All Forum Posts by: Brian Borman

@Gregory H. Wow that is great to hear about some success in the area! Thank you for the offer to chat, I'll be in touch.

@Thomas Danak I had actually seen a couple posts that mentioned the Delaware Valley Investor Group and was going to attend one of their meetings, I believe you can go to one for free correct?

@Shawn Ackerman Thanks looking forward to being active in the community!

@Trevor Deeter I am looking in between Bucks and Mont county. Generally pretty close to the border between the two, though more so in the Mont side because of work and family. Thanks for the offer of help, I really appreciate it and will be sure to reach out!

Great info, thanks @Chris K. I will check out those CapEx articles tonight and had been considering buying this combo: https://get.biggerpockets.com/rentalbook/ from @Brandon Turner after hearing it mentioned on the podcast a few times.

That seems to be pretty consistent advice about managing the first property myself if only to get the experience and knowledge. It sounds like educating myself a little more in that area might alleviate some of my concerns.

Great, thanks for those numbers! Always good to see how calculations compare.

Thanks again @Jason D. for the info. Do you have a guess for the vacancy rate? I'm still probably calculating it at 10% to be safe, but curious how far off it may be. I also totally left out some words there, and that 1% of property value annually was for repairs/cap ex stuff.

That sounds like good advice @Brendan Markle about PMing the first property to better evaluate a property manager. And I'll look into that book, thanks for the tip.

@Joseph Diandrea and others in this thread, glad to hear others are in the same boat as me, hopefully we'll be able to help each other out over time!

Thanks for the welcoming messages!

I am still in the very early stages of looking, just checking online listings and running some analysis on them and like you said @Michael James, not finding anything appealing quite yet. As a reference I'm using the following as my estimate for expenses: PITI (based on Redfin with my own adjustments), 10% of rent for vacancy, 10% of rent for property management, and 1% of property value annually. Curious if those seem in line with reality?

Glad to hear that about Warminster @Jason D.. It seems like a pretty good area that's experienced/still experiencing some growth. And has travel convenience with the rail line.

Hello Everyone!

A little background on me, I haven't purchased any property before and have only rented in several areas in Southeast PA, currently in Warminster. My career is in computer programming and web development and have already gotten some ideas about how to use those skills in my real estate business. I am currently most interested in the numbers side of real estate, with analysis, accounting, and financing.

My short-term goal is to start with a "house hack" duplex in my area to alleviate rent costs and start directing it into equity. I then hope to use that as a jumping off point for a SFH for my family. Long-term, I have modest goals hoping to manage a handful of rental properties producing "passive" income to help fund an early retirement. With those goals in mind my next step is to continue saving for a few more months (I am on the conservative side) and then finding a real estate agent who is familiar with investment properties in my area.

Currently, my biggest source of hesitation is in being a landlord and property management. I am leaning towards using a property manager, but the additional cut in cash flow gives me reservations. Any resources on this area in particular would be greatly appreciated (either learning how to be a good landlord or how to find and pick a good property manager).

The community, blog, and podcasts here at BP have been a huge help in educating me and I look forward to being more involved over the next few months!