All Forum Posts by: Max Householder

Eric Brand with Shelter Insurance is our agent. He's been great to work with and their rates are solid.

Wow, nice get in Shaw. Units look really nice and big!

I did not, I ended up buying two properties in south city over the last 2 years. I still like the idea of Jeff Co. but it's just not quite my backyard like the city is.

Jeff Massey is a great inspector to work with and we've closed at Continental Title on Hampton Ave. twice and they did a great job.

Where is the property? What is the status of the systems (stacks, hvac, electric panels)? Roof? Sewer lateral? Are the rented apartments updated or will they need extensive turnover if a tenant moves out?

On how much to put down, what are your goals for the property? How long do you want to live there? Do you just want the tenants to pay it off for you or do you need the cash flow in the near or medium term?

If you're putting down 5% because it's all the money you have, i.e. you won't have any cash cushion (mentioned 3 months living expenses) that seems like a pretty bad idea IMO. These older 4-units tend to hoover up cash at first. When you take over management everyone will have 10 things to fix they were too lazy to tell the old owner and there are always more little expenses than you expect. If a job loss would put you upside down without any buffer, maybe saving up a 25% downpayment first and then decide if you want to do 5% and have the rest as a cushion. Just my $0.02

Hi Lisa, talk to @Peter MacKercher, he's not terrible :)

Hey @Samuel Glantz hope you have a good time in St. Louis. Agree with Lance, driving up and down each street in south city is the best way to get a feel for the neighborhood. The Hill, Northampton, Southampton, Bevo, Holly Hills, Tower Grove South, Shaw, Tower Grove East and Southeast, Fox Park, Benton Park West, Cherokee St., South Broadway, Soulard, Lafayette Square, they all have a different feel so it shouldn't take long to get a sense of which speak to your investing goals more.

As far non-business things to do, the Arch and Arch Grounds/Riverfront is great and just underwent a big remodel. The museum there is great as well. The tour at Anheuser Busch is great as well. Forest Park is enjoyable, especially in the summer, but the History museum is nice and it's a beautiful place to walk around.

IMO the best way to get to know St. Louis is to eat and drink so here goes:

Drink: Craft Breweries. There are 30-40 in the metro area depending on how you count it. Civil Life is in the heart of South City and really great, probably our favorite to visit. It's cash only, so hit an ATM before you go. Urban Chestnut in The Grove (there are 2 locations) is close to Forest Park, it's a German-style bierhall, very fun to visit. 2nd Shift is near The Hill and has some phenomenal beers. Earthbound Brewing is on Cherokee Street and very hip/hipster kind of place with unique/funky beers. Some others around where you'll be are Heavy Riff (Dogtown), Perennial (Patch), and Modern Brewery. 4 Hands downtown is also really great.

Eat: BBQ, Pizza, Burgers, Italian, chicken, St. Louis has everything you could want. If you're here during lent, the fish frys at the local Catholic Churches are open to the public and very fun.

BBQ: Pappy's is the quintessential BBQ spot in St. Louis and the most well-known outside of town. Bogart's Smokehouse in Soulard is awesome, great burnt ends. Adam's Smokehouse in Clifton Heights has my favorite ribs. The Shaved Duck is a sit down BBQ place, nice for dinner, but it's as good as any of the others. Everything is great there and the Smothered Fries are an absolute must.

Pizza: People will tell you Imo's but DO NOT go there. It's complete garbage, not real pizza, just don't. I'm not a born-and-bred local so I guess it's not in my DNA, but it just sucks. Stay away. Our favorite is Pizza A-Go-Go. Cash or check only, super duper local place, but it's really great. They have sodas, but it's BYOB wine or beer so it's kind of fun that way. Hand-tossed pizza, relatively thin. Black Thorn Pizza & Pub in Tower Grove has the best Chicago-style deep dish in town and the best I've ever had outside of Chicago. Truly phenomenal. If anyone says go to "Pi" Pizzeria for deep dish, don't listen to anything else they have to say about anything. Felix's Pizza Pub is great for unique/funky pizzas, less traditional but really good.

Italian: The Hill is the old Italian neighborhood so stick to that area. Everyone has their favorite restaurant though. I have eaten at most of them and they're all phenomenal. Charlie Gittos and Zias are probably the most well-known, but I'm partial to Cunetto and my wife loves Gian-Tonys. Like I said, you can't go wrong.

Burgers: O'Connell's Pub or Seamus McDaniels. Great burgers, neat venues, and you get a feel for the Irish side of South City. There are many other great burger joints, but these are our favorite.

Chicken: Southern is the most well-known and right next door to Pappy's BBQ. Really good hot chicken. Hodak's is another one that I like and is a really local place.

Mexican: We like Paisanos and Amigo Joes, but are pretty low-key traditional American-style Mexican restaurants. Cherokee Street is our "little Mexico" so there are like a dozen great Mexican restaurants over there and several in Bevo now that have gotten rave reviews.

Others we love are The Peacemaker for seafood, it's really phenomenal. There are plenty of great steakhouses as well, but we usually do steaks at home. As you can see, there is no reason to eat at a chain restaurant by your hotel or anything of the sort! Don't waste an opportunity to have a ton of great meals and beer! Good luck!

Agree 100% @Denny Robert, I tried to make it clear I see many good areas to the east as well but not sure I did a good job of that. I was trying to make a blanket statement as to the "decent" area and as you know it's a much more site-specific to the east, especially for someone out of state.

Thanks! "Wrong side of the tracks" is a saying for a reason. Next time you drive through a small town or even larger towns, look closely whenever you cross tracks and it's uncanny how often one side is markedly different from the other.

Kyle is right on as far as the top-to-bottom decent areas. Pretty much anywhere in those zip codes you should be okay. Generally best to stay away from the "cheap spots" in St. Louis, however, coming from Berkeley I imagine the vast majority of St. Louis properties would seem cheap, lol.

My favored dividing line is the railroad tracks that run north-south from just north of I-44 near the Botanical Gardens all the way down to Carondelet Park and I-55. In general, if you're just about anywhere west of that dividing line you should be okay. There are also many really great areas east of the tracks, but it is much more likely to be block-to-block or sketchy-adjacent than in the zip codes Kyle mentioned. Good luck!