All Forum Posts by: Shahadat Reza

I'm sorry you are going through this. Is the property far from where you work? Is it possible for you to move into the property and not pay rent? Does your brother live in the house? Is it possible for you to make money by selling the house, using that money as a down payment on another house? There are a lot of options. We all feel overwhelmed, hope this gets better for you!

From my conversation with different banks, Philadelphia Federal Credit Union and Citizens Bank have stated that they do cash-out refi without any seasoning period for upto 80% LTV. We have applied to get pre-approval letter from Citizens Bank, PFCU does not offer any preapproval, at least that's what they told us.

Awesome! Thank you! a 10% margin for school  and municipalities should be a safe bet. 

Thanks for your reply @Gregory H. , I guess for now I will just analyze deals with the numbers from MLS!

I am trying to analyze deals using bigger pockets calculator. Looking into properties in Delaware county. What is a good way to get an approximately accurate property tax and insurance rates in PA? I have heard that Zillow or MLS are not very reliable sources. I have tried searching the county websites but each township/borrough/school district seems to have their own rates and most of them are not even accessible online. So is the easiest way to just call each and every township asking about their millage rates? That seems very time consuming for just an initial analysis. Or are there any other ways?

Thanks,

Thanks @Jimmy O'Connor I had a chat with @Rich O'Neill and he is very knowledgeable indeed!  

Thanks for your reply Rich! Funny that you mention PFCU, our current property mortgage and HELOC are financed by PFCU. I will send you a DM.

Thanks so much for your reply Norge! The reason we are only sticking to southeast Pennsylvania is because this is our first deal, so we want to be at a close driving distance to the property during the whole process and can learn about the whole process. We haven't really looked at Pittsburgh yet, but we definitely have plans to expand into other  markets of Pennsylvania in our near-future plans that we have drawn out. 

Hi everyone,

My partner and I are just taking the first steps towards our real estate investment journey. We have our stable day jobs but we envision a different lifestyle that we currently have. For about 6 months we have spent time educating ourselves, reading a lot of books and mapping out our real estate and personal goals. We feel like we are finally ready to take the next step and purchase our first investment property. We have decided BRRR as our strategy of choice, so we plan to purchase distressed properties, force appreciation by remodeling and refinance to take out our capital. We are focusing on Delaware county of Pennsylvania, especially interested in places like upper Darby, prospect park etc. We decided to choose these locations based on our own market research of steady income and population growth in these areas, and other investors in BP seem to also consider these locations investor friendly. However, we are not strictly restricted to these areas and are open to other locations in southeast Pennsylvania and greater Philadelphia region.

We have taken the first step and have gotten approved for a HELOC on our current residential property that we plan to use to purchase and rehab our first distressed property in cash. We are contacting banks regarding getting pre-approved for cash out refinance, although this seems a bit tricky due to COVID-19 policies, a lot of banks require 6 months seasoning period for cash-out refinance.

We are analyzing properties using MLS that we have gained access through a mutual friend who is a real estate agent, but said friend is not experienced in working with real estate investors.

So at this point we are looking to connect with other real estate investors, agents, property managers and contractors based in Philadelphia and southeast Pennsylvania. We realize that we are new to this but we will try very sincerely to bring values to each and every professional relationship we build, as a mutually beneficial professional relationship lasts the longest. We live in a growing Philadelphia neighborhood and our friends and neighbors are always looking for professionals for fixing up or selling their homes. If we meet a great professional we will happily refer them to our friends and neighbors. We are very excited to start out and looking forward to meet other investors and professionals at Bigger Pockets!

That is great information, thank you! we have not looked into pottstown, are there good opportunities for BRRR in that area?