All Forum Posts by: Greg Potter

Jason Carter - thanks for the greetings Jason. Tenant turnovers are always one of the more exciting times in an investors life. I wonder at what point you have enough units that a turnover isn't exciting.

I'm with you on the time thing. If I could just get this J-O-B out of the way I'd have tons of time to get my hands dirty!

Ali Boone - yes, most likely going to pluck another Memphis property for the next purchase then I'll look into other markets and other providers. Vacation... I mean REI business trips are good fun! From my outsider perspective I would agree with you that the Memphis market is tightening up some, but I have to go with Chris Clothier on this one and say I don't believe Memphis is going to be drying up completely any time soon. It is such a large metro area with so much inventory and just the perfect demographics and economy for renters. The hedge funds will have an impact, but no more than the Australians or the Chinese or the Canadians.

Working in the financial industry here is what my crystal ball tells me about hedge funds. The funds will buy in bulk and push up prices, they'll have a rough time maintaining occupancy and keeping their properties in good shape, they won't realize the ongoing returns that they expect and they will look to dump when they see prices have moved up and they think they can get some good capital gains. If they have a big enough presence in any one market when one fund starts to dump and the others will rush to do the same thing and the flood of inventory back into the market will drive prices down creating opportunities for you and me and a host of other investors.

Welcome Michael Dorovich, I see you have some markets targeted. Have you done any deals in these markets? What do you find attractive about these markets?

Ali Boone - The why Memphis story... In early 2011 I had been listening to several podcasts on investing and real estate in and had been saving up funds for making my next RE purchase but I was undecided as to whether or not I wanted to buy another fixer upper in my town or pursue another RE strategy. I had walked through several local properties and was considering making some purchase offers when on one of the podcasts I listened to they interviewed the owner of a turnkey provider operating in Memphis. I was somewhat familiar with the concept and had perused some various sites previously listing deals in markets other than Memphis but I hadn't really been excited by any of the projected returns I had seen. This interview really opened my eyes to how the business model of a turnkey provider worked and everything I heard in the interview made a great deal of sense to me. On top of that when I looked at the available properties this provider was offering the projections and price points were very attractive. Over the next few months I focused on researching turnkey providers in a couple of different markets but kept coming back to Memphis because the numbers were so good. I then contacted the company from the podcast interview and asked a bunch of questions, took a three day trip to Memphis to investigate the market and the company, was pleased with my findings and purchased a property. By the next summer I had put together enough funds to purchase property number two.

I get asked this question frequently, I think I need to come up with a shorter version of the above story.

PS. I just checked out your blog and subscribed to your newsletter. Looking forward to getting some good stuff.

Hello Jose Flores, welcome to BP! Are you currently investing in the Buffalo market? If so, what kinds of challenges have you faced there?

Hello John Moody, I too made my first real estate investment in a two-family home, living in one unit and renting out the other. It really is a great way to reduce your personal housing expenses and a good way to learn the ropes of being a landlord. Upstate NY has a lot of opportunities to offer, just watch out for those onerous property taxes!

Hello Greg B., I realize your "new member" post is nearly a year old but I just had to say hello to a fellow Syracuse BP member.

A podcast not included in this thread yet but I enjoy listening to on occasion is Everyday Property Investing. It is a podcast out of Australia so not everything they talk about is completely relevant in the States, but I think it is interesting to hear about RE investing from people with a different perspective. Besides, there is something about the Australian accent that just makes people sound smarter than the general populace I encounter in my daily travels.

I regularly listen to and would recommend Creating Wealth and The Real Estate Guys. I've even got a signed copy of the Real Estate Guys' book "Equity Happens" by winning a trivia question on their show. Both these shows come out frequently and have some great content.

I've listened to Lifestyles Unlimited and on the positive side it is nice that they put out shows as often as they do, they do a good job with motivation, and they do share some quality information. On the negative their sound quality (at least during the time I subscribed) was quite poor. They could have invested in some better quality recording equipment. They are also very heavy on selling their meetings and joining their REI club.

I also have listened to Kathy Fetke's Real Wealth Show and while they sometimes have some good information they seem to cater very much to only high income California listeners and they don't put out shows frequently enough to be of great interest.

Ned Carey, James Vermillion - Thanks for the welcome messages!

Mehran Kamari - Yes, my two Memphis properties were purchased through a turnkey provider. I've read a few threads on BP stating in general turnkey providers tend to be expensive and there is more money to be made putting together your own deals however I've been quite pleased with my results thus far. I don't think 17% and 19% cash on cash returns (after expenses) are all that bad considering how easy the process has been. With that being said as much as I enjoy real estate I'd like to get more involved in my next couple of deals.

Brandon Turner - My plans are to do more investing, most likely my next move will be to purchase another single family through the turnkey provider I do business with in Memphis. I'd really like to transition out of my current career and into real estate full time I'm just not sure what that transition looks like for me. One of the things I am hoping to get out of the BP community is networking with other investors, seeing what strategies and business models they are using, and finding what would be a good fit for myself.

More generic overall goals are to increase the rental income to the point where all regular life bills are covered and I'd like to eventually get involved in a large project, something like the conversion of a downtown high rise building into mixed use. The idea of taking an unused, dilapidated old shell and turning it into ground floor retail, some office space, and 40+ residential units is very intriguing to me.

Hello Bigger Pockets community, my name is Greg and I currently live in Syracuse NY. I work in operations in the banking sector. I currently own a two family property in Syracuse and two single family homes in Memphis TN. I'm looking forward to meeting, learning from, and sharing experiences with other investors, as well as increasing my real estate portfolio and involvement.