All Forum Posts by: Andrew Fisher

Hi Josiah Barkman ! Great to see a fellow business owner and roofer ready to invest in NE Ohio! How can I help you as you get started? My wife and I have limited experience but we have a few contacts that may be of use to you. Cheers!

Joshua Greenawalt welcome to this forum! Learning new things can seem overwhelming but you do it the same way you eat an elephant- one piece at a time. My wife and I only started in real estate less than a year ago, and have three cash-flowing rental properties in Stark county below you. We took advantage of low interest, 20 yr fixed rate mortgages to buy two of them turn-key from friends of ours who seem quite successful flipping houses and absorbing some into their holdings company to rent out. Those two properties we bought turn-key are single family two-story homes that were freshly remodeled and updated on the inside, and in decent shape outside. Even though I've remodeled homes and worked in construction since I was a teen, we still felt nervous at first that we were overpaying for the homes at $69,900 each, especially when we had them appraised to get a loan, and the one appraisal came in a bit lower than the asking price. After seriously enquiring into the matter, and being told it was a cranky appraiser who comes in low on all his properties, we decided to go ahead and purchase the property anyway, paying 20% down on each from a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) on the house we live in and have paid off. Things have gone quite well despite having several tenants break their lease agreements due to working in the oil industries and getting moved by their employers. We took this as a lesson learned, screen our tenants differently, and seem settled in with a one year lease in one and a 3 year in the other. We made some mistakes, though nothing serious, and I feel very good looking forward, and plan to keep buying more homes to either flip and sell or renovate and hold to rent. It really is about who you know and can build relationships with. There's bazillions of ways to make money in real estate and we are still developing our own strategies to fit our goals and desired lifestyle. I know this is an awfully long post but I wanted to encourage you that you can be successful if you want to. Don't be afraid to ask questions and do your research. Cheers!

Welcome Debra Lamm ! My wife and I purchased 3 SF rentals in Stark county last year, 2 in canton and 1 in massillon, all cash flowing well with good tenants (so far). We considered some properties in Akron but decided to keep our business radius smaller. I know you're not new and this thread isn't new but, I didn't see it till Dell Schlabach bumped it the other day and let me extend a hand with the others. Cheers!

Hi Robyn! I'm with Craig- where are your Ohio properties located?

Welcome, Samantha! You've come to a good place for lots of valuable information! I personally have learned a bunch from the BP podcasts well as searching the forums for specific things.

My wife and I are quite new to real estate investing, having only bought 2 turnkey rental properties in July '15. It's been very rewarding, and that instant monthly cash flow sure feels good! 

Best of luck as you learn! 

Welcome, DeVonn! It's a terrific site with tons of value. I'm new here myself from NE Ohio, Massillon/Canton area, and probably can't answer many questions you may have, but I may be able to direct you to someone who can.

PS If you're looking to buy any single family rentals in Akron (25-50k) that are rented out and producing cash, let me know- I have a friend who offered them to me earlier this fall but it's outside my area. I think he still has some available 

Welcome to BiggerPockets! As you said, there's so many great things to learn from a bunch of experienced and fun people!

Good for you to think of creating options for you and your family- many people fear change or feel they cannot do more and get further than their job. Which they may or may not live as much as you! 😄 

I am new on this forum as well and it's great to see others with the same interests

Advice well taken, @Ashley St. Gelais! It seems to be hard to get started and know for sure which direction to focus first, but we definitely have a number we need to see before I quit what I'm doing now. 

I'm really in an ideal situation where my services will be in pretty high demand anytime I'm not working on our real estate goals so I'm hoping to "gradually shift" rather than "cold turkey". 

Already it takes an amazing amount of time off my regular work to plan, research and manage, but it's worked well so far and I've come to believe we can pull it off :-)

Thank you @Dell Schlabach and @Ashley St. Gelais! It's so good to have feedback so soon- the support is a big boost for me! As you can see, I have to post around my work since I'm still working full time in construction, but hopefully that'll change relatively soon! I think it may be time to buy Pro...

Thank you, @Mark Nolan! This forum/site is intoxicating