All Forum Posts by: Anthony Angotti
Anthony Angotti has started 64 posts and replied 1482 times.
Post: Investing out of state doing BRRRRs
- Real Estate Agent
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Posts 1,538
- Votes 845
Quote from @Kevin G.:
Hey everyone,
I’m diving into the world of out-of-state real estate investing and couldn’t be more excited (and maybe a little nervous). I currently live in the Bay Area, but I’ve decided to start investing in the Jackson County/MO area. Why? My sister lives in Lee’s Summit, so I’ll have family nearby to help navigate the local scene. I am not preticuarly brand new to real estate as I've done 1 house flip before and 1 brrrr here locally to me.
To begin, I'm aiming to tackle two single-family BRRRR projects in the Jackson County, MO area. My main goals with these initial projects are:
1. Gaining valuable insights into the local market.
2. Getting hands-on experience with out-of-state investing, particularly when it comes to remodels and managing from afar.
3. Testing the entire BRRRR process to see if it's the right strategy for me long-term.
If all goes well, I’d love to scale up and explore multi-family projects. However, if single-family homes prove financially viable, I’m happy to continue building in that niche.
Since these homes and projects are significantly cheaper than my market, the risk is relatively lower for me and can do at least two at a time.
The Challenge
One of the biggest hurdles is finding reliable contractors and subcontractors in the area. My brother-in-law, who owns a landscaping company in Lee’s Summit, works with a lot of local builders and has been a huge help. While most of his experience is with new construction rather than remodels, he’s already given me a few pointers and is looking into potential referrals for me. I am wondering if anyone invests in this area can provide me with some referrals?
If you’ve worked with trustworthy contractors or subcontractors in the Jackson County/MO area (especially those familiar with investment properties), I’d love your recommendations. Bonus points if they’re used to working with investors or can help keep costs in check while maintaining quality.
Cheers,
Kevin
I would say this about BRRRRR, especially as a newer investor.
If you expect to get every penny out of every deal you are going to be disappointed. As @Jonathan Greene mentioned this is kind of a dated strategy in the new price/interest rate environment. You can still achieve it, but finding deals that actually pencil out on all criteria (low enough purchase price, low enough renovation cost, cash flows on the backend, all cash out at refinance) is pretty hard. And usually you have to be self sourcing them or doing some serious turnover.
If you move your expectations to keeping some money in, but refinancing out as much as you can then you'll be set up to not be let down from the jump. It will still be hard, but you'll likely be able to find deals.
When I see newer people expecting to find full cash out deals from out of state sourced from a wholesaler or agent I know they are setting themselves up to fail 99.5% of the time. OR they are investing in areas they think are good, but that usually aren't. So shift your expectations to most of the cash out and you'll be good and you'll actually start buying deals, versus people who wait for the perfect deal, spin their wheels for 6 months terminating contracts/analyzing hundreds of places, and then eventually burn out and give up.
Post: Role insurance plays
- Real Estate Agent
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Posts 1,538
- Votes 845
Quote from @Kyle Carter:
What role does insurance play in protecting your investments. I would love to hear a story of someone where they explain how insurance has helped them with their property.
I am getting into out of state real estate investing this month and am curious to hear other perspectives.
Moves risk to be financially covered by insurance hypothetically. That's all there is to it.
You only want to file a claim if it's much greater than deductible or your rates shoot up pretty quickly.
I've filed claims on things that are pretty severe and couldn't cover out of pocket, so as a result I just upped my deductible. Since I was only filing on major things like underground utilities, fires, etc. You should 100% have insurance because of the worst case scenarios (what if someone dies and they blame you the property owner), but it's not something you'll want to use frequently.
You'll want to have an insurance agent familiar with rentals since a lot of the extras on your coverage that you will want, the average insurance agent won't know to give you.
Post: How to build a out of state team
- Real Estate Agent
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Posts 1,538
- Votes 845
Quote from @Kyle Carter:
What are some questions that you can ask to each of the required team members(PM, Agent, etc. ) to ensure that goals align and they are best fit.
Agent: Their experience with investing personally and their experience working with customers just like you. If you are house hacking ask about house hacking, OOS ask about OOS, etc. etc. Outline your goals and ask them how they can help you achieve those. Ask them what their expectations about you as a customer are.
PM: Ask them how many properties they manage in your asset class. Ask them how many customers they have and how many own a single property vs. many units. When you discuss fees don't just ask the monthly and leasing fee. Ask if they upcharge maintenance, charge to go to eviction court, post notice, etc. etc. The cheaper property managers with the monthly fee are making it up somewhere else.
