New Member - Investor and Broker in Hopkinton, MA

[Jason A.]

Hello, everyone! I just recently joined biggerpockets and am really enjoying reading through all the good info and war stories here! Here’s a little bit about me.

I officially began my real estate journey back in 1978, when I became a licensed broker. In 1985, when an opportunity arose, I purchased my first 3-family in Worcester, MA. I had already built a successful consulting business writing technical documentation for high-tech companies, but decided to expand my horizons to include real estate as well, as this had been a long-time interest of mine. Ever the energetic go-getter, I proceeded to buy several more properties soon thereafter. Before I knew it, I was living and breathing real estate full time, and had become fully immersed in the wonderful world of landlording.

I soon found out why I had gotten those good deals on my purchases. Each one contained at least one problem tenant. And by “problem tenant”, I don’t mean an occasional late payer or loud partier. I mean tenants involved in severe domestic violence resulting in hospitalizations and tenants who enjoyed such pursuits as disassembling motorcycles and gasoline engines in their family room, in addition to being chronic deadbeats.

In the process of taking the bull by the horns and evicting these tenants, I learned (in an extremely painful and costly way) more than I ever wanted to know about Massachusetts landlord-tenant law. It quickly became clear to me that a landlord in housing court is at something of a disadvantage (similar to the way in which a bucket of chum thrown to a swarm of hungry sharks might be said to be at something of a disadvantage). In case after case, I saw that not only was the letter of the law strongly unfavorable to the landlord -- the spirit of the law as implemented by the court could be even worse.

What I would have given then for a resource like biggerpockets! Back then, to get answers, I joined a local landlord’s group (the Worcester Property Owner’s Association, which I believe is still around today) to compare notes and see if my experiences resonated with anyone else. Sure enough, there were many “old-timers” in this group who had plenty of relevant stories and good advice. But misery really does love company, and in a perverse way, I often walked out of those meetings feeling better after hearing one horror tale after another.

Around the time I realized I no longer wanted to be a landlord, the local real estate market had taken a turn for the worse. Not wanting to take a loss of what would have been a staggering amount of money, I chose to hang tough and continue on until things improved. They eventually did, and I sold each and every property, fortunately netting some profit after it was all over. Sadly, during the next real estate downturn, more than one of those properties went into foreclosure. They changed hands again, this time at a very small fraction of what I had sold them for. I felt blessed to have dodged not only one bullet, but a shower of them.

Of course, there’s lots more to my story, but in the interests of time and possible reader fatigue, I’ll pause here. Perhaps the preceding narrative will give you some idea of why to this day, I will consider buying residential properties only if they are completely vacant at the time of closing.

I look for problem properties in the greater Boston area (preferably west of Boston) in prime locations, preferably single-family homes at this time. I prefer quick closing, all-cash deals for corresponding cash discounts. I am a long-time MA licensed real estate broker and a member of MLS.

Thanks for your patience in reading this somewhat long-winded introduction! I’m looking forward to perhaps making some friends here and participating in the Forums where possible.