. I watched his YouTube videos and that led me to the real estate investing videos and a flame reignited inside again. This time I am a lot older and more mature now. I am looking to start out small and invest in single family and multi-family units. So if there are any real estate investors in the Wisconsin area who I can reach out to and share some ideas, that would be awesome. Hope to talk to you all soon. Thank you.

Hi All! This is my first post on the BiggerPockets Forum. I have read 2 of Brandon Turner's books on Rental Property Investing and Financing Deals with no or low money. After thoroughly reading his books, I have decided that I want to invest in Multi-family properties where I would live in one unit and rent out the others known as House Hacking here. Are there any real estate agents in the NJ/NY area that have experience with this type of investing?