Post: Too good to be true to have connected with a real estate agent who has a whole team?
- Real Estate Agent
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Posts 1,538
- Votes 845
Quote from @Richard Bautista:
Good evening and happy new year,
I need input on something that seems too good to be true.
I just got off the phone today with an investor-friendly real estate agent in another state (not NYS) who has a whole team behind her and has made it seem as if real estate investing is a much simpler process. I am a beginner investor and I have discussed my investing goals with this agent. I wanted your typical 3 bedroom house (not necessarily 2 bath) which cash flows. She goes on to say that for her beginner investors, she doesn't let them buy over $100k total (including purchase and rehab), she already has a tenant pending for a particular property she currently wants to sell, already has a good relationships with a lender, and doesn't let rehab go over 2.5 weeks.
In terms of property management, she mentioned that she has her own property management company. She is planning on renting out to section 8 and has pacified my worries about section 8 tenants. She just seems to be well versed with dealing with section 8 tenants, which is huge in this area of the United States.
She has already sent me the address of the potential investment property. It is not on your typical zillow/redfin/trulia site as she said it is directly from the seller.
I met this real estate agent on facebook, seems very active within the real estate community in that particular area based on the posts she's engaged with.
The only red flag that stood out is that she strongly discourages flying out to the location and scoping out the property as she said it could get expensive and we could instead use that for a downpayment.
I really would like to invest and just buy my first property already. I just keep hearing over and over again to just take action and course correct from there.
I would like to ask the advice of the community - can I get some viewpoints on how I could double check this lady's work? Maybe I'm already answering my own questions - would it be rude to ask for references from other investors she's worked with? how can I do this without sounding like I don't trust her? Is it imperative that I actually go see the property before I close on it? What else am I missing?
How do you deal with doubt? I also don't want to show any type of distrust towards her as I feel that she is a valuable asset (if she is what she says she is).
I'm really glad that I am taking my first steps, that I spoke with a real estate agent, and that I have the BiggerPockets community to lean on for support.
Thank you,
Richard
If they specifically tell you NOT to fly out and see the property you should run away.
As an agent that works with OOS investors frequently I prefer they come into town at least during the inspection period. This seems shady.
Post: Mentor wanted for moving into Multi Family ~20 unit apartments
- Real Estate Agent
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Posts 1,538
- Votes 845
Quote from @Kody Smith:
Hello Everyone,
I have been investing in real estate for four years so far. I absolutely love it. I am wanting to get my first 10-20 unit Apartment building deal.
I've read many books, and have some small multi family property now.
Questions in my mind:
1. Where to find loans coming up for expiration (find deals based on their loan maturity)
2. Should I bother buying locally in San Jose area, or should I go to other markets... like North Carolina?
3. what are the best tools for finding properties? (especially seller finance option)
Any and all help is appreciated.
Where are you looking? I live in and invest in Pittsburgh and do things pretty hands on with my own portfolio but I'd be happy to chat if you'd like. I can tell you how we source deals locally and whatnot.
If you need seller finance though you're likely going to have to do a lot of that marketing on your own.
Post: Looking to Invest in Orange County as a start - House Hacking - Is it worth it?
- Real Estate Agent
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Posts 1,538
- Votes 845
Quote from @Kevin Eun:
Hi everyone,
Happy New Year! I wanted to share a bit about my situation and get some advice from those more experienced in real estate.
My wife and I live in Irvine, Orange County, as renters. Over the past few months, I’ve been diving into Brandon Turner’s books and bingeing Dave’s BiggerPockets podcast whenever I have the chance. I’m not looking to retire early or replace my income through rentals—I just want to diversify our assets. Our initial plan is to house hack a quadplex somewhere in Orange County. We’ve been looking at cities like Fullerton, Cypress, Anaheim, Orange, and Tustin, but we’re staying away from LA County and Santa Ana due to rental restrictions.
A little about us:
- I’m 30, my wife is 28, and neither of us has owned property before. We both work in finance, so we’re pretty comfortable running the numbers.
- Our combined W2 income is ~$350K, and I work remotely with a very flexible schedule.
- We’ve saved over $200K across various assets (stocks, crypto, cash), and we live frugally, saving around $100K a year after taxes. This doesn’t include any raises or bonuses.
- No kids yet, but we plan to have them down the line.
- Both of our credit scores are over 800, and we have no debt.
