All Forum Posts by: Ernest Grindle

Hi @Tammy Coughlin  I think that since I'm new to this I am going to avoid the downtown Portsmouth area and look further out. There are some inexpensive SFRs in Suffolk that I'm looking at now that aren't as old and in better neighborhoods. Maybe when I have a few purchases/renovations under my belt I'll look again at the older duplexes in Portsmouth. 

Hello everyone, I'm just getting started in the world of Real Estate investment and have gotten tremendous value from the BiggerPockets podcast (listed to over 100 episodes so far). I am ready to start making some investments so I will be using the BiggerPockets platform a lot more actively. I look forward to learning from and interacting with the BiggerPockets community throughout the journey.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly where to target for investing while still working a full time job. I live in Suffolk, VA, but comfortable anywhere within a 3 hour drive. I was looking at some of the duplexes near downtown Portsmouth, VA, in the section north of I-264 and east of I-164 (near the Navy Medical Center) because you can pick some up for $20K-60K; but they are all circa 1900, need a lot of work, and there are a lot of boarded up houses in that area. So even though the price is low and I could pick up some properties pretty quickly, I'm starting to think it's not the right place to start. Any tips on good places to be looking?

That's interesting @Thomas S., I've haven't heard anyone talk about the 12 post dated checks to cover the full year. Do you find most tenants are willing to do that?