All Forum Posts by: Sheryl Sitman

Welcome! How exciting to be at the start of your investing journey. As the founder the "Philadelphia Landlords Connect" group I second @Eric Greenberg 's recommendation that you join if you have not already :-)  You will find a good community there.  There are many sources for info and support like this forum, meetups, masterminds, Fb groups etc.  I am Philly born and raised, spent most of my adult life in another country and returned in 2016 after my kids were grown to invest full time in Philly and Lehigh Valley. Have since spread to multiple states including FL, SC, TX, NC, CO . . . There are so many ways to do this thing. Be prepared to make mistakes - it is a great way to learn. But also work on learning how to do things. We see many owners fumbling around with the logistics of working in Philly and costing themselves a lot of money because they try to avoid hiring professionals... As a systems engineer you have some good advantages in creating work processes.  Good luck and feel free to reach out!

 WOW -- this is really not a good approach in general and for sure not in Philadelphia.  There is a stack of paperwork you  need to have in order from day one to legally evict someone and you do not want to be facing a judge in this city without a lease let alone without all of the certs required of you. Say you wait the usual 3-6 months to evict and show up in court without your lead cert - you can say goodbye to getting any of your back rent. I can not even count the number of ways this approach could lead you into trouble. Section 8 is double the bureaucracy of traditional rentals so get certified and learn the system in depth. Make sure your property is up to code for section 8 prior to inspection to avoid long delays.

Welcome! I am sure doing projects from the other side of the country is not easy so good for you! I live near Philly and invest here and also remotely in other states.  You may want to check out the Philadelphia Landlords Connect group that I run on Facebook for Philly region discussions.

Aircover is not insurance and while may or may not cover a claim made by the host of the property, it doe not provide you with actual insurance or provide you with risk coverage. In fact, if your standard renters insurance company would determine that you are running a business (STR) from the property, every claim you make would more than likely be denied.

In my opinion as an investor and from my research into this subject (I am not an agent, attorney) you should not be counting on your tenant to have insurance that protects you as the owner. You need your own policy.  @Justin Golden rightly suggests the STR endorsement which if you live in the property maybe you can get - but my recent search led me to find that in our region (Philadelphia), underwriters from the conventional insurance companies are not allowing such an endorsement. What you really need is an insurance agent who can understand the situation and advise you. It is not a straightforward situation.

 @Aniqah Kalam   Just seeing this now :-) At every level of investment and in any region you can succeed IF you know how. What do I mean? There are people specializing in low priced distressed properties in rough areas. They learn how to do it and succeed. Its a totally different business than investing in A neighborhoods of course.  I personally would not do a $30-$60k investment because i have not focused on developing the skills and teams to handle such properties.  There are investments to do at every level.  Personally, after 6 years of full time investing in multiple states and markets, I believe that the most important element is your team. A market with low crime, good schools and population growth + a bad contractor = failure. A market with multiple challenges + great agent + reliable contractor + understanding of the region + numbers that work = success 

@Kate Schaefer  something not many talk about is that for newer investors it is very hard to find reliable contractors. This is for many reasons. The best GCs - with a fleet of trucks, an office, support staff... are not working with buy & hold investors. Why? Because their budgets are small and limited and everything is about money for them. The good GCs that work with single family investors will work with the big investors who bring volume and profit to the GC. So when you start out, realize that this part of the journey is going to be potentially rough.  Feel free to reach out to me for some ideas about how to get a good GC. I've been through the ringer a few times in Philly and done over 50 projects.

@Troy Palmer   Welcome to Philly!  I invest in Philadelphia and live in the suburbs. I also invest in the suburbs, other parts of PA and several states that people would call Landlord Friendly.  Philly does its own thing when it comes to tenant rights and it seems to be one of the harder places to be a landlord -- when dealing with lower income neighborhoods. But good properties in good neighborhoods with good tenants can work very smoothly in Philly. SO it depends what you do in the city. OUTSIDE of Philly and within PA, it is very different and much easier. But every municipality has its rules and that has nothing to do with Red, Blue, friendly not friendly . . . A municipality tht wants to keep a certain level of housing, cleanliness, order, quiet, safety is going to have rules and requirements.  In one PA small City that I invest, they updated their codes and suddenly I have a lot of work to do on a house that was considered fine for 4 years. Why? Because the town is improving and pricing are rising and they are aiming to improve the housing stock and curbside appeal.  Meanwhile, in some very red states I have found some requirements that really took me by surprise and of course everywhere there is a process for evictions and it is not as easy as change your locks and be done anywhere :-) But certainly shorter process in some places. Philly is a killer on eviction process.  Wherever you invest remotely, you will have some very big disadvantages. So be sure to weigh those all out against one another.   Good luck!

@Cameron K.  not sure if rules allow, but I manage the largest Philly Landlord FB group and we are very good at sharing info and supporting one another.   https://www.facebook.com/group...