All Forum Posts by: Dominic Jones

Okay, but it's still not clear what you're looking for though. Are you looking to buy a property for the foreign investor or...? What? I'm kind of lost here...

You can either start driving, or you can buy a list of absentee owners in your zip code area and just market with letters directly to those owners and let them know what you're trying to do and see if any of them have been itching to unload their multi.

Duplexes running in high 100's to low 200s... hmmm. That seems much more affordable than the cost of duplexes etc. closer to NYC.  

I suppose that you and your wife are both still working full time, so moving into a Duplex is ideal for you because the other unit would get you close to (if not entirely) cover your mortgage and house hold expenses like utilities, etc. and help you and your wife free up a lot of your salary, right?

If that's the case then you should be fine with a duplex, might cash flow a little bit, but mostly your ROI will come from how much you'll be able to save / live for free and the amortization of your duplex on someone elses' dime.

Have you applied for an FHA loan or a 203k loan? If you are able to get either one of these loans then your down payment will be 3.5% and you'll be better off leveraging your purchase and get even more ROI on the duplex.

Hope this helps. PM me if you want to talk more about it.

Best,

Dom

Yeah, to get in good and know the properties that have coding violations, you should be very familiar with the "vip" people in your local government. Some of them can and some of them can't help you at all, but the ones that can, they can really help you out a lot.

If you buy and read this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-McGraw-Hill-36-Hour-Cour...

The 36-Hour Course on Real Estate Investing.

In this book he talks a lot about finding code / zone violations and how to take advantage of them. At one point I started to think that's all the book was about. 

It provides a lot of good information on how to get in good with those "vip" people I mentioned up above, and how to turn those zoning / coding violations into your favor. 

Yeah, it does seem fishy doesn't it? Haha. I've been looking online for real estate licensing courses too and I've found some cheap ones, but as mentioned up above, it's the additional costs that will get you by adding up. If you're not able to balance those costs with some form of income until you can get your first sale (which they say takes 6 months sometimes) then you'll just be running up the cost of your real estate business. It definitely is an asset to have though so you'll have to weight the pros and cons of the financial aspect once you get to that bridge I suppose. You should get in touch with agents on BP so that you can ask them what type of costs they actually see. Ask them what brokerage they paired their license with.

Specifically look for other agents that are also investors, and investors first, before being an agent. That's who I would look for. I'm sure those people are here on bigger pockets. Find them and ask them a bunch of questions about the costs of holding their license in relation to their investing and they should give you some much better insight.

Hope this helps.

Best,

Dom

I second this post - not a step-by-step guide for what you have to do but definitely the process you should follow. I would look into multi-family investing here on BP. You'll find more than enough information to help you get to the next stage in your buying process.

Definitely give us an update as to what you plan on doing so that we can continue to chime in on your progress. Wish you the best! 

@Peter Rowell & @Joel Barron - thanks and welcome to the BP community.

I'm going to find some buying duplex links for you and resources that you can definitely continue your reading...

How to Buy a Duplex Ultimate Step by Step Guide - Brandon Turner

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/07/1...

Using FHA Loans to Buy Multi-Family Investment Properties and Live Rent Free by Frank Defazio

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2012/11/8...

There are a bunch of podcasts also about purchasing duplexes and also but I'm running out of time to make this post.

I would really start looking into applying for an FHA loan and see if you can get one. It'll help reduce the down payment greatly. I'm not that familiar with the Albany market, but I would assume that it follows the same pattern of NYC, with a high barrier to entry (meaning high purchase costs, high appreciation, but also low cash flow).

Mention me again and I'll swing back around to this thread to see what else the veterans have suggested you do. I'm still learning myself but multi-family is my thing. If you're set on a duplex, you want to try and find one that will cash flow well enough so that you can live rent free... I don't think that's going to be an easy thing to do in NY but i'm sure it's possible.

Have you started looking in the market yet to see the average price for a duplex in Albany? 

Thanks a lot, I'll give it a look over. I just sent you a connection request as well as a private message! Check it out when you have a moment. 

Hey Dominick,

It's Dominic :0

Pleasure to meet you buddy. Checked your profile out and feel we may be able to help each other out. I'm interested in wholesaling virtually in Philadelphia and need to start contacting some agents that know the market better than I do. Would love to talk to and pick your brain, see how we can help each other if you're interested. Check your inbox for a private message.

Best,

Dom

Keen let me know what the Airbnb stuff is all about. That's very interesting that they're beginning to change renting laws / regulations / policies in different countries with their power and influence growing so large!

Can you provide some more information? Where are you trying to buy at?

What are you trying to buy?

Are you a resident of the US or no?