All Forum Posts by: Daniel Claroni

@May Emery @Thomas J. Clifford - thank you both. I think those are both very good pieces of advice.

I was thinking the same thing about trying to answer as often as possible - if someone is shy or unsure if they should call and they end up giving it a shot, I better answer before I lose that lead haha.

Anyone have any experience with this?

My fiancee and I have been "driving for dollars" and have been sending out mailers to properties that look neglected and/or just kind of look like crap compared to the neighborhoods they are in.

We just started this, but I am curious what is the best thing to say if I do get a call back from some of these people? Do I let it go to voicemail so I can get more details, or will that basically give up the lead? I work full time so I might not be able to answer during the work day anyways.

Some of the owners are out of state, but there are others that live in the property. Either way, I don't want to offend anyone by indicating their property looked crappy lol.

@Benny Morfas there is a reason that property has been sitting on the market for so long. If it was a deal it would have been scooped up long ago by an investor.

My thoughts about renting in D neighborhoods are that 1) your tenants are not going to care for your house what so ever and might trash it/steal from it and 2) even if you get a high ROI, in a high crime area like that you may just be risking your life, especially if you stick out like a sore thumb.

You are not really mitigation any risk in this situation. You might be better off putting your $30k into high yield mutual funds or REITS (see Fundrise).

I would pass - patiences is the hardest part of investing for me, but stay strong. You will find a good deal if you keep at it!

@Joe Villeneuve

Oh, very interesting. Did you mean to type 100% or 10%.

@Joe Villeneuve

I see what you are saying and understand $200 will not be enough to cover what you mentioned.

Then again, every investment has risk involved and I don't think anyone would be able to survive if they had to, for example, replace a roof every 8 months for every property they own.

I'm not saying I know the lifespan of all of these bigger item expenses to a tee or that I can forecast everything that will happen (I am just a little newbie), but my idea behind the way I am budgeting for these bigger expenses is that they should be mostly covered in the long term, given their life expectancies. If I have to replace them all right away that will be a big hit, but I shouldn't have to replace them again for a few years. Putting money away will chip away at that hit I took over time, but like you said $200 probably isn't enough.

With all that said, what type of CoC ROI, Cash flow in dollar value, or whatever other metrics would you suggest a newbie like me use for a hard line in the sand when evaluating deals?

There is some really great advice in here. Thanks everyone. I think I'll try a combination of things suggested here.

@Joe Villeneuve around $200

@Joe Villeneuve

Thanks for the advice. The only thing that I would point out is that I am already budgeting for CapEx, repairs, vacancy, etc. In other words, that 6% return and cash flow that I mentioned already takes into account big purchases like roof, furnace, etc.

Does that change your opinion of the property? I doubt my calculations are perfect (no one's ever are) but I try to be very conservative with all my assumptions.

I really appreciate the feedback

@Richard Fields

Nice! I'm glad you found some stuff that works. Much appreciated