All Forum Posts by: Antonio Cucciniello

@Nick Cresci I just visited Columbus to take a look at a few properties @Marc Rice is super knowledgeable and invests himself. I highly recommend him!

@Faith Kirk That depends on a few things (in my opinion). 

Are you good at doing the work yourself? 

If you are then you might want to do some stuff yourself.

If you aren't I would maybe do some smaller things (like paint) that are easier to learn and do to save some money, if you have the time for that!

@Nick Cresci Hey! Totally been in your shoes, now twice. First in New York City. Now living in Austin, the numbers for cash flow do not work.

So, what I do, is I look at factors that bring me cash flow:

Crime, unemployment, property tax rates, median home price, avg rents, price to rent ratio, population growth, if its a landlord friendly state or not and I compare away!

I actually just did this, then went on a road trip to visit 8 of my favorite spots over 9 days. Found plenty of good markets with properties on MLS that cash flow.

@Gawaine O'Gilvie This is exactly how I felt when I started. I was living in NYC (where cash flow is super difficult for beginners) and I had some money but not a ton, reading Brandon's book.

The challenge with a lot of the books out there is that they leave you overwhelmed. 

I actually just did a road trip from Jersey to Texas and visited a ton of markets and learned alot by going there, but it really just confirmed most of the information I learned by doing online research.

20K might be a enough, depending on the house and what market you get into. 

Here's how you figure it out:

1. Find the median home price in an area.

2. Multiply that by .3 (25% down for down payment and then 5% for closing costs totals 30%)

3. Add any money for rehab (this could be zero if you get a currently rented out property that doesn't need much fixing)

So with that formula, you will likely have enough for a house 66K. 

There are plenty of markets I saw with houses around that price to start. 

@Fernando Puga I am not familiar with Seattle, but the challenge with house hacking in an expensive area is that you are putting little money down on a property, where the rents might be high, but home value will be high.

For a location, you want to pick one where the rents are higher and the prices are lower. Calculate the price to rent ratios for each neighborhood if you can.

Then most of the work will come from picking the best property with the (best bedrooms/bath split or unit split) to increase the rents.

It will be difficult, I am not going to sugar coat it. But if you find one, that's amazing!

@Khaled El Khoury hey Khaled! I think you are off to a good track with this data. I do a data driven approach for picking a location. I’d be happy to chat with you about what I do.

@Scott Gordon What is this that you are you are referring to?

And you can ask your real estate agent, or other investors in the area, or a lawyer

@Scott Gordon 

All of my recommendations will come from the standpoint of I want to make sure I don't do anything dumb and I don't buy a bad deal from the start. I know how that feels, it kept me in analysis paralysis for 4 years.

First thing I noticed was the closing costs, I would recommend you bump that to like 4-5K to be really safe.

If you want to be more safe, you can raise your vacancy to 10%, capex 8% and repairs to 8%.

I would definitely raise the property management up to 10%, even if you will rehab yourself.

Did you get a quote for insurance for 30 bucks?

The taxes: did you get that from the listing?

For all the utilities: Are you sure you wont have to pay any? Do you have to do lawn care or snow removal?

@Kelvin Yuchen I am between 1 and 3 for you, but it depends on your goals. 

Is moving out a high priority for you? I know when I was 25, it was for me. So I did the stupid think and moved to NYC. Just so I could have more privacy.

Now, If you don't mind living home, I would go out of state or a market far enough that cash flows!

@Garrett Hollenbach A good amount is up to you and you alone. Now, if you want to know what other AirBnB investors are getting thats a different story and is deal dependent.