All Forum Posts by: Cesar Sabio

I’ve been a BP member for a couple of years now. First started using it a couple of years back when I started investing and buying MF properties, bought 7 properties in a year and had 35 units rented. It was a great resource and helped me through my investing journey then. Through the years I stepped away and focused on my W2 paying career. Today, I’m back on and looking for advice, direction, and guidance from this community.

2 weeks ago now I made a personal decision to walk away from a great paying career. I decided to put my house up for sale, begin a move w my family to Tampa FL, and pursue a true passion of mine in real estate and start my career as a RE Agent. I’m thankful and glad I’ve been financially responsible to make such a bold and aggressive move and have the ability to make such a move financially, so for any one looking to comment on that just know it’s not a decision taken lightly. But, I’m 33 and figured if I don’t make this move now I’ll find myself much older and hating my career and I don’t want that. I thought of myself to be really good at RE and it was a passion of mine and genuinely that’s the space I want to be in.

So I’m looking for advice, guidance, and any information the professionals in this community can provide for a new agent. As I transition I want to be ready, hit the ground running, and continue to be aggressive and make things happen. All these are already in my character and I’m mentally prepared for the grind.

@Brett Peters can you provide more details. Is this a SF/MF? How many units? How many BR's? I'm an active investor in Reading and know the area well. PM me if you'd like to talk I don't find to many investors to connect with in town. 

Hector, first of all congrats on the big step. I currently am an active investor in the Reading area and I can tell you it’s definitely a good area to start off with. The city is still economically not showing the types of growth that you’ll find in areas like the Lehigh valley which in my book are a huge pro. Rental market is amazing and you will not have any issues finding tenants for your properties and the price points to purchase are definitely enticing. The con though is the type of tenant that will be looking to rent from you. That’s the challenge. Price points are low when acquiring real estate but that also comes with lower rental market values for your units so it pretty much evens itself out. With that, if you are going to buy in Reading I advise you strongly consider managing your own properties. At the acquisition price points, and the market value of the units if you do decide to go wit a pm you’ll find yourself not being very profitable as most pm’s will charge $75 per unit min or 8-10% of gross rental income. When calculating that into your analysis you’ll see that can eat up your profit real quick. Regarding your agent, definitely look for someone else. You are the customer and if they can’t provide the type of time needed to get you set up then you don’t need that agent. Most agents, I can tell you from experience, will not spend too much time on you since your so fairly new and at your purchase price your not a big fish so they will tend to put you on the back burner since heir return is not going to be a game changer. My suggestion is that if you are going to make this a long term endeavor you definitely mention that. From experience that helped me since the agents that I’ve worked with knew I was serious and I wanted to buy as much as I could. I hope this helped out Cesar

Hey @Nick Ferroni I am currently an investor in Reading. I can tell you that for me hiring a pm was probably one of my biggest mistakes for a couple of reasons. Not sure where you're at now on your investing journey in Reading. Did you buy? I would love to chat if you have some time maybe we can share experiences.

Hey Guys I stumbled across this thread researching conversations regarding the Reading Market. I'm currently an investor out here and would love to spark up a conversation about your experiences in the area so far. Hopefully I am not to late and you guys get a chance to respond.

Andrew, I completely understand the issue your going through. I’m originally from jersey city, Nj and know your area very well and personally never entertained it as an option to invest because of your same reasons. I now live in PA and have been investing for about 6 months in the Lehigh valley and Berks county areas of PA which are no more than a 2 hr drive from your area in Jersey. Since, I’ve been able to land 3 deals and have contracts going for 2 more. You have a very good position from a capital perspective to do some major moves in an area like this. PM if you want to link up and maybe we can talk about potential opportunities out here. I’m scaling my business very well out here and would be happy to talk about the potential. Cesar

Hi Everybody, I’ve read through all the posts in this local Forum and I haven’t seen any confident referrals on good solid property management company’s Allentown. I was just wondering if this has changed at all? Does anybody have a company they’re happy with? If so, could you please share. Thanks CS

Thank you @James Wise will definitely read into it. 

Hey BP, It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I’ve decided to jump back in and get some feedback from the community. I’ve been investing now 6 months and in that time frame I feel I’ve done ok, but I’m looking to ramp things up. I currently have a couple of properties, 2 that I own and another 2 that I have under contract that I should be closing on here shortly for a total of 7 units. All great deals and in combination producing great CF for me and my partner and an avg 26% COC return across all 4 properties while being very conservative in the operation. I set a goal for myself this new year to end the year at 15 units. I currently invest across 2 markets in PA(Allentown and Reading). I’ve began to lean more towards the Reading area due to the competition I feel is happening in Allentown because of the influx of outside investors and the compressing returns that I’m seeing now. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks looking into other outside markets specifically in Ohio(Cincinnati and Cleveland) and Pittsburgh PA as well. As mentioned before I’m looking to scale and would really like to jump into a market where I can look for MFs with 8 or more units at good prices. In my research I’ve noticed these markets I’m considering I can potentially find this type of property in the 400k ball park with solid rental income and a lot more of room to develop and increase rents in the future. I’m looking to connect with some people that have experience in the market and maybe can answer some more questions for me. CS

@Justin Brown I'm sorry I will not be able to make it