The plan:
I know sellers don't always love FHA loans, and they can be tough to get approved for, but I'd like to use one to make this work. I also know finding a quadplex as a first property in Orange County isn't going to be easy, but I'm open to hearing people's thoughts.
My goal isn't to turn a profit right away—I know properties here might not have positive cash flow for a few years. Still, I want to make this work with a small down payment through an FHA loan. Maybe I'm being a little optimistic, but I feel like this is a good starting point for us.
I’m not interested in investing outside of Orange County for our first property since we know the area really well.
Networking:
I’d also love to attend some real estate meetups around here and connect with people in the space. If you know of any good groups or events, I’d really appreciate the recommendation.
Thanks so much for your time! I’m looking forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts and advice.
Best,
Kevin
In Pittsburgh at least FHA isn't necessarily a problem, but you can't be super aggressive about you offer price with most sellers unless you're the only one interested/offering. 203k is tough to get accepted, but a typical FHA isn't the worst.
To answer your title directly, house hacking is entirely worth it and if you're willing to be a landlord it's 100% the best springboard to financial independence. There's very little way to go wrong here since the alternative is paying to live somewhere else anyway.
Post: Starting our investing journey. But how to that that out of my home state?
- Real Estate Agent
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Posts 1,538
- Votes 845
Quote from @Denise Lang:
Hello everyone,
my wife and I want to start our real estate investing journey to boost our wealth and retirement fund. Long-term single or small multifamily rental would be our strategy to go. We live in California at the moment and I have W2 job and my wife a small online business. So we don't have a lot of money to start with. CA is an expensive market and regarding tenant laws in my eyes more complicated/difficult as a rookie landlord. Has anyone experience to share how the get started in a market in a different state? What are things to look our for in this situation? Any tips are welcome. Thank you in advance and happy holidays to everyone.
Denise
Most of our out of state investors that work with our team start by evaluating different places and then plan a visit to check out the area. It's going to be more about your confidence in the market that you can afford than anything else, so the primary thing is to look up a few areas you might be able to afford and then look for someone local that can hop on a call to give you an idea about what investing there is like.
If you use niche.com you can pretty easily find median home values, median incomes, an some data pretty easily. If you can afford the median home in an area than you can most definitely afford an investment property there.
So I'd start where you could buy the average home in the metro area and then look at average rents and start looking at that. Then sort down to 3 or 4 areas you want to try to make connections in.
If you look up Pittsburgh and would like to talk I own over 150 units in the area and would be happy to have a discussion about the area if you'd like.
Post: Single Family Investor
- Real Estate Agent
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Posts 1,538
- Votes 845
Quote from @Richa Wardhan:
Hi All,
I am a relatively new investor with a full time well paying job.I have 4 SFH in Class A neighborhoods in Gainesville area. I presently have a negative cash flow in all 3 properties but am more interested in paying off the mortgages early to reap rewards later.Any thoughts?
Are you still generating positive wealth when you count equity paydown by the tenants?
If so and the monthly payment isn't too bad then you're still moving the needle forward if your main goal is wealth generation and not just cash flow.
Also, do you have enough equity that if you sold one you could pay down most of the debt on the other 3?
Post: Just getting started with BP but open to any opportunities at this time
- Real Estate Agent
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Posts 1,538
- Votes 845
Quote from @Karl Szymanski:
I am new to BP and starting to work my way through the volume of information and tools. I am near retirement from the 9-5 and would like to diversify into rental properties. Thinking about Pittsburgh PA to begin with because it is my back yard. Open to any suggestions/partnerships/recommendations, etc. So far this seems like a great community. Looking forward to taking the leap.
Welcome to Bigger Pockets, Pittsburgh is a great market for rentals. If you have any specific questions or contacts that you are looking for I'd be happy to help.
What part of the city do you live in?
Post: Pittsburg or Columbus for cash flow and low entry points ?
- Real Estate Agent
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Posts 1,538
- Votes 845
Quote from @Christopher Robert Noland:
Which city do you prefer to invest in and why right now ?
I own/operate over 150 units in Pittsburgh and you can find every sort of real estate investment play here. Cash flow and also cash flow with appreciation. The housing stock is older so you have that to think about, but the entry point is generally low enough to get in and see how the market works for you.
In my experience as an agent single family houses tend to work better at first for OOS investors until they are established because there is less to worry about. Then once they have their team in place small multifamily tends to go more smoothly than if you jump right in and try to acquire a lot quickly right away.