All Forum Posts by: Justin J.

@Michael Cutting Welcome to Biggah Pockets! I have the same goal in mind: being able to travel the world and not have a full-time job, while my real estate portfolio takes care of my financial future. =]

-Justin

@Bill S. I will be getting a better picture of the wall in the next two weeks, and i'll give some insight on what I'm thinking for the fix when I post them here.

@Douglas Larson This wall is solely on my property, the property line is about 7 feet away from the wall separated by a few tons of soil. I'm bringing in an excavation contractor and an engineer to assess safety as well as the plan moving forward. I'll post here when I know what I'll be doing moving ahead. Ideally this will be a DIY project.

-Justin

Welcome to BP @Josh Parra ! Just like you, music and real estate are two of my passions. I used to own an entertainment/DJing business up until a few years ago when I sold it to focus on real estate. I'm a newbie to real estate investing, and the podcasts are so addicting. One quick tip, (sings "quickk tippp", lol if you listen to the podcasts you'll get that one) is to have something to write things down when listening to the podcast. I find that there's a lot of books or resources and recommendations that are excellent to remember, they're addicting! 

Best,

-Justin

@George P.  Wowsers 5-10k! I didn't think it could go out that pricey for what initially seems like a small job. I'll be sure to plan for more than I expect, thanks for your input George.

@Rick Baggenstoss I would think rebuilding might be a better long term solution for the wall. I'm afraid that if I tried a fix, a big storm might erode whatever fix that I may try. Excellent suggestion with the terracing, I didn't think of that! It's more on the middle to low class/college students type neighborhood. I'm not familiar with the types of wall materials but I assume cinder blocks and wood based features are the lower end, might concrete last longer? I like the idea of building in a terrace to add a garden of some sort, I might consider that. 

Originally I was thinking that the wall would look similar -strong, simple and cost effective but you've expanded my creativity on the possibilities.

@Bill S. Good suggestion Bill. This wall is adjacent to a detached garage that was demolished, so this space would ideally be used as additional parking. I need to retain the space up to the wall, so grading it over the wall probably won't work for this application. Property lines ahh! I'll be careful not to disturb the neighbors; If a contractor messes up and removes too much soil which damages or collapses a neighbors wall uphill am I responsible for re-mediating it or will the contractors insurance cover it?

@Mckenzy D. Welcome to Biggah Pockhetss and happy belated birthday! I'm also a newbie to Bigger Pockets as well as the real estate investing world. The above people have given great advice for getting started. I think the most important thing to do is to keep reading and researching what you're interested in. Connections are key in this business, you cannot do it alone (unless you're some sort of prodigy who knows everything lol).

Keywords, like mentioned above are great. One of mine is MA and Massachusetts, so that I can get updates on fellow members from out state or related topics.

 The podcasts are great to listen to when you're in the car, waiting in the doctors office or just at home chillin out. I'm experienced in the whole buying and searching process because I'm a MA licensed Realtor, however I'm new to most things investment related and I'm currently in the process of buying my first multifamily property. I'd be glad to answer any questions that you might have in your search! 

Best regards,

-Justin

@Allen Maris Great point, I didn't think about this potentially requiring a permit...I'll look into that for sure. And yeah I think I'll need an expert's advice to determine whether to grade or rebuild.

@Account Closed I've decided that I'm going to have an excavation contractor take care of this. There's too many variables of safety for me to consider it.

Thank you both for your input!

-Justin

Hello BP,

Does anyone have any experience demolishing and rebuilding landscape retaining walls? I have a wall that needs to be taken down and rebuilt (or graded) and I'm wondering what my options are in terms of putting up another wall or just grating the soil as a slope after the concrete wall is removed. This wall is right next to the driveway, where an old "shed/garage" used to be. I'm also not sure what the cost is to do this, I'm working on getting a few quotes, unless I can handle the demo myself. Any thoughts?

@Shaun Reilly Thank you for the advice as well as the meet-up events suggestions. I'll definitely check out the NEREIA in Chelmsford and the Black Diamond meeting in Waltham. The Boston REIA in medford is convenient for me too. I will try my best to make the waltham meeting this Tuesday.

@Justin Silverio Thanks for the welcome Justin. Indeed, the best name of all sorts =] I'd love to attend your quarterly meeting, I'll PM you my email address following this post. The short sale is in South Lowell, you can google map it if you like: 10 Lundberg street Lowell MA. I'm not really sure what my plans are, I guess I was thinking about pulling out of the deal altogether. My original plan was to buy this SF home to live in, but then I realized that I wanted to invest in rental income for my first property in a different market. The house is in excellent condition and needs nothing. Out of the 40 or so SF properties that I've sifted through, this was one that I'd actually live in without doing much work at all.

@Ann Bellamy  Thank you for the welcome! I'd love to attend your meeting this Tuesday in Waltham. I look forward to meeting you at your Black Diamond meeting.

@Paul Timmins I appreciate the warm welcome! I'm sure you'll see my questions around.

Thanks again to all of you for such a warm welcome to BP! =]

Best regards,

-Justin.

Well maybe not brand spanking new to real estate, but definitely to investing. I'm an ultra ambitious go-getter with 2 years experience as a real estate agent. I currently work full-time in the biotech field in Cambridge MA as a scientist, but my goal is to transition into real estate full-time. I'm primarily interested in rental properties, but will be learning as much as I can from Bigger Pockets about the vast other opportunities that are out there.

I've started to listen to the BP podcasts, read forum posts and I'm sure will start to have questions soon. I've been through the start-here-page, and am currently halfway through the BP ultimate beginners guide. I've setup a few keywords, but i'm sure that there are a few that I'm missing.

I enjoy live music, fast cars, craft beer and laughing hard. I'm 24 with a BS in biology from UNH who isn't happy working for someone else. I enjoy entrepreneurship and reading everything I can about it. I can't wait to learn and share my experiences with this site.

The book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" ignited my search for financial freedom, a few finance and accounting classes later eventually led me to Bigger Pockets.

I'm currently searching for my first investment property (2+ unit). I started my pursuit about a year ago, initially looking for a single family to live in. I found a few awesome SF houses and had a two deals fall through. I'm currently in the process of buying a SF short sale (it's been about 4 months into the process post Purchase and Sales), and will be exiting the deal per my contract in order to buy a multifamily. I am no stranger to the process of buying a property (as a real estate agent), and now have a lot of perspective on the buying end of a short sale both as a Realtor and a buyer.

I would love to network and meet up with fellow investors in MA. From reading other introductions I know that there are scheduled meet-ups, how do I get into these?

Cheers,

-Justin