All Forum Posts by: Brett C.

I've had the same question for a while as well so thanks Ann!

Life is so random. I'm not a big forum person so I started with the entire list of forum categories and down selected to this particular post bc - who doesn't want non conventional financing?  And POW!  Ursula says Navy Fed and I've been a member for 14 years!  I've looked around their site in the past and found some reasons to be optimistic but this is proof.  Thanks Ursula. 

@Gautam Venkatesan you do have to be a member, every so often, about 2 times a year they do a promo where my immediate family can join, but if you haven't served or have a family member who has served I don't think you'll get membership.  Good luck. 

hey Renee. My opinion, there's no such thing as waiting, you'll always be looking, know what I mean? I'm in the same boat as you for investment 3, and so are other folks I've spoken to on BP who are just starting out, we are constantly evaluating what waiting will mean to our buying power and at the end of the day it's all about ROI. I don't worry about getting stressed about rushing bc of real or perceived price appreciation. I just evaluate my current position relative to my projected position and what my buying power can garner for an ROI and that takes the stress out of now vs 6 months or a year or whatever.

I also believe that there are always deals, always. No rush.

Lastly, in terms of seasonality I believe that the fall/winter can be good simply because deals slow down so the competition isn't as tough and if your dealing with a motivated or quasi motivated seller and its Thanksgiving or the week before new years or something, that seller is probably wondering if your their best bet to lock in a sale or risk waiting until the market heats up as the spring thaws.

Hey Nate from the Granite State!!

Does anyone know of good, trustworthy, reasonably priced contractors they can recommend for the Southern New Hampshire area for a bathroom (maybe 3 bathrooms total)?

I was hoping maybe some local flippers or rehabers in my area had good people they could recommend. I have a master bath that I need redone. I'm in Hampstead which is near Salem, Plaistow, Atkinson and Haverhill MA.

lol Boston NH :) Derek is on a roll bc he also started a thread called "Lellow Letters" hehe.

Anne, I've never been on that website you named, I'm psyched to see what treasures await.

Derek, I go on NNEREN and check the sold properties for the area/neighboring towns. There are other ways of getting MLS access which involve networking but NNEREN pretty much gets you the same data just without cool maps and stuff.

hey at the very least those sq ft numbers can help your negotiation. Give'em hell Ian.

Maybe I'm wrong but I'm nearly certain I know exactly what property you are talking about based on the asking and rent roll numbers. I valued that property at 236k tops. I think that deal is thin. Duplexes, triplexes, and four families in Derry and neighboring towns are drastically over priced. Just look at what you would be paying per square foot.

I'm not trying to talk you out of the property, I'm between properties and debating what to do next, ie I'm not shopping. I just urge you to look at the price your paying per sq ft then look at your price per sq ft for a decent starter type single family. Now if you see what I'm seeing in those numbers ask yourself, why would you pay a premium? Yeah you've got convenience for having all your tenants under one roof but for me when I look at the valuations people are putting on multi families right now I just scratch my head.

Let me know if I'm way off on the sq ft prediction. Best of luck no matter what my friend.d

Hey Christina, a condex is a duplex but each side is a seperate property, so you can have two seperate owners. It's pretty regional type real estate entity, they don't really exist outside our area. There is an HOA, but the HOA is just you and the other owner, so you vet the other owner during your due diligence process. We should meet up at a REIA and be the new guys :) I'll be attending the REIAs soon but I've never been to one before, just can't find the time while I'm in grad school but that's wrapping up this April so I'm planning to hit the Manchester REIA in May.

I wouldn't feel rushed to get into a property. Rates will probably start to climb and the market is pretty hot right now but be patient, there will always be motivated sellers and there are always deals to be had.

welcome to BP, we're practically neighbors :) Hey, don't worry about getting lucky and finding tenants, read the guide to screening tenants as a resource as well as the volumes of data online and you will do just fine. It's not tough. Most everything I learned in terms of landlording I learned from the idiots guide to being a landlord because BP didn't exist when I was getting my education. I think it's a good resource to start with.

For your questions, no the condo fee won't include the taxes but on the bright side it is a write off. In terms of which to go with I think some pros for condos is lower cost of capital as a barrier to entry, lower cost means lower risk on your first deal, most condos include heat and hot water with the fee and that results in a less complex assignment to you as the property manager (assuming you will manage your own), I think condos fell hard and fast in the crisis and are an asset that may outperform early in this recovery (my speculation).

Cons - condo fees destroy cash flow in my opinion, when I run numbers on condos those fees just kill the returns, HOAs and condo associations generally stink, there are adjustments where they can hit you up out of the blue for stuff like a new roof, that's a risk that could kill years of earnings out of nowhere. What's the best of both worlds you ask, well that's condexes. Something most people avoid and don't understand, which is fine by me, I own two and am going to look at a third this week :)

Flipping scares the heck out of me. I'm no handyman and I've dealt with enough contractors to know I'd prefer to partner with the Yellow King from True Detective than partner with the average contractor.

Good luck neighbors :)