All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Taggart

@Eunha An Idk if you read Brandon Turner's book on managing rental properties but that's a great book to read that covers the A to Z in property management/leasing. I use all of the concepts he teaches in that book to this day in my own business. You can also reach out to local property management companies a lot of them can probably use help with leasing and potentially the management side of things as well if you wanted to learn more hands on. The nice part about that business is you can kind of do it part time on the side. I did it myself at the beginning when I had just left my w2 job and was building my agent business. 

@Frank Meyer small multis can be a great place to start. I have a lot of those in my own portfolio. Can qualify for 30 year fixed loans and tend to cash flow better than single family homes. That and you have the option to house hack them so increases your flexibility on the front and back end when going to sell. 

@Pramod Prasad If you know for sure the property isn't in good enough condition to attract an owner occupant or conventional loan buyer then I wouldn't worry about it. An investor is just going to factor it into their rehab number. If the electrical would get it in good enough condition to qualify for conventional financing then it might be worth it since you can likely get a bit higher price in that situation. 

I'm always a huge fan of house hacking if you can find something that makes sense in your market the overall risk adjusted CoC ROI on a house hack is tough to beat. Almost $1M NW at age 32 puts you pretty far ahead of most as well so have to factor that in too.

I'm not sure what your long term net worth or cash flow goals are, but given your head start I would focus on higher quality areas/properties at lower leverage if you want to go the OOS REI route. I wouldn't mess with C class unless you were say trying to get out of your w2 job asap and were willing to be more involved with the properties.

If you want to use the money to put as a down payment into something, I would probably just sell the stocks. If you want to use the money to say do the BRRRR model then I think the loan route on the stocks could work since you would be paying that off in less than a year. I don't like the concept of borrowing against another asset to put into a long term investment. Makes the cash flow tougher as well when you essentially have two loans on the place.

I do like the idea of getting some exposure to RE though. I like to view RE as sort of a bond to help offset the ebbs and flows of the stock market for folks that have most of their wealth in stocks. 

 Yup no problem always glad to help!

I always tend to prefer local if you can since you have an unfair advantage especially if you are an agent working in the market. You know the market like the back of your hand after you work in it long enough and opportunities will naturally pop up. If your market is too expensive though for your goals or you want to diversify I can speak on out of state since that's primarily what my team does here in the Pittsburgh area. 

The main thing is making sure you are working with the right people. This is arguably more important than the market or property type you pick.  I have seen too many get burned working with people that aren't honest and are just trying to make a quick buck. 

Also once you find people you can trust and know the market inside and out listen to their advice instead of straying from it. If you do well then the team you are working with will also do well because it will be a long term win win relationship.

Also having realistic expectations. If you are buying say an early 1900s build multi family in a lower income C-D class neighborhood and relying on third party property management from across the country it isn't just going to be mailbox money, despite what some may think. Especially the first year or two after purchasing the property until the kinks get worked out and the property is stabilized/running smoothly. 

I would say Pittsburgh is pretty balanced between buyers and sellers due to lack of inventory in the single family space, especially near the median price point where I would probably consider it a sellers market still. Low end and high end single family maybe skewing a bit more towards the buyers. 

2-4 units pretty balanced except in the lower income neighborhoods where it's probably a buyers market. 

5+ units still holding strong as well haven't seen too much weakness there yet I think mainly since we are one of the few markets left where you can get positive cash flow still without a massive down payment or paying cash.  

 You know I don't mind Whitaker, I agree with you there. I was actually just there looking at a property for a client last week. Not a bad little neighborhood at all, pretty similar to West Mifflin. Just haven't seen too many multis there seems to be mostly single family homes. Also similar to West Mifflin from that standpoint.  

@Sebastiano Cantali Millvale, Etna, Sharpsburg, Brighton Heights, Carnegie, Swissvale, Homestead, Munhall, Carrick, Observatory Hill, Forest Hills, Bridgeville, Brookline, Beechview, Overbrook, Coraopolis, Ambridge, Crafton Heights are some that come to mind.

Key is to focus on areas that aren't too high end but also not too rough. If you get into too expensive neighborhoods the rent/price ratios won't work on the backend. The rougher areas can be very tough from a management perspective being out of state and having to rely on third party property management to successfully manage for you, plus the margins tend to get slimmer from an equity standpoint after you factor in the rehab versus the ARV.

 @Bob Urbon yeah if you are in the city limits then Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze, and Regent Square would all be a part of Colfax K-8 and Allderdice 9-12. All great neighborhoods from a livability standpoint. The highest ranked schools just tend to all be outside city limits but that would be your best bet public school wise inside the city itself.