All Forum Posts by: Mike Abramowitz

@Christian Nachtrieb - you should put a plan in writing and set up an llc with formal agreements on who's doing what. Legal zoom has all the tolls to set them up (although I've never used them I've heard good things for the price.) 

If only we had Rhode Island prices in the Boston area... 

I'm curious if anyone has had success in refinancing 4+ seperate properties based off the income they produce rather than going and getting appraisals on each property. Currently we're operating at about an 11-12 CAP and I think the market in the area is typically around an 8-9 CAP. We've recently purchased two properties that are rehabs and upon renting them out will need to refi them so looking ahead, I'd love to get everything under one loan and refi out as much as I can.

I haven’t but I know  @Justin Silverio was experimenting with one last time we spoke, maybe he could suggest one

Hi @Ben Staples, 

Personally never tried calling the expired listings, however have heard from some who have that its VERY tough in the Boston area... there are so many agents out there and any decent agency has these phone numbers available. (If the number is even the right number...)

If you were to take this route I'd look into one of the programs that drops voicemails onto your phone without ringing (google them you'll find a few) that way you could send out 100 voicemails in 5 minutes time and see if anyone calls you back... kinda like direct mail approach but with phone calls.

If you're looking for listings and have the time I suggest going door to door in your neighborhood and talking to owner occupants. I've had decent luck with this approach and have heard many others same the same. Face to face interactions get people talking. 

@Ryan Eisenhauer I'm not a CPA myself but I'm a consultant at a  CPA firm based out of Woburn that does a ton tax of work for Real Estate investors in state and out. I run all my questions through a few people in my office and am always impressed by the advice. They've even turned me on to some tax savings strategies that I'd never heard before related to depreciation and cap ex that looks like it could some big money long term. 

Shoot me a PM if you're interested in me connecting you with someone. 

I'd suggest that if you're looking to house hack you find something that doesn't need a whole lot of repairs and is basically turn key. You'll be able to put down next to nothing on the property and start collecting rents right away. This will allow you to learn the landlording side of things and you wont need to worry about estimates on reno cost or holding costs. 

Definitely suggest Multi- especially for CT... rentals on singles in CT are really tough to make the numbers work pretty often due to the high taxes but you can find some killer deals in CT on the MLS for multis as investors often aren't a fan of CT due to the high taxes compared to neighboring states.

A year or two ago I stumbled across a 4 family listed on the MLS for what seemed to be an unreal deal (it far surpassed the 2% rule with current rents which were well below market). So I jumped on the opportunity to go take a look, the second the front door opened the only thing you could smell was mold and filth. We made it halfway into the second unit before turning around to not return. The first unit was about the same condition as you've got shown above, but the second unit... oh boy it was bad. There were mattresses on the floor, two or three in every room, all the windows were blocked off, no light bulbs in any of the lights, all the electrical was exposed and done by someone who had no idea what they were doing... everything about the place was a disaster.

Walking through that property opened up my eyes to the conditions that some people live in and needless to say, I was blown away. I'm sure its 10x worse in person to see this unit

@Travis Welsh Here's my advice for getting started 

-Start off by listening to all the podcasts BiggerPockets has out there. There are 100s of hours of amazing knowledge that will teach you SO much (and you dont have to work for free to hear it all!)

-Attend all the REIA meetings in the area (I shoot for anything less than an hour from me) most a free or a few bucks. Don't hesitate to toss $10 a meeting at first as they'll usually have a speaker and you'll quickly learn which ones are worth going to an which ones aren't. Get out there and get out of the comfort zone speaking to people.

-Decide what you want to do within real estate. Wholesale, flip, long term holds and dive as deep is you can into that. 

-Pull the trigger on the first deal... wholesaling? spend $500 and a day writing and stuff envelopes from a list you bought or have, looking to flip? go get a 203K loan and put down 3.5%, buy and hold? find yourself a triplex that cash flows and pull the trigger with an FHA loan. The confidence and experience you get from your first deal is huge.

@Ken T.  my best advise in that case then is tread carefully. Its amazing how little some agents know about investing in a market that they've worked in for 5-10 years. 

I've never personally worked with anyone in the area to recommend, but @Charlie MacPherson seems to be very knowledgeable about the area  (from what I've seen on BP), you should connect with him to see if he covers the area you're looking to buy in. 

@Adam Conrad Personally, I say you trade to a multi based off your situation and the concerns you have about the property. Southie is a crazy market right now, while I agree that the market doesn't quite seem to be as ridiculous as it was a year or two ago its still pretty close. You're easily going to be able to sell your property without anyone taking a second look at the issues you noted, however those expenses could eat away 3-5 years of cash flow when they become an issues.

We put a triplex we owned in Somerville on the market last year, it was a similar situation to yourself, were we had significant Cap Ex that we saw coming forth in the future and the market value of the property wasn't bringing in the net return we were searching for. So we took the appreciation gains and reinvested elsewhere. 

Outside of these issues you're having you should look at what your internal ROI is including the equity you have in the property, not just the cash. Then compare that to the return you're aiming to get... i'd be willing to bet its significantly lower.