All Forum Posts by: Chris Bernardo

Hi Kassie Carrell , It is a little bit out of your way, but Rick Pozos has a smaller meetup in San Antonio. He's got the next meeting info in his profile. I've been going for the past 8 months or so. I find it more valuable than the larger REIAs in town. He has presenters who discuss different aspects of REI or leads a discussion regarding common investment strategies. There's plenty of time to network as well. I recommend it, if you can make the drive. Hope to see you there.

Stephanie Biesenbach I can vouch for Rick's meetup, it's great. Smaller crowd, more organic experience than the large REIAs in town. I've been going for about 9 months and I've found it informative. Plus you can't beat free. Good luck.

Franco Perez , RA allows you to pull leads, manage them and mail all from within the app. I'm probably missing features in this short reply, but if you send AG a note I think he'd be glad to talk more about the service. Some folks reply to a piece of mail sent months ago, while others reply the same day they receive your mail. It's hard to pin down to a percentage. Good luck.

Hi Franco Perez , I have no complaints about RA. I haven't been lucky enough to close a deal with their leads, but that's on me, not RA :) More important than the lead source is the consistency and the follow up. That's the hard part, managing leads and getting to a definite yes or no. Good luck, let us know how you do.

Alison Kothmann it sounds like you'd enjoy Rick Pozos meetup. It's more of a smaller, round table discussion. Sometimes there's a speaker to discuss title process, marketing or insurance etc.

Hi Christopher Robles , I can vouch for Rick Pozos meetup. I've been going for about 6 months and learned a lot. The next one is this upcoming Wednesday. Hope to see you there :)

Hi Carlos Gradiz , Welcome to the forums. Good to see an investor savvy realtor in SA. I'm an inexperienced investor but have been looking for property in town for the last year or so. If you are interested in meeting up with like minded people, Rick Pozos hosts a free meetup on the west side every month. Details are in his profile, the next meeting is this upcoming Wednesday. It's a free, round table investing discussion. Hope to see you around :)

Hi Sujith C. , I'll preface my answers with the fact I'm also a new investor in San Antonio and have yet to close an investment deal. a) Are there any REI groups in Austin that meet regularly which I can attend? Try searching meetup.com for REIA in Austin. b) Would like to start off in San Antonio with buy and hold $100K worth multiplex (at least a duplex). Put a 20% down and finance remaining with 30-yr financing. Chose San Antonio as I could not find any properties in my budget in Austin and San Antonio is closer to Austin. Is this a good first step? Maybe. MF in SA has seen exponential price appreciation over the past 6-12 months. This makes it difficult to find sound MF investments outside of turnkey properties which will be priced at a premium. This question ultimately boils down to your goals as an investor. Do you want cash flow every month or can you afford negative cash flow in exchange for a higher probability of appreciation? c) How do I find good leads/agents from San Antonio? I spoke with some agents and almost all of them backed out and did not respond when I told them my criteria - $100K, multiplex and positive cash flow. I started to wonder if this is possible at all? There are multiple ways to find leads; direct mail, searching MLS listings with an agent, driving for dollars...Best bet is to search the forums and see what best fits your abilities, time and financial positions. d) Whatever properties I found on MLS(realtor.com) for that price point are in low-income areas(according to city-data.com) and obviously lower rents. If I invest in such areas, will there be any appreciation of the property? This won't be the first time you hear this but here goes. Appreciation is best left as the "cherry on top" of an otherwise sound investment. You certainly could try an investment that is predicated on appreciation, I'd keep in mind this is closer to speculation than some investors as comfortable with. As far as low income tenants are concerned, there is a ton of info here in the forums on this topic. Try searching for "low income" or "section 8". e) Will there be any property management companies that would take up such properties to manage including eviction just in case if any problems arise with tenants? I can't answer this, sorry :( f) Are tenant occupied multi-plexes recommended for purchase in such low-income areas? I've heard multiple podcast guests say this is a bad idea, but see what others have to say. Good luck and welcome :)

Hi Tom English , I'm nearby in Universal City, currently AD at Randolph. Like you I'm new to REI. There are a few different meet ups in town. I've been to some of them and have found that Rick Pozos has a good one for new investors looking to avoid gurus. Check out his profile for details on when and where the meetings are, they change from time to time. Good luck :)

Welcome @Brady Pasemann,

I'm also fairly new to REI, but have attended the local SA area REIAs. Some larger groups can be found by searching meetup.com. Be advised, some have fairly aggressive pitching to noobs.

@Rick Pozos has a smaller meetup and I think it has been a great start for me given that it's free and smaller than some of the others.  He doesn't pay me to say that, that's just been my experience ;)

Hope to see you around, good luck.