All Forum Posts by: Greg Baker

Congratulations!

Welcome @MJ Calabrese.  I live in Gates (Rochester) but actually work as an administrator in the Lyons CSD so I take the Geneva/Lyons exit daily!  Geneva is definitely an interesting area, the beautiful waterfront mixed with the growing poverty and multi-lingual population.  I think Geneva is actually the only school in the Wayne Finger Lakes region that is required to have a true bilingual program due to the number of English as a Second Language students at various grade levels. 

I checked out your profile, thanks for your service as a police officer.  I'm curious, are all of your properties in the Geneva area?  

@Mark W.

Thanks for the feedback, sorry I was not more clear.  Yes, long term buy and hold and unfortunately even if we do purchase multi we will not be owner occupying.  I definitely need to familiarize myself more with the city itself, I've lived in "Rochester," my whole life, but always in the suburbs.  

Good evening Rochester friends.  I'm about 63 podcasts deep, I'm nearly done with J Scott's book, and I've just about gotten the hang of calculating cash flow.  Here's where I'm completely stuck....I love the idea of finding a small "farm area" and learning it inside and out, the problem is, I use the term Greater Rochester Area in a broad sense, and it's huge.  For those Rochester area investors who are successful, did you scour census data, choose based on a mileage radius of your home, find areas that thrive based on the investment property you're looking for, or something totally different?  

I'm totally torn here and it's killing me.  The three P's (Pittsford, Perington, Penfield) should have high quality tenants based on school district, Henrietta has low taxes comparatively, I've lived in Spencerport and Gates my whole life and are solid family neighborhoods, Brockport has a college population as well as a history, continue down 104 and you find relaxed rural living where you may have the same tenants for 15 years...

Help!!  Thanks everyone.

edit: I have approximately two weeks off over Christmas.  If anyone is up for a coffee or lunch let me know!  

Eric, there is a great podcast that talks all about how to approach lenders and find the right source for you. I believe the guest was a CPA and a finance underwriter. I believe it was either in the high 40 or 50s for the podcast number.

Senad, I'm not sure of your family situation, but if I could rewind the clock 6 years I would have bought a duplex or triplex, lived in one unit and rented the others. There is very attractive financing for this and would have allowed me to save hundreds more per month towards future investments. I would have looked to move into a "new" duplex triplex every two years or so following the same pattern. Once we're truly settled work wise we could buy our first true real estate liability (primary residence!) with cash flow. I mentioned family because a.) I'm not sure if my wife would have been up for this, and b.) we actually wanted to move for work within the last 3 years but could not because of how upside down we are on our home. Pros and cons there. Good luck!

Thanks for all of the great ideas everyone.  I think I'll start with the following:

• Wainscot - this seems like a nice starter kit: ttp://www.homedepot.com/p/House-of-Fara-8-sq-ft-MDF-Overlapping-Wainscot-Interior-Paneling-Kit-32MDFKIT/100484658?MERCH=RV-_-rv_search_plp_rr-_-NA-_-100484658-_-N
• Either a pedestal sink or small vanity.
• More decorative mirror with lights above.
• Nicer set of towel hangers and toilet paper holder
• Upgrade pipe trap and outlet
• Build a couple small shelves for the wall to the left of the sink.
• Clean up the plaster, window, paint

If I go the vanity route, am I OK with a cheap one like one of these?  

http://www.homedepot.com/p/N-A-24-1-2-in-W-Vanity-...

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Glacier-Bay-30-1-2-in-V...

Secondly, can I wainscot directly over the tile board that is there now, or should I remove it?  It's not real tile that's painted, it's some type of board that indented like it's tile.  

Thanks again for all the great ideas, I wish I could do them all especially replacing the window, the only problem then is I'd have to replace 17 more in the house!

Hi everyone,

First off, I am not handy.  I would like to be handy, and I hope to become handy by simply doing and learning.  My long-term goal is to have a number of buy and holds, so I'm going to experiment with some basic work in my own primary residence as a way to learn with much less pressure.  My secondary goal is to also increase the value of our home, although we will not really see a major return on the money we put into it, so I would like to be as thrifty as possible.  So, what would you do to this bathroom to simply make it more appealing?   As a FYI, our house is a 4/2 and this is the secondary, upstairs bathroom.  Measurements are approximately 7 foot 6 x 5 foot 9.

Chris, you mention you will trial the new area for approximately 2 years to see if you will stay.  If you do not stay do you plan to move back to the area you are in now?  If so, you could potentially move right back into your home without the headaches and costs of selling, then 2 years later, buying again. 

Originally posted by @Wayne Swenseid:

afraid to look

 If you want a quick ballpark you can download the Credit Karma app.  My experience is the credit score the app provides you is lower than your actual scores by somewhere between 10-50 points.  Either way, you might as well know all of the cards in your hand.