All Forum Posts by: Ben Halabi

Hello everyone. I just became aware of Bigger Pockets on Thanks Giving. My sister told me about it and I've since been listening to ALL the podcasts starting at #1. It's helped with real estate language fluency. My dads' side of the family has always had rental property and it's always been an ambition of mine to get into real estate investing. In the early 2000s, my dad bought a $400k 20 unit apartment building in downtown LA and sold it for $1.25M. By 2007 he had around $5M assets under management when the bottom fell out. He had a 47 unit apartment complex with about 100 mini storage units that he left to be managed by someone who turned out to not be trustworthy.  He was living in another state and didn't "manage the manager". Come to find out, the manager had: not dealt with vacancies, not paid the bills, including mortgage, and racked up a bunch of charges on my dads' credit card, bought a new truck and disappeared. Obviously too much trust in the wrong person, but at one time they seemed like good friends. Such is life. After unsuccessfully trying to salvage the vacancy's and work out a deal with the bank; he lost that property in foreclosure. After he lost that "cash machine" he lost a few other properties that were highly leveraged. You might think all that would turn me off to this business, but no. I have a house with an inlaw unit that I've been renting out since 2002. I'm a general contractor and am currently working full time for another company doing kitchen remodels. In 2012 I attempted a fix and flip with financing help from my aunt. We had an offer that would have netted me $30k but I turned it down. It was a down to the studs renovation with major structural changes and a 600 sf master suite addition, so my aunt decided to just keep it as a rental after we lowered it to a break-even price and it still sat on the market for 2 weeks. I kind of look at that experience as both a success and a failure, but mainly it was a huge learning experience. I wish I would have known about BP at that time.

Going forward, my goal is to BRRRR. I'd like to do the first one and "rent" to myself, then renovate the house I'm currently in before moving on to others down the road. Still trying to figure out the best strategy to transition out of my job and into real estate full time.

I look forward to talking to other members on the site and possibly meeting and working together. 

Thanks for reading

Hello Biggerpockets community, I am a new investor from New York and I have set my mind on investing in the Cleveland area. I want to invest in SFH 3/1 in at least C class areas. I plan to visit some time in March for a weekend and buy my first property by May. I have 100k to invest and I plan on using the BRRRR method. I would like to net at $250 a month after all expenses, including CapEx and vacancies. I understand I need to build a team in order to make this work, so I will be reaching out to real estate professionals (Real Estate agents, Property Managers, and General Contractors) in the area over the next couple of months. I have been consuming a lot of info in the last couple of months but I know it is time to walk the walk. I have been looking at the Puritas-Longmead area but I am wondering if there are any other areas that make more sense. Thank you for reading, I look forward to networking with people.

I am brand new to bigger pockets. I am 22 years old, about to graduate college and want to start real estate investing as soon as I can. Ive been educating myself through books, podcasts, and videos, but I would love some advice or feedback on how I can start effectively on the right foot. I think this website is a great idea for people to get help or find community!

Can anyone recommend a property manager in the Racine/Kenosha area? 2 single family homes and a duplex, with more to follow. Any help appreciated. Thanks

Please share contact if you know a good property management company in the Bay Area?

1. Some background: This is my first ever post! My wife and I are Pastors from San Diego. We have paid off ALL of our college loans (Over $40,000) in the past three years so that we can begin our real estate investing journey! ...Well, to be honest, more-so because I wanted to prove to my wife that I am committed to investing. Guess what, it worked!
2. My Plan: I am planning on becoming a long distance, buy and hold, BRRRR Investor in CLEVELAND. We plan for these properties to be short term vacation rentals. I have family who live in Cleveland and Airbnb.
3. This is where I need you: Any advice for us as we potentially buy our first property in the next several months from those of you who have done something similar?

Hi!

My name is Tyler Scruggs, I am a soon to be college graduate (May 2020) that will be working in Sales Management upon graduation. I am originally from a suburb in Cleveland (Solon), and plan to begin my initial investments in the Cleveland market as it is the most comfortable market to test in my opinion. 

I have been doing research predominantly on Zillow looking at the listing prices of 3-4 bdr homes for sale, along with the rent prices as well. I have specifically been looking into Cleveland Heights, Lakewood and Euclid. I read the Cleveland guide to real estate that was posted in some of the forums and graded the cities from A-F, and decided that I would like to stick with B range areas. 

I plan to make my first investment soon after graduation, and want to see what successes/failures, advice, etc that people have been experiencing in these areas. Also, if you would recommend these cities, do they cash flow well, or are there any other cities that you would recommend. I would appreciate any and all advice! 

Hi everyone!

My name is Dallas, I am originally from NY, I lived in Philadelphia for 2 years and now I am currently residing in South Carolina. I am new to the BP community after I found out about this after reading Brandon Turners "The Book on Rental Property Investing" and David Greene's "Long-distance real estate investing". I have several years of experience investing in the stock market but want to transfer my funds into real estate. I am looking to buy several multi-family properties or become partners, the location can be anywhere as I move around the country a lot. I am trying to learn as much as I can by listening to the Podcasts and I am now currently reading "Set for Life" by Scott Trench. Thank you all for your time in reading my post and I can't wait to connect with some great individuals!

Sincerely,

Dallas

Hey Bigger Pockets world! Just wanted to quickly introduce myself! 

Name - Bryan Mulvany

Location - Columbus, Ohio (Grove City specifically for those of you who know the area well)

Real Estate Exp - 4 years as an agent, new to investing, but have big goals and work ethic.

Investing goals - 20K/month in passive income over the next 5-10 years.

Family - Beautiful wife, 3 awesome kids, 2 crazy dogs

Other - I also coach a high school soccer team, am a Regional Director for ACN, and own some AmSpirit franchises. 

Thank you all for welcoming me! 

My friends and I have pooled together $90000 and would like to do a BRRRR deal by spring 2020. We live in west coast where properties are expensive and ROI isn't good, and we are looking to invest out of state. Ideally we would like to do a single family cash deal for our first property, and we are in the phase of brainstorming on which market to go into. Here are some cities piqued our interest from our research:

• Cleveland, OH
• Memphis, TN
  
• Chapel Hills/Raleigh, NC
• Dallas/Fort Worth, TX

Since we don't know anyone in those cities, we were wondering if there's a systemic way or metrics that can help us evaluate which market would be better for our first deal? Any other cities we should look into? And we were also wondering if anyone experienced in those cities can give us some insight on how these markets are doing? Thanks in advance!