All Forum Posts by: Dan Heymann

St. Louis Real Estate Investors Association, Inc.™ STLREIA™ is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving our members. We are the longest active real estate investors association in the St. Louis area. We have generally have 100+ member attend each month.  First month attending is complimentary

On the third Friday of the month (except December) fellow investors, contractors and vendors from the St. Louis area meet at the St. Louis Association of Realtors Building: 12777 Olive Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63141 (Approx. 1 1/2 miles west of I-270)

Our meetings are on Friday evenings, but will be changing to different night starting in January 2017

This Month

HELP CLINIC: November 18, 2016 6:30PM -7:15 PM

Kristina Aguilera is Business Development Director at Community Title Services, LLC. She will discuss the latest hot topics facing the industry. Come and ask your questions.

MAIN MEETING: November 18, 2016 7:30 PM – 9 PM

Rather than just giving an annual tax update on changes that affect real estate investors (boring), Bill Hurston, CPA, will give you (at least) 5 ideas on how you can become a more successful real estate investor. Some of them involve “tax talk”, but Bill promises not to be too boring (for a CPA).

Topics will include:

• The “5 D’s” that lead to real estate investing DISASTER.
• The single best book you can read to understand your real estate investments.
• Thinking like a business owner versus a real estate investor.
• The top tax benefit of real estate investing.
• What is your “exit strategy” for each property?

Looking forward to seeing you there

Dan

Stlreia meeting meets on the third Friday each month at the Saint Louis Real Estate Association building. Check out stlreia.com

@David Zheng What REIA meeting did you attend? I attend a few each month in Stl. There are many newbies but the meetings I attend have people that work full time real estate doing rentals, flips, wholesaling, buy notes and hard money lending, etc. It takes a few meetings to figure out who does what.

I would suggest renting for a short time to get to know the area.  You mentioned  Chesterfield and Clayton which are expensive areas and very hard to find properties that have positive cash flow. Kirkwood has very nice areas and some okay areas. 

Many young professionals are moving to areas in the city where you can walk to bars and restaurants and housing can be less expensive.  There are also more opportunities for 2 and 4 families in the city, but you have to be careful which neighborhood buy in.

I would also suggest joining the Saint Louis Real Estate Investors Association which meets once a month and ask the members questions to narrow down an area that is best suited for you

Mark

I would pay or have the seller pay to have the water turn on for a day.  I would have a  licensed plumbing company set up for an hour that day to give me an price to repair.   It will be worth it for the piece of mind

Good luck!

I live within a few miles of Maryville University. What surrounds it is mainly office buildings and a couple hotels. The few homes that are within walking distance are very high price for Saint Louis (400K and on up) and will not support high enough rent.  The homes I own are in west county but not near the university. If you have further questions send me a message

Dan

William: I am also in Saint Louis and believe your assessment is correct.

There has been so much negative Saint Louis news, it great to to let everyone know that the majority of the area is a great place to live, work and invest.

Ron - Welcome to Biggerpockets from a fellow StLouis investor. Biggerpockets is one of the best places to learn

Welcome Ryan

I am a St Louis County investor in SFR'S but wish I would have started when I was much younger. If I was to start over, I would have looked at a duplex or 4 family in a good area (south city, ucity, maplewood, etc) and lived in one of the units and rented the remaining. This will allow someone else to pay my mortgage. After a year are two I would rent the unit that I was living in and move to another 2 or 4 family and repeat the process a few times. As a new investor I would stay out of anything that even approached a war zone (North City). Good luck!!