All Forum Posts by: Elise Bickel Tauber

 Yes I am. My husband and i are investors and we also own a real estate firm that specializes in helping out of state and out of country investors for buy and holds, brrrs, and flips.

I agree with a lot being said. I think it's important to ask the listing agent (or have your agent ask the listing agent) why the seller is selling. Sometimes it is picked up as a flip so the owner never intended to keep it. If the numbers work, it could be a good investment. Also, I have owners who are just ready to be done being a landlord and will renovate prior to selling to try to get as much as possible for the property but just dont want the headache of tenants anymore.

Hi Santi,

Are you a wholesaler? Or are you looking to work with a wholesaler?

I would agree with what @Mike Klarman said. Western PA is a great area. I would say the best strategy would be to pick up single family homes in the $80-$120k range, put $30-$50k in, rent and re-finance. You can pretty quickly turn this into $10million in more of real estate. Between the steady cash flow and appreciation you would be set. 

This looks great!

I haven't done a lot of this on the investment side but I have done a lot of this on the real estate broker side. I will say that on average you get 20-30% lower rents then market rent and 25-40% lower resale prices with a prefab. I just dont think it's a great investment strategy. I would recommend either a local builder who can work with you on the cost or amish build depending on where it's located. If you need any help I can surely try but I personally would stay away from prefab as an investment option.

We do this for owners by using the matterport system. I really like it and you can do a lower quality version right from your phone if you dont have the matterport camera. We do have the camera and it really helps with floor plans.

This is something that comes up a lot when I'm talking with investors, specially about rentals in the Pittsburgh area. My personal opinion is when we lease a property with an unfinished basement we advertise that the basement could accumulate water. It's a living space under ground and we try to prevent it but water could arise. For finished basements, if it's just a little bit of water, I agree, dehumifider. Otherwise you can go the french drain route or, if only 1 patch of water, a diversion system. I've done that with a few of our properties to route and then ultimately drain the water. 

Hope that helps!

I think this is all going to come down to marketplace. And sometimes, even the agent you partner with. A lot of the agents in my area agree with my team and I on the class ratings but others don't. For Pittsburgh, I usually tell my clients that A areas are the trendier areas. Higher rent prices, better quality tenants, little to no cash flow (usually) but good appreciation and less of a chance of evictions or damage from tenants (and if they damage they usually pay). The goal on these is just long term appreciate and less day-to-day income.

B areas are lower cash flow, but longer term tenants. These tenants often stay a bit longer and are well qualified but there isn't usually a great margin. I often times see higher repair requests in these areas because tenants here expect a certain level of mechanical and cosmetic readiness. 

C areas are my personal favorite. Especially those that are on the rise. You have a medium risk here of eviction and damage when a tenant leaves but you also have a good chance of a longer term tenant, good cash flow, and a slow and steady appreciation.

D areas always look good on paper but they are very high risk. If you find a good tenant here if can be a gold mine but often times you are dealing with a lot of apps before approval and the approved tenants are usually still borderline, lots of evictions, damage, etc. 

Let me know if that helps!

I always tell people, these issues are never black and white. They are all various shades of gray. First, I'm going to ask you what your lease says. Because what I'm reading here, if 100% factual, could have a different outcome depending on the lease (a little bit). So our leases state that if the tenant doesn't notify us of repairs timely that they are ultimately responsible for the cost of the repair. We have won in court before on this, but more times then not, a judge will use their judgement and award a partial amount for the "additional cost" their untimeliness cost the owner in additional repair costs. 

Either way, the fact that the tenant won't let you do the repair, if documented, should protect you from any habibility issue. We've had tenants decide to not pay rent before and start damaging the house to make it uninhabitable. 

A good idea moving forward is to create a good business relationship with an attorney who is local and have them on standby to run these kinds of things by them. They may need more detail to help you navigate earlier on. Not sure where in PA you are but we are in Pittsburgh and if you need a Pittsburgh attorney recommendation let me know. I can share some good ones.