All Forum Posts by: Andi Sjamsu

David Tsedaka reply from 4 days ago is exactly what 1 of our agents said is the process the Pros use.

- Look at it,  

- if you like it, run the numbers for comps.  

- decide what you're willing to pay.  

- submit offer (with your list of contingencies)

>> they say no - go to next one

>> they say "yes" you've now taken everyone else off the table 

- get inspection

- revise offer (if needed)

- go to contract

**** The contingencies are your "out", but first they need to accept your offer so everyone is else is out the game at the moment.

We had a sellers contingency when we bought our current home (which I am getting ready to put on the market).  Our agent almost died, "no seller in this town accepts a sellers contingency, there are so many interested buyers for any property".  I asked "are you her agent or my agent?  if you're my agent, submit the offer.  the worse that can happen is seller says  no" (which would then let me off the hook bc my wife REALLY wanted this house but I wasn't sure).

This deal was the deal where so many things went wrong and the deal SHOULD have died at many stages, but at each hiccup, we discussed & came up with a solution so we ended up with the house (happy wife, happy life).  The last major item (which I thought for sure was gonna kill the deal) was the septic failed & was a $15k replacement.  Owner already dopped $50k from her listing price the prior summer, and I dropped it another $10k, I thought for sure seller would pull the plug.  BUT NO, seller said "I'll pay for the replacement"  I didn't even have to add $0.01.

So, make a LOT of offers (even if you think they won't take it) because as Brandon says, you get 99 "no" before you get to a"yes".  Good luck!

South Philly has a lot of older row homes that are $200k ish (or less) but most are SFH, not setup as legal multi family.

I had someone offer a home north of Temple U. (looked to me like "D" area) that was $7k, but I wasn't feeling it when it was offered to me last year.

Beginner, looking at some properties in Norwalk and Fairfield.  My email is [email protected]  Sorry I missed the March 17th event.

Hi Jose,

Agreed that NJ can be tough, but then again, Metro NYC/North Jersey is tough.  Philly (especially like So Philly) is very affordable to invest.  We (my wife & I) are just now looking at investing, but 21 years ago we made the plunge to buy a property with a Princeton mailing address (it was actually in Plainsboro) & moved down from Queens.  We bought the smallest/cheapest townhouse in an excellent community and were fortunate to go from $104k ($5k down) to $270k in 9 years and moved to our current house (single family detached).  I was trying to find a multi family 21 years ago, but those are almost non existent in West Windsor where we now live or Plainsboro. 

Now that the kids are out of the house, we are finally looking at multi family to house hack (we'll live in 1 side while tenants pay a good chunk of the mortgage).  We're not keen on the idea of renting out say 1 of the bedrooms since we'd see the tenant all the time and have to share the 1 full bath as well as the rest of the house.  If our house was setup differently, the room sublet would work well.

I had a friend who bought a 2 BR condo back in '90, rented out the 2nd BR and had a net monthly cost of like $250/mo.  He sold out 15 years later, gained like $150k (while spending like $45k to live there), so if it's an option, I'd suggest looking at house hack as perhaps a good first move.  2BR condo (like my buddy did after I nagged him for like 4 years to do it) can be a good starting point and will likely be within your budget.

It doesn't say where you live or what areas you're looking in, but I'd stay with the old adage: "buy the cheapest house in the best neighborhood".

Good luck with your search & as others have said, take the first step.  Had we not bought the townhouse in '98, we wouldn't have this house today.