All Forum Posts by: Alex Deacon

@Cory St. Esprit you are welcome to reach out. We can schedule a call next week

@Alec Jacobs welcome to the investment community. I own properties all over the Allegheny and Beaver county areas. Reach out to me if you need any help. FYI that insurance quote is outrageous. I just audited all of my properties and got a few different quotes. For a 100k single family you are looking at between $400 and $800 a year depending on some criteria.

@Dylan Mahr welcome and good luck to you. I am located in Pittsburgh and run a management company since 2002 and have been on Real Estate since 1993. Let me know if I can help.

@Jason Watts I have purchased many condemned properties in the city of Pittsburgh. Just because it has a condemned sticker on the front door does not mean it needs torn down. You need to contact the borough or city. Now with that being said there are other posts that say do not buy it and that they know the property well. You may want to heed some of their advice also. Do your due diligence and try to get hold of the current owner and get inside if possible, to assess the condition. 

@Jason Shi I would agree with @Richard F. You can negotiate. We manage 800 units in the Pittsburgh market. some owners we charge 6%. They have a high-end rental with little to no issues. Others we charge 12% because the property is in a bad area or needs a lot of work. I think @Tyler Bettencourt hit the nail on the head with his 8-12% range 

The fee is irrelevant if the company doesn't provide good quality service.

@adam 

@Adam Kavulic I am a local professional and Here is the challenge that all of us local agents run into. This may help you procure a good trustworthy and highly market educated agent.

1. There is a ton of out of state investors who will waste time because they just dont know what they want. In this market you need to be laser focused. good deals last a few days and great deals last a few hours. Know exactly what you are looking for. 

2. There are a lot of good agents in the Pittsburgh market. my suggestion is if you want the best service from a person who has their finger on the pulse of the real estate Invesment market, you pay them a retainer fee and an hourly fee and a premium commission on the deals that they find you.

3. I can only work with a few dozen serious investors and If I responded to and worked with every out of state investor I could have hunderds. Thats not fair to my serious clients so I choose not to work with everyone.

I think thats your challenge and take my suggestions for what they are worth and get more opinions from other agents.

@Jessica Stern I would work with local lenders in and around Philadelphia. I do all of my investing in Pittsburgh and have the best luck with local banks and credit unions. Because they are familiar with the market, they will be more likely to give you the best terms. This is not always the case but that's what I have learned after refining hundreds of properties.

@Gregory Robinson you need to talk to two specialist. A real estate attorney and a CPA. Then they may need to talk to each other to help you decide whats best. Even before you evaluate what its worth you need to know if this gift was done correctly, what are you tax liability and then proceed from there

@Dean Malka find the owner of the property or previous owner. They may be able to help

@Kim Frantum I have purchased hundreds of homes at the Allegheny county and Pittsburgh tax auctions. I assume some of the same rules apply. Be vary cautious and hire a good attorney who knows the process well. One who is very experienced in all the pros and cons of buying at auction.

Using cash or a LOC is fine. Thats the easy part. Finding a deal that makes sense and doesnt get bid up to more than its worth at auction will be the challenge. Plus finding one that there are no other liens, Bankrupcy, IRS liens etc.. is the risk.