All Forum Posts by: Daniel Mohnkern

If you do it right, a website can be like a vending machine.  It talks to people and can do business with people while you're sleeping or doing anything else.  It can be another form of leverage.  Leveraging your time with a website can save you exponentially when it comes to your time.  You can either "talk" one time on your site and people can "listen" anytime or you can have to actually talk every time someone wants to listen.  I would say, do the work one time and reap the benefits over and over rather than having to trade your hours for dollars (leads, deals) continually.

AWESOME!   Congratulations on the success.  I agree with @James Wise on the use of leverage.  If the cash flow will still make sense, then I would go for it.

RUN away from ARMs. When interest rates are down you want to lock in that fixed rate. If rates were 18% and you were pretty sure they were going to go down that's when you might consider an ARM. If you get one now, you will be nearly certain to have a big increase in the not-so-distant future.

Interest rate low and probably going up - fixed rate

Interest rate high and probably going down - MAYBE an ARM

You could go around the agent if you know who the seller is and let the seller decide whether or not to break his or her contract with the agent.  You will, however, make a bad reputation for yourself by doing so.  News spreads quickly between agents (especially in mid to small sized communities).  If you want that area's agents to work with you and for you in the future, I would not recommend it.  I would either negotiate through the agent or wait until the listing expires.

Is there a Northwest Savings Bank in Pittsburgh (I know they're north of Pittsburgh). They have proven themselves to be very REI friendly in my experience with them.

@Antonio Coleman   Thank you for the welcome, Antonio.  I am totally loving BP so far.

@David Krulac   Wow.  Did I really type that?  The only place that could have come from is that the town of Northeast, PA is in the northwest and it always throws me off.  Thanks for pointing that out.  We're still in the northwest.  And can you believe that I have a job as a charter bus driver driving all over the country?  Thank the Lord for Garmin.

I think all things are relative for the most part.  The larger the city, the more opportunities you have, but you also have other issues in those cities.  The better neighborhoods are often much more expensive in bigger cities than their small city counterpart.  When you look at less pricey properties in major cities, many times you will have to compromise safety to get the great deals.  

Small towns like Conneaut, Edinboro, Greenville, and Meadville still have the different neighborhoods but the price variation is a bit tighter.  In those cities, the doctors and lawyers may live in houses that are quite nice and cost $150 to $300k while the non-workers and minimum wage earners may live in houses ranging from $12 to $25k.  You can find a decent "blue collar" neighborhood sporting houses in the mid 30's to 70's.  

Prices tend to coincide with the average wages earned in the location.  It's basically economics 101.  People who work for $12 to $15 an hour (the majority in those small towns) will be able to afford such houses.  In the larger cities that have strong economies, people may be paying a couple hundred thousand for a middle class neighborhood home, but they also will be making comparable income to pay for it.

Whether you should invest in any given city should depend on the economic outlook of the city.  Things in Conneaut used to be much more bullish when Conneaut Lake Park was alive and well.  This isn't to say that it would not necessarily be a decent investment if you have a compelling reason to believe it would.  Erie has really been picking up in the past 10 years thanks to Nick Scott going after it.  I would consider Fairview, Girard, Meadville, Edinboro, Waterford, etc. to depend highly on Erie for their economies since the majority of the people who live in those towns work there.  See if Conneaut is similar or not.

If the city is on a consistent down trend economically (businesses moving out/closing) and it is not becoming strong as a bedroom community for a larger city, I would avoid it.  If it seems stable economically (new businesses moving in) I would go for it.  The lower prices might make it easier for a beginner to get into the race.

@Geoff Eldringhoff   Welcome to BP!  Be careful, this place is addicting.  If you have a wife, get her to come on to it too so the two of you will still spend time with each other.

Right.  But it doesn't have to be *your* cash, right?  As long as you are paying them in full at closing?

Yeah, I would say @Roy N. is right.  I didn't think about the differences from residential to commercial.  I am most interested in cash flow.  If it is at all possible, I would take as long of an amortization term as possible so my cash flow is better.  It all depends on what's important to you.  For me, if the cash flow didn't make sense to me, I would pass on the deal (barring any other impelling reason to do it).  If they would let me amortize over 60 years, I would.  In my opinion, the amortization schedule is just another form of leverage.  The longer it is, the more cash I keep each month.  On my personal property, I feel differently.  The quicker I pay it off, the quicker I become personally debt free.  I got a 30, but I can throw more at it when I want to (rather than HAVING to, as with a 15).