All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Eccles

Hello all, I'm looking for any and all advice on direct mailing. What is the best service in the Milwaukee area for this marketing technique? How do I make sure the message is getting to the owner of the property and not the tenants living there? What all should be provided on my mailing cards? Name, phone number, my purpose for contacting them.... What else? I am planning on starting my mailing list in a very condensed area near a university, if you have any tips specifically for student rental properties I would really appreciate them! That's all I can think of for now but any other information is greatly appreciated! Thanks, - Ben

Brandyn Dietman very helpful Brandyn, thanks!

Darren Budahn I will definitely be checking out the east side, have hardly been over there! During school (about 3 more years including grad school) I don't think it is feasible to house hack unless I find something either on campus or very close. I figure after graduation it would be nice to already have a property to move into and house hack from there. Do you think it is wiser to wait until graduation to start or is now the time to start?

This is for all of my seasoned Milwaukee area investors! I am brand new to real estate investing and am having trouble identifying the best neighborhoods or suburbs to find great deals on multifamily homes. I am currently living on Marquette's campus so everything within a mile is either the downtown area or very low income and very high crime rate (western and southern Milwaukee proper). What areas have others found the most success? I am not really looking to flip or whole sale, I feel that Milwaukee area has great cash flow potential I just can't find any properties with the numbers working. I am thinking of expanding into the first ring suburbs because I know there are some great neighborhoods but if any could point me in a more specific directing than just "outside of Milwaukee" I would really appreciate it! Another idea is to do student rentals, as they are high cash flow opportunities but I'm assuming a lot more management goes into those kinds of properties. It would be very convenient to be living within blocks of a rental and maybe it would be good to dive in head first to a possibly high maintenance situation to learn the ropes. Thanks for any help you can provide! - Ben

Thank you all! Very helpful information.

Hello all, I am wondering if anyone has had experience and/or success doing rentals on/near college campuses. It seems like a great idea to me to get into a 4 unit apartment fill it with college students who are willing to pay a premium to live near campus with all of their friends. My university, for example, only offers a few apartment complexes that students can move into after their time in the dorms. As long as the university has enrollment, there will be a need for more housing around campus other than the university owned apartments. Am I off base with this proposal? Is there some glaring problem with this that I'm missing or are college kids just really that bad of tenants? I don't see much on the forums about university rentals! Let me know your thoughts! Thanks, - Ben

Adrienne Bryson Thank you! Very helpful!

Dawn Anastasi small world! Dawn I'd be interested to talk with you about what kind of properties you hold!

Hello all, I am looking for a way to find out how "good" certain neighborhoods are. I see people using letter Grades (B, C+...) to describe the neighborhoods but where do they come up with these grades? I'm assuming it's based on school zone, crime rates, and other things like that. Is there an online resource that has this information at the ready? Thanks, - Ben

@Ronnie Terry , 

I am also new to the business, but I think there is a lot of value for us to connect and bounce ideas off of each other.