All Forum Posts by: Emmett O.

Has anyone ever bought from a sheriff's sale in Philadelphia? Is it true it comes with a free and clear title when you purchase from one of these? I tried looking around online but it seems a little different everywhere you go. Would love to get some insight on the process in Philadelphia. Thanks!

Intro: I wanted to reach out to the greater BP community to get some comments/help on my approach to finding off-market multi-family deals. A lot of what I see related to finding deals in my area is the use of MLS, driving for deals, and wholesalers bringing leads to investors. I wanted to take my own approach using skills from my day job. I do a lot of data analytics currently and am really proficient at interacting with big data so I wanted to bring those skills to find deals, hence the name of the post: Data-Driven Deal Discovery.

Getting the Data: So where I looped my skills in was with the Philadelphia Properties database. I was not able to get the Excel data directly because the link on their website, it simply did not work and I could not pull it using Python. But where I was able to dive in was by using Carto, a spatial data platform. Philadelphia actually publishes their data to Carto's databases so I was able to combine Carto with another platform. This other platform is Alteryx, a self-service data analytics platform. I was able to use a connector between the two to get the Carto data into a format where I could peform basic filters on the data to narrow down my search. 

Using the Data: Below is the Alteryx workflow I made to find multi-family-zoned deals within a specific price range and zip code. There was more to work with is as well so I was able to filter out recent properties that exchanged hands and new constructions, effectively leaving me with a list of properties and their corresponding owners. To make this list more effective for an investor, I added a SQL query to the flow to find properties whose owners are not living at that address, meaning the owner is likely an investor.  

Next Steps: SO, now I have a list of properties and owner addresses and I am stuck. I am good at the data part and all that jazz but when it comes to reaching out I am not sure the best way to go forward. How do you approach owners who are off the market? Is there a way to come off less aggressive or threatening as I imagine many people do. Are there alternatives to yellow letters? Any feedback helps! 

@Michael Campbell hit it right on the head. $1,100 to $1,500 for a updated 3/1 or 3/2 SFH on the right side of Aramingo & Allegheny with some of the higher rents moving across Allgheny now.

I use Lead Safe Technicians. They were good to work with. 

@Raul R.

Feeling this exact thing right now. Bought a place, placed a tenant, and a week later the 1-3 year old furnace goes! What luck!

 Hi Michael, looking for someone to just help with general work / upkeep in the Fishtown area.

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone have a decent enough handyman that they can recommend? I know it’s nearly impossible to find one but wanted to see if there are any good recommendations here.

-Emmett

@Brian Johnson

Hi Brian, what did you end up doing? I am potentially going into the same situation (partner and I split equity; I find deal, purchase property with my credit, and manage as a buy & hold)

@Jake Stuttgen

Definitely am going to have an attorney help us out, I'm curious though how people would spilt the cash flow of the property in this situation. If one partner, the GP, is doing all the work then does he get all the cash flow whole the silent partner gets appreciation off of his 50%? How have you done it?

Hi Everyone,

I am curious what others have done for partnerships, specifically one where the equity invested is 50/50 and the one partner does all the buying, managing, etc.. What is the right deal structure for something like this? I haven't found anything super similar when searching the forums.

-Emmett