All Forum Posts by: Andrew Freed

@Yang Zeng - Do you work remote? Can you move to a better market where there are plenty of house hack opportunities for a decent price near the 1% rule? If so, I would target those markets with a ton of multifamily stock and start building more empire there. I personally like to target tertiary markets 45 min to an hour and a half outside of a major metropolitian area with a large supply of multifamily. It is easier to find a deal when there are a ton of the supply. My market is Worcester MA and it falls under this catagory. 

At that point, become a market expert, go to as many meetups as possible, get a mentor in that market doing what you want to do at a large scale and go all in. 

P.S. The goal of a househack is to eliminate your housing expense as much as possible. At a 2M purchase price, I would be surprised if that was the case. 

@Tom Server - I think it depends on the lender. You obtain the best loans from small local credit unions and banks aka portfolio lenders that hold the notes in house. For one of my recent purchases, we locked in a 7.625% interest rate 30 year amortization with 0 points. You can usually find better deals out there if you are willing to take on a ARM type product such as a 7/1 or 10/1 ARM.

For another bank that I deal with, they are offering as low as 6.5% (ARM type product) on an investment property with a half a point to a point hence right now hence rates are ranging from 6.5% to 7.5% depending on the associated terms. This is assuming you have 740+ credit and are a strong borrower. If you are not in a good credit or cash position, you will be forced to take on worst loan products in the 8s or even 9s.

@Lon Sierra - Can you pay an electrician to separate the electricity and add another meter / panel? The would be the easiest and straight forward solution. Then you can easily just pass the cost onto the tenant and have the electricity under their name. From my experience (in the northeast), It cost around $10-15K to separate the meters per unit. It will probably be cheaper for your area since I live in a high cost of living place. 

@Victor Ong - Congrats on the purchase. What will this rent for? Are you planning on selling it? Mind sharing some information on the numbers? I'd love to learn more about the deal and offer any advice I can to help you along your investing journey. 

@Account Closed - I agree, a coach is not required but a mentor is in my opinion. You will scale that much quicker if you find someone doing what you want to be doing at a larger scale and surround yourself around them. Find ways to provide value to them, expect nothing in return and sooner or later, the concept of reciprocity will kick in and they will feel a need to help you.

For instance, I got up to about 7 units all by myself in one year without any mentor. I thought I was doing good until I found my local mentor, @Jonathan Bombaci, who owns hundred and hundreds of multifamily units. He was doing what I wanted to do, but at a much larger scale. I found ways to provide value to him in the form of commissions as an agent on his team. I also started a local real estate meetup under his brand. Once I started to provide value to him, he had no choice but to take me under his wing. 2 years later, I went from 7 units to over 130 with guidance and mentorship from Jon. Coaches are not required, but mentors will allow you to scale that much quicker! 

@Cameron Woodward - A couple pieces of feedback:

1. Have you considered getting a co-signer? That might help your purchasing power and push you over the edge to acquire the multifamily househack that all new investors should start with.

2. Have you considered a SFH with a rent by the room model? If you have find a 5 bed 2 bath and rent out 4 rooms, your entire mortgage will be covered and you can live for free.

3. For meetups, I recommend starting your own in the area. Become the local expert and leverage the meetup to meet other successful investors in the area by having them present as a guest speaker. That is what I did 3 years ago and now my meetup is the largest in worcester MA.

4. Biggerpockets has some great bootcamps that I highly recommend. Also, I did gain a lot of value by investing in MeetKevin's real estate course, it had a ton of great knowledge.

Good luck and let me know if I can help out in anyway. 

@Wencheur Antoin - Wecome! Biggerpockets is an amazing community to collaborate and learn fromo the investors. I literally built all of my real estate knowledge through listening to podcasts, posting on forums, connecting with other investors on biggerpockets and attending meetups. 

Additionally, have you considered looking up local facebook investor groups in the Georgia area? It might make sense to see who is active on these facebook real estate investor pages and look to connect with those people. They are making it happen in the market and can truly provide great insight into market fundamentals and strategies that work in the markets you are focusing on. 

@Joseph Weisenbloom - I normally don't counter sign leases before receiving cashier checks or the funds in my account for the security deposit and first months rent. In your particular case, I would consult with a local eviction attorney to get their take on the local laws and regulations.

Nonetheless if a tenant tried to pull this on me, I probably wouldn't want them as a long term tenant in the future. If they are fighting you on this minor item that should be standard practice, I would assume they will be a nightmare tenant and will be difficult in most scenarios. I always establish this expecation up front, they pay on time and treat my unit right and I address issues in a timely manner and treat them with respect. Once these rules are violated, I simply move forward with getting them out. 

@Hugo Orejel - Congrats on the purchase! Sounds like a solid property. What do you plan on doing with it? Flip it? Long term rental? Short term rental? What sort of numbers do you expect from the deal? I'd love to learn more about the deal. 

@Jaswinder Paul - This is all town specific. Usually business activities have to occur in areas zoned as business. I would advise you to call the town and ask what is allowed throughout the city and in each zone. If it is zone specfic, you perhaps can find a residential property in a zoned business area and utlize in that way. Nonetheless, your question is very area and municipality specific hence you need to do more research on your town regulations to what is allowable and what is not.