All Forum Posts by: Nick Luongo

This is my main area and I deal with a lot of rentals and investors. You can definitely find cash flowing properties here, but they are harder to find and very hard to find on mls because inventory is low and cash flow potential means a bidding war. You need to find something where you can add value such as reno or increase bedrooms. The advantages are strong appreciation potential, super easy to rent (tenants pay the fee), and practically non existent vacancy. That management fee is also ludicrous, you can find as low as 2% in this area. I would suggest spending some cash on marketing for off market deals.

Hey Bill,

Welcome to BP. While I'm not the mentor you are looking for, I'm always game for discussing the Boston rei markets and trends. Inside city limits is definitely a different animal than even the 'Greater Boston' area. I'm a leasing agent in Allston so I work with a ton of buy and hold investors. Also working on a couple buy and hold projects of my own

Best of luck

Hey Jeff,

Welcome to BP.

I have to agree with Shaun. Allston/Brighton is the main area I know really well and I can tell you it will be very tough to get an on market single or multi with 20% down without overpaying. I've been seeing time and time again for the past year or so that whenever an appropriately priced house comes on the market, investors are coming in all cash every time. I know people with 30% down that have put offers in well over asking on 10 different places and were unsuccessful. Finding something off market is the way to avoid the competition. I definitely recommend viewing anything that comes up to get a good grasp on prices and the current market.

My office is in Allston and I'm a leasing/sales agent so if at any point you want to go over anything let me know. We pretty much specialize in the scenario your talking about and maxing out the rental income. You might be surprised what you can get for rents nowadays. It's almost not even fair :)

Thanks. You ever try yellow letters? Thinking I might try but its twice the cost of click2mail not to mention postage is about to go up

Hey Jeff

Welcome. You are on the right track joining bigger pockets. Great community always willing to help. I've searched around for investing topics about boston specifically and have not found a whole lot. I'm certainly no expert (I'm a r.e. agent with one investment condo in somerville and on the hunt for a multi, and always willing to wholesale deals) but the hot market aspect really makes it different investing here. Buying at 70% arv is much more unlikely, however wholesaling in some areas at 90% is possible because investors don't have to compete with each other on the mls. Another advantage is the vacancy rate is non existent if you know what you're doing, and rents are at an all time high. Obviously that drives the prices up though. I've done a lot of postcard marketing to find off market deals and it's been worth it so far. If you want to discuss that sometime PM me.

Also if you ever need an apartment in boston rented let me know. As you probably know because of the market it costs the landlord nothing and any fee comes from the tenant.

I know your post is old but can you explain or point to a thread explaining your method of buy and hold no money down? Thanks

But the listing agent will only make 3%, buyer's agent will make the other half. Also my area 4 or 5% is the standard total listing percentage so the 2 sides would split that

I can't answer your question but I find listability.com to be good to order any kind of list you want. If you're mailing to the same list several times, the list is a fraction of the cost of the postage

@Mike Hurney good points. @Paul Sorgy will do no problem.

Do you find there are any key differences between wholesaling in eastern MA vs. other parts of the country, if any? Most wholesaling articles I've read the investor was working in different areas.

I think your area makes a difference too... I live in Boston and wholesaled a property (at over 90% of retail) for 10k with no buyers list by posting on craigslist. I added about 30 people to my buyers list just from that one ad. Granted my area is extremely high demand and multis that hit the market usually go for over asking right away. I do also find that the buyer's I've talked to around here won't get specific about what they want, they just say bring them any deal and if the numbers work they will buy it.