All Forum Posts by: Marlon Long

Thanks Caleb Heimsoth that would be my next step then, to talk with a lender to get a more accurate figure on closing.

BP, newbie here. I have been doing a lot of practice deals with the different BP calculators. One thing that gets me and maybe it's not that big of a deal but estimating what the closing costs will be for different deals. What do you guys use to estimate this cost? Also, what are some of the best ways to research market rents in different areas? What I've been using is Trulia and Zillow rents for houses currently on the market. Is this the most efficient resource for rents? Btw, I'm looking to invest in the Philadelphia market. Thanks in advance BP Marlon

I am in the infacny stage now for REI. but what I have been doing is saving as much money as possible, working on my personal finance and budgeting. Reading as much as possible. I have been using the BP tools to practice analyzing deals, and search sites to find deals to analzye (MLS, Craigslist, walking my neighborhood, etc). I also am learning my market as far as rents go and what is the industry for the neighborhood to help me market to tennants once I have a property.

I haven't yet, but i want to join a local Real Estate investing group/association to meet investors near by.

In order to help augment my savings, i have been partnering with a wholesaler to market and find deals and make money that will eventually go towards the purchase of my 1st buy and hold property.

Here in PA, closing on a home purchase. (not an investment property)  is there any real benefits for purchasing the Enhanced Owner's Policy title insurance versus the Standard ALTA Owner's Policy?

The difference is $275, but this seems like a quick cash grab by the title company on unsuspecting home buyers. 

Any advice?

Awesome business plan. Very, very thorough. I have the same plan of wholesaling to in the beginning to build up my capital in order to purchase my first buy and hold, using the BRRRR strategy to pull the money out and repeat the process. I enjoyed reading the details of your business plan and enthused to improve my own and add more detail. Thanks for the motivation. Much success to you.

I am currently a process engineer for a packaging company in PA. But the bulk of my w-2 experience is in aerospace engineering, specifically testing and validation.

Thanks for the feedback @Brett Snodgrass I love the advice of compartmentalizing my learning and education to the specific things I "need to know" for each step in the strategy. I can imagine how that would prevent the paralysis by analysis sydrome many beginning investors fall trap to.  Thanks.

Greetings BP world!!!

New investor here, my brother and I are embarking on this journey together as new real estate investors. I currently live just outside of Philadelphia, PA and my brother lives in the DC area, where I am originally from. I don't have a lot of experience in RE investing outside of the purchase of my own properties, but I am an accidental landlord from a condo I own in CT where I used to work and live. This property is really hands off, I don't cash flow alot for this property but the tenants have been really good, they almost never contact me for anything, the husband is very handy and helps repair most of the small things inside the house and the HOA takes care of the outside.

I have a little money saved up and my brother and I are planning on saving aggressively for a year or so, while learning as much as possible before we make our 1st deal. I have been binging on RE books (Rich Dad Poor Dad, ABC's of Real Estate investing, etc), websites, youtube videos and of course BP forums and articles.  I am on bigger pockets almost daily trying to learn something new and further design and plan out our personal strategy. Plus I love the calculators and practicing deals from random properties on the mls.

I do have a question regarding the risks involved with wholesaling. Our ultimate goal is to purchase several great multifamily properties in the Philly and DC areas that cash flows well, using the BRRRR strategy to rinse and repeat and pull our initial invests out of the property. Butt before we do that, in order to help augment the savings I was thinking about wholesaling a property or two to get my feet wet in the industry. This seems like a great opportunity to earn a good profit with low or no money down, depending upon the deal that we are able to find. And it would also give me 1st hand experience in finding good deals for the original goal of multifamily properties.

Any suggestions or advice for newbies getting into wholesaling? General pros and cons that we should be looking out for? What are the main capital investments when dealing with wholesaling other than the marketing portion.(direct mailing, website set up)  Does this make sense as a beginning strategy to raise capital for a multifamily buy and hold property?  Any and all comments are welcomed. Sorry my 1st post was so long, but I may be just a little too excited.

Thanks in advance,

Marlon