All Forum Posts by: Austin Bull

@Doug McVinua

Thanks Doug for the feedback, I am curious why you said the loan may be short-term?

My name is Austin, I'm 26, and I'm planning on buying my first property ever in Arizona in the Phoenix Metro area. I'm looking to house hack in order to get my REI snowball rolling. I'm most familiar with the east valley which was a great place to grow up. Currently I have been working in the valley as a plumber. When I was a residential plumber I'd take calls all around the valley so I feel like I have a good idea of areas I'd want to live/invest. However, REI is all knew to me and so is examining the markets.

My main question is: currently in 2023, is this market more tailored towards playing the long game with appreciation or looking to get a property that will cash flow.

Also some people tell me to "time the market" and to wait a little to start, while others tell me to just get in the game while I can. What do you all think?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!

Quote from @Mason Liu:

Quote from @Austin Bull:

@Mason Liu

I'm glad about that. I think REI business will have to learn to use it like they did social media a few years ago.

Do you think that Investors should learn to use it? I feel like AI analyzing deals will start to be huge..

 I think so. Even something as simple as utilizing ChatGPT to speed up certain processes such as asking for generalized information on a market's demographics and immigration patterns can be useful and save a lot of time. You could put in a range of numbers for purchase price and closing costs, renovation expenses, and expected returns and you could very quickly get a range of projected return on investments (although an excel spreadsheet could easily do this as well), but I'm sure as technology develops we will see even more sophistication in AI's ability to assist in deal analyzing.

I agree. One thing that won't change though is person-to-person relationships. Like if you find an off market deal from someone who knows you and trusts you.

@Mason Liu

I'm glad about that. I think REI business will have to learn to use it like they did social media a few years ago.

Do you think that Investors should learn to use it? I feel like AI analyzing deals will start to be huge..

As a plumber in AZ, I agree with the prior two comments. You should be putting money aside to eventually replace that piping entirely in the house. In Arizona I have seen galvanized piping in a lot of older houses, and eventually the pipe deteriorates because of our "hard" water here and they crack and leak over time.

Look into a "whole house re-pipe". It'll probably be anywhere from 8k-15k depending on where you live and the size of the house. What the plumber would do is he will bypass all the piping in the walls/ground. And he'll tie into the main water service with Pex-A piping(this pliable plastic piping). They'll run it up over head in the attic and drop it down the walls to the different plumbing fixtures. And most medium/bigger plumbing companies can finance the project. My old company even did 12 mo payments with no interest if you paid in that 12 months. So there's options. Just proactively get some quotes to get an idea. Plumbers like these jobs because they're "big jobs" and they make good money on them, so they'll be glad to give you estimates.

Just a thought: keep an eye out for moisture in the drywall. Once I saw a house where the pipe cracked/leaked in a wall by the kitchen, but it was behind a book case. The homeowner didn't notice for a while until it was too late, so it ruined the drywall in the area, the cabinets and the flooring in the kitchen.

As a new real estate investor, how is AI going to change the landscape of this industry?

Also, what niche jobs in real estate (Agents, appraisers, house inspectors, lendors, ect.) are going to be replaced eventually? And what jobs cannot be replaced?

@Josh Young

Thanks for the advice!

@Account Closed

Thanks for all the feedback. It's all new info for me so I'm very appreciative of you all taking time to respond. My main takeaways are:

1) I need to actually contact some LO's to see how I stack up to the qualifications. They all differ. Going through my real estate agent is a good place to start. 

2) I need an LO that knows all the different programs, and how my specific situation relates to them. (I would think all of them would know this...)

3)The LO "due diligence" should be done before I make offers

@Sasha Mohammed  No I am a non-union plumber.

Another question I have is this: is there a limit to how many LO's I should vet? Does it hurt my credit score if there are multiple lenders pulling my credit?

 @Eric Miller  Thanks for the feedback!

I'm looking to get my first property. I'm a novice commercial plumber in Arizona. I make $25/hr or conservatively  $4k/mo gross not including overtime. I'm looking to supplement my income to look better to lenders. I think side plumbing jobs are my best bet..

What are some side jobs some of you all have?