All Forum Posts by: Ben Pielstick

@Spencer Gray that last part is really confusing me. I've heard people seem to say the more expensive places are going to be hit the hardest because everyone is going to scale down and cut back. What I'm guessing is that maybe people who pay more in rent are mostly in jobs they are able to do from home, and so not as effected as yet?

Well, if just in search of income, I would get my real estate agent license, connect with other agents, lenders, contractors, etc., and try and work up to $5k per month in business over 2 years, while also leveraging cash holdings as down payments for flips and rentals.

@Bianca Nunes Yeah at 5% on 350k I don't think you're likely to get positive cashflow out of a property around here. Someone more knowledgeable should correct me if I'm wrong, but I tried running the numbers for myself and couldn't make it work, which persuaded me not to look at investing around here. Alternatively if your income supports it, you could always rent a place to live and buy elsewhere to start building cashflow, which is what I've decided to try and do after running into the same problem with this area.

@Bianca Nunes I started looking around Manassas and Woodbridge for lower prices, but you very much get what you pay for as far as location goes around here it seems. I'm not sure about Maryland. I have a roommate who works there but lives across the border in Virginia because he says he saves money this way on taxes, so you might want to be careful of that.

I'm still new at this and don't know for sure, but I think maybe a townhouse could be a good choice. If you can find something with 4 bedrooms which are pretty common, you can rent out 3 and at least save some money, though I expect it would be hard to be net positive just on rent. From what I've learned so far it seems the main reason you would try and invest here is for appreciation. Personally I've kind of ruled that out as I'm looking to start focused in on positive cashflow which for me means looking at something long-distance.

It seems good deals don't make it to public listings, unless you lowball something that has sat on the market too long. I'm sure there are some clever tricks the pros know, but it might be effective to simply brute force call/mail every possible property that you'd want to buy if it was for sale and see if you eventually get one to sell.

@Ika Sargeant It is kind of a conundrum to me. A huge shift in unemployment, but forbearance. Economic slowdown, but evictions suspended. People don't want to go out to sell or buy. People aren't forced to move, forestalling the consequences of the economic situation. It feels like we've just kicked the can down the road 3-6 months. Rents will have to be paid, evictions will happen, people will relocate for jobs, but not yet. So maybe there will be opportunities coming which means this isn't an especially good time to either rent or buy?

I'm starting to think about maybe buying a condo instead of renting an apartment once my lease is up next month as well. Rent doesn't look like its dropping but sale prices seem to be, though I'm not sure how much lower they could go so it definitely seems like a tough call.

Thanks @Craig Curelop. There sure is a lot to learn. At this point I'm not sure about a niche, other than I'll probably be looking out of state, or at least out of city. 

I will be trying to do all those things, except #3. I don't think it's going to be a good time for meetups for the foreseeable future.

@Russell Brazil Yep that was it thanks!

It looks like from the HUD website you can finance up to $35k of repairs with a 203(k) FHA loan? I don't know if that is what the podcast was talking about exactly, but there do seem to be some limits. I guess I better do some more reading!
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/housing/sfh/203k

@Anthony Aviles Great to know, thanks! I'll have to put it on my list for possible long-distance BRRRR.