All Forum Posts by: Dave Poeppelmeier

LaPlante Real Estate is a full-service PM here in Toledo. Let me know if you have any questions. 

That's crazy. I use Natasha Reinhart at RBI Insurance as well as @Jackelyn Lee with Comparion Insurance, both of them are local and will take care of you. 

If you don't have time to dedicate to being an Investor, I would recommend passively investing in a REIT, Syndication, etc.

Yes, a Realtor can help you find a property, but you have to educate yourself on the area, prices, rents, etc. If you can find a Realtor that's willing to spoon-feed you investment properties, that's great. You also need a property manager of course, which I'm sure there are plenty to choose from in the Knoxville area. But overall, if you're going to invest in properties yourself, you can't treat it as a hobby. Good investors know their market like the back of their hand, and that takes time and dedication on the front end. Once you figure out what your criteria are, the areas you want to look in (actually seeing properties if you're local), etc, then you can put things on auto-pilot and know if a property is worth checking out or passing on based on some basic information in a listing. 

But, you're in the right place here on BP to start figuring all of this out. Best of luck!

@Sam Bhattacharya I agree with @Matthew Crivelli, you can find many houses for under $100k in decent neighborhoods in Toledo, especially ones that need work. Here's the thing though: everybody wants a BRRRR. But how are you going to Rehab it out of state? Try to find a contractor that won't gouge you the second they learn you're not local, or let a PM do it for a markup? Also, to get that kind of "Perfect" BRRRR is really difficult to do. There are investors in every market that have their mail/cold call teams working to find these perfect deals off-market, and many of them are local. Realtors typically won't help with that, because it's simply not what they do.

Now, since rates have gone up and the market is skidding to a major slowdown, the opportunity is getting better, even on the MLS as people who have to sell don't have 14 offers coming at them for anything that has 4 walls and a roof. If you don't want to do a mail/cold call campaign, you can find houses on the MLS that you can buy for $70k, put the $10-15k into it, and it will be worth $80-90k pretty easily, so you can get some of your money back. But to find the Home Run in your example on the MLS is really difficult. The biggest thing though is to get going doing something. If you can get into a nice, fixed up rental property and have minimal money in the project in the end, that's still a win. It all depends on how you want to proceed. Let me know if you have any other questions about Toledo, and best of luck to you!

It depends on where you're at in 43609. There are a couple of nice sections of neighborhoods that are solid to invest in, but there's a lot of D+ in that zip code as well. And no, you don't need tornado insurance. Let me know if you have any other questions. 

@Raghavendra Kandukuri you live in a great market! I grew up in Green, and the Akron area should have plenty of properties that will perform well that you can manage yourself to start. In Ohio, you should NEVER "break even". You can figure Property Management in your numbers so when you scale you know you're still going to cash flow enough to your tastes. Find an Investor Agent around you in Akron and start looking for deals in your own backyard. Good luck!

@Aiden Huseboe House. Hack. I wish I had started doing that at 18 years old, and I agree with everyone above. But, the question is how are you going to earn money? You have so many different directions to go: Go directly into RE and work with a Property Management Company, a Brokerage, Construction Company, etc to get experience. If there's something else you are very interested in that you can have a career in for 10-15 years to bring in bigger front door income to be able to invest into RE, go to college. Otherwise, you can simply get a job, but that's not usually going to bring in enough to squirrel away to invest. However you go, just remember that most people you see here on BP did NOT start at 18 years old. You have time. Build your knowledge base, look for a great deal, and take it one thing at a time. Best of luck to you!!!

@Kyle A. I agree with all of the above, but it depends on what you want to do. You're also 18-22 years old I'm presuming, so that may change over time. I started as a Physical Therapist, and left the profession after 20 years to be a full time Realtor/Investor, but I also started Investing in year 13 and knew that I didn't want to be a PT forever by year 5. 

If you do have an interest in a career that can bankroll your Investing, go for it. If absolutely nothing else interests you fully, then skip college and work in the industry somewhere: Property Management, a Brokerage, Appraiser, something. Don't spend college money on something you're not going to enjoy and spend a while doing. Listen to all of us when we say working at a job you don't enjoy isn't fun, working at a job you hate is pure misery. Yes, it's good for capital to start investing, but there's much more to life than that. 

There is also so much here on BP and in the Online world as a whole on RE Investing, I don't see how paying for a 2 or 4 year degree would be worth it. If you're adamant about going to college (which, as a Student Housing investor, I get), then go into some kind of Business/Real Estate program. Do it locally at a community college or low cost University, don't saddle yourself with crazy debt. 

Otherwise, it's great that you're looking to do this at a young age, but you have to figure out you first. Everything else will fall into place after that. Good luck!

Well, considering a smoke detector at Home Depot costs around $8 and a CO detector costs around $25, it's really not a huge cost even if they are required. I have smoke detectors in every bedroom and at least one in the hallway, first floor, and basement. CO detectors I would think one on each floor would suffice most places, as well as a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, but it all depends on your municipal code. 

 "I hear water running!" That's gold, I'm using that!!!