All Forum Posts by: Caleb L.

I did a massive research study on some of the best up-coming cities in the central Texas area:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

All these cities in my research meet my standard of what makes a good city. 

@Account Closed No problem!

Although, not counting in vacancy, and anything else like maintenance, taxes, and CapEx is not wise. After all that is accounted for, you're probably not making much, if any money a month.

But, I know it's your first deal. But make sure to analyze it fully, accounting for everything! 

I'm not sure what I'm suppose to say? What's the end result? ROI return? Not a lot of info here.

But, congrats on doing your first deal! What did the $1 investment go to in the deal?

Hi @Faisal Khan! Great question.

When you manage the properties yourself, you are going to have to do some work. But, software does make the job a lot easier.

I've heard great things about Cozy.co and Buildium. Cozy is FREE and allows you to advertise your rental, collect rent, screen tenants, set automatic payments and late fees, rent estimates, back round checks, receive maintenance requests from tenants, track your expenses for each property, prepare for taxes, and more for FREE! Cozy.co

Buildium is great too. It has a lot more helpful features that Cozy doesn't have, and is NOT FREE. It's more in depth with great features. Pricing is pretty affordable.

It really depends on what your want to spend. Buildium is NOT FREE, but comes with more features. And Cozy is FREE, but doesn't have as many features as Buildium. Although, Cozy gives you everything you need to manage your rentals. I recommend Cozy!

There are also others like AppFolio, Avail, Zoho, and Tenant Cloud that might work out better than what I've already suggested. Look into each one to find the best for you. 

I've heard amazing things about Cozy.co and Avail. Cozy is FREE and has everything you need to manage properties, rent collection, screening tenants, back round checks, marketing your rental, market data, and great software to stay organized! It comes highly recommended from many investors I know. 

I recommend the book "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely. It's a great book that teaches you about why you make the decisions you do. It's really entertaining and intelligent.

Looks good for the most part, a few things though. 

1) The property value is not rising every year? Even if you don't care about appreciation, it's a good idea to see what it could be worth in the future (especially if your going to take it to a partner or private money lender). I usually grow my property at a 2% appreciation rate each year.

2) The COC return ROI is pretty low, 7.16%, along with the cash flow. If your goal is to meet a COC return ROI of at least 7% a year, that's fine.

3) I'm also a little skeptical on your rent estimate. Where is it located? Just make sure your being conservative. 

4) Your not estimating any repairs. It might need a new roof, paint, windows, HVAC, etc. If you don't fix it up, that could affect the rent. If you do fix it up, you could maybe get that rent depending on the location. 

5) Lastly, your also not accounting for monthly maintenance, management fee, CapEx, and vacancy. All that would probably make this a bad deal.

Hi @Brad Crumpton, welcome to BP! 

1) Don't wait for a market crash! It's true that when the market crashes, it gets easier to find deals, but it's also true that you can still buy bad deals in a market crash. You have to search. 99.99999% of listings out there are not deals. Look on Realtor.com, Zillow.com, Redfin.com and others listings, use the BP calculator, and just filter the leads. To speed up the process, know what your looking for. For example: I want a fourplex in x neighborhood under x price. Knowing what your looking for will help weed out instantly the bad leads. 

2) Great question! Finding the right neighborhood is essential in real estate investing. Know your market. Where are people moving to inside your city? What neighborhoods have the best schools, the lowest crime rate, etc. Find a neighborhood that people "want" to move to. That's the key. 

3) You can find deals using many ways. I recommend starting with the MLS, which will involve getting an agent, but don't weary, it's free! I also recommend getting to know some wholesalers in your area. Get yourself on their list and start receiving deals. Search Zillow and Realtor.com for deals as well, you never know. You can also use things like Facebook, Craigslist, direct mail and cold calling to get deals. The best deals are the one's that are not listed!

Hope this helps!

Here are some are some links that will help you find the best neighborhoods!

http://neighborhoodscout.com/

http://bestplaces.net/

A lot of these questions can be answered by reading books. I recommend reading "How to invest in real estate" by @Brandon Turner and @Joshua Dorkin really great book for starters!

@JohnKarlGoins

One of the most important things when it comes to ANY TYPE of investing is... Mindset. You need to avoid the shiny objects so to speak, and focus on your goal, with a rational mindset. 

Setting realistic goals is important too! Don't set unrealistic goals that you know in your gut you'll have a hard time accomplishing. 

Knowing how to analyze leads and finding good deals is important as well, very important! 

Listen to podcasts like bigger pockets podcast, read read read, keep  a rational and realistic mindset, set month-to-month and yearly goals for yourself, define what (exactly) what you want, and how you will accomplish it. Lastly, know how to analyze deals! 

Network, practice, learn Nothing happens by doing nothing. And nothing happens the right way without planning! - Me ;)

I recommend Cozy.co. It's a free software that allows you to collect rent, screen tenants, market vacant units, do tenant back round checks, and so much more, for FREE! 

A lot of investors I know use Cozy and love it! It comes highly recommended! 

https://cozy.co/