All Forum Posts by: Brian J Allen

@Rehan Uddin

Congratulations on beginning your journey. I would like to echo the sentiments of the others here on the forum. Also, Welcome to Worcester!!! I had the honor of putting 2 first time buyers into Multis last week, 2 great days! The key is to know what you are looking for and what you are willing to settle on. In terms of loans, FHA is great, but the Mass housing loans are often better. One of my buyers bought a $470k 3 family with $7k out of pocket and will live for almost free! We have a great team, ready and willing to help if you go the multi route.

@Joe Villeneuve and @Kyle Curtin. Guys i think these are flip sides of the same coin.  I agree with Joe that making $ should be the goal.  I am an economist so the only way to know if you win is to make more $.  However, in Behavioral Economics, the goal can be to acquire and stabilize the asset and perhaps make your area a better place.

As we are all aware with family, we would rather have our kids have a job/life where they feel purpose and are able to enjoy that, then to have them have a lot of $ and not feel like they have purpose.

When we read all of these testimonials we hear about so many people who got into REI because they hated their day jobs. I think that is sad, but it is often the case.

One of the things that makes me happiest as a real estate agent is seeing someone else make a good investment property decision.  Sometimes it is getting someone into their first 6 unit or 12 unit building.  Other times it is like this week when I was able to help 2 first time home buyers get 3 family homes where they can build wealth long term.

I am not sure what the goal is or should be.  This year I am trying to do 50 transaction sides while still keeping my standards and actively talking investors out of bad decisions.  I could do 75 a year if I just was an order taker like most RedFin agents, but that is not my goal.

The hope is that by helping people buy things right, they will trust and come back for more.

I don Think @Kyle Curtin has something going here.  Find something you want to do, and know that the $$$$ will follow.

What does everyone else think?

Nate, 

I worked for AT&T Wireless as a Real Estate consultant for 20 years, and I got upset at how I was supposed treat our landlords and I refused to lie to them. 

At thanksgiving of 2018 I decided to try Real Estate full time and since then I have personally viewed 2,168 investment properties for myself and clients.

in 2018 I sold 1 property

2019 13 properties

2020 14 properties with higher price points

2021 35 houses, and 43 Transaction sides and over $20mm in sales, this made me Top 8 of agents and a Diamond Producer for all of Central MA

2022 25 sales so far in the down market, with another 6 under contract, many of these off market.

The key is hard work and support from your colleges and your broker.

Do you want to sell million dollar houses?  Do you want to be the best condo guy around?  Do you want to make money as a property Manager or rental agent?  Or be a general practitioner?

The choice is up to you, but you need to be in the right FIT.

I have new agents I worked with who decided they wanted to be Wholesalers and hit for the fences, others wanted to do things part time, others wanted to do rentals until they could support themselves doing purchases/sales.  Another agent had the skill to be great and wanted to be in Boston, so I set her up with a broker from another company who took her under his wing.

If you want to do this you can, but you have to work extremely hard and stay focused.

I would be glad to help in any way I can.

is buildium worth using for people with 1 or 2 properties they use for themselves?  Or do you need scale to make it worth while?

@Plato Asadov, sorry I am late to the conversation. As mentioned above prices have peaked and are dropping. You will have one of the top 5% most expensive houses in Upton so in any market it will be hard to sell, that is probably why they are not going on MLS. You can build new/custom in Upton for $900k as there is still land. Also keep in mind the traffic patterns as Upton has a large land area. You need access to 495, and likely the Bellingham Train Station to have the most value, if you are TOO FAR WEST, then property values drop. Also, keep in mind that the appraisers will be likely give you less than market value on your appraisal due to the circumstances, and the HELOC appraisals have been coming in soft as well. Make sure you have a couple outs in case the appraisals don't live up to your expectations.

@Kyle Curtin,  i tried QB a long time ago and hated it.  I now write my own through Google Sheets so i can make it better every year and drill down of categories.  I have rent on one page, and expenses on another then have one final page with the final info that i can give my accountant.

My accountant does the depreciation for me on his own separate schedule.  

If you have enough units people use management software which allows them to track every time they visit and how long it takes to repair things at the property.

@Kyle Curtin, Guys many "Old School" owners simply don't keep accurate books. They collect low rents in Cash(yes even on commercial properties). And simply don't keep spreadsheets.  They also might not use management, and just do repairs themselves so there is really nothing there.  I am having issues now on a $1.5mm property purchase, and they don't want to have the tenants fill out estoppels, as they are probably not doing everything above board.  And keep in mind things will be getting worse as older sellers realize that this may be the last chance to sell in this market, and they might DIE before the next uptick

Guys,

I never trust the seller on anything.

I always have my expenses based on the type of house, you can pull taxes, water and sewer from public records.

You can get an insurance quote.

Then you simply have to KNOW the RENTS, and KNOW the expenses based on the quality of the house.

If you are not sure of these numbers you have no business buying anything.  If your realtor doesn't give guidance and simply shows you houses, find another one.

You need at least 2 sets of eyes on everything!

@Edgar Vigil. If this property is in Worcester and you are paying $560k for a 3 family you better not put more than $50k into it as you will never refi out. You are trapping your equity there. you could buy something done for $575k and get cash flow right away with NO CAPEX. You can get awesome DONE properties for $675k. Also, remember in Worcester the Rents can fluctuate 25% from one area to the next and that is the key. Also, Worcester has areas that are management intensive, that is you have to work every month to get your rent. Remember the median income in Worcester is under $50k so close to 60% of renters struggle month to month paying their bills. Now with increased electricity prices and heat prices this will be worse as well. Hopefully you are working with a realtor who knows the city and the areas so you can price your projected rents accordingly. Also, remember that if you don't have parking you will have to find new tenants every year (unless you are next to a bus line and your tenants don't have cars) since the winters are brutal and 1 bad storm can make it impossible to park on the street for weeks at a time.

in Worcester it is all about LOCATION.  if the location is great then maybe you do it.  if it is marginal, RUN RUN RUN.  you can fix the house but you cant move it.  There are many places where the house is like that because it is not worth fixing it.  Make sure you triple check the location.