All Forum Posts by: Ben Dao

They have postponed evictions in St. Louis for about 3 weeks. I have been in close communication with tenants to hear their situations. It will vary from place to place but be prepared to delay certain actions. I am just trying to be patient and stay on top of everything. It has been an adjustment to stay home 24/7. 

I just use Lowes. I get a warranty on most new stoves so it just easier to have them all in one place. I don't get warranties on refrigerators. They have free delivery for appliances over $400 and a reasonable $20 haul away charge. Plus you will always get my 5% discount with the Lowes Card.

Other places might have a delivery fee and/or high install charge. 

I think @Mark Johnson pointed out some good places that are in your range.

@Jeremiah Akindele Usually, they are just pitchfest. Please save your money. If you spend money, try to spend it on an actual asset.

@Cory Remekun I invest in St. Louis so if you want to advice about this market, let me know. Ball up!

@Andrew Caldieraro Yes, I have done a few deals in Ohio and Tennessee. Not in my home state of Missouri yet.

I live in Wester Groves. It is a great area. You would probably want to buy a multi-family in a less expensive neighborhood.

@Robert Gunn Class of neighborhood is more subjective. In my area, B class is decent but not great school district. The rents in this area is around $900-1200. C class in my area is not that good school districts and the rents are more $700-800. 

@Eric Long I am originally from San Jose so I know how it feels to live there. I always had to have roommates and move every year. I eventually moved to the Midwest where it is a lot cheaper and I now own my own home. In San Jose, I couldn't really even imagine that. I don't think it's a good idea to buy a $800k home to house hack. I would start to think about how can you offset your rent with cash flow. I do believe OOS is good. But the challenge is to find a reliable management company. I recently hired property management for a few of my properties in St. Louis. I am building a relationship with them. The most you can do is get recommendations and trial and error. 

I am a "Full-Time" Landlord. I was able to go Full-Time a few years ago. What I did was buy a few 4-plexes and rented them out. You get experience in managing tenants and maintenance repairs while working the day job. After a few multi-family properties, the managing became a lot. I started buying single family homes about 25 minutes away from my 4-plexes.  Slowly, I would buy one then work on paying it off during the year. So I would buy 2-3 a year and try to pay them off. My properties are under $100k price point. After about 7 years of just repeating that, I got to my freedom number. So just keep building your portfolio slow and steady. After a few years, you should have enough rental income to offset your day job. You might want to offset a little more before you actually quit and become the "Full-Time Landlord".  Good Luck!