All Forum Posts by: Ian Hogan

Consistency and follow up is key. Get back out there and keep it going!

Those are probably the biggest pieces, the rest is talking to other investors, surround yourself with these folks, build the relationships, run the numbers, get comfortable with the numbers, and start writing offers. 

I'm an investor and agent for investors while also having a regular job but I think the answer can often be the same for someone full time investing and "part time" investing. DMs and reaching out online is one thing but getting out there to meetups with other investors and boots on the ground at open houses, etc is a great way to get involved. A lot more trust is built in person vice someone behind the screen, and real estate investing is often a relationship and trust game. If you are full time investing or as an agent you theoretically have an edge to be able to do more of this relationship building while folks doing it "part time" would have less availability.

In Massachusetts if a lease expires it automatically turns into month to month, so I this may depend on state. So here it would just continue with section 8 unchanged. If you miss that 60 days it really just pushes when the rent can actually change. I've had it to where section 8 was delayed on that rent change even with the proper 60 day timeline and they back paid the rent to me based on the adjustment.

Usually with Section 8 you need to give them 60 days to approve a rent increase (this is at least how it is in Massachusetts with my tenants). During that time they determine whether or not the unit is "worth" the increase, from what I've seen as long as it comes to FMR of the area determined by HUD it should pass.

If you want to know if it will affect their portion of rent, this is usually based on 30% of their income and Section 8 covers the rest. You could not change the rent at all, and they could still pay more by a re-evaluation by section 8. It is based on their income and housing situation (dependents, etc). Your best bet if you want to know that is calling the Section 8 Housing Assistant assigned to your tenant and asking, they may be able to calculate what it would look like.

If you want to look for an investor focused brokerage or team in a brokerage I'd recommend looking for meetups in the local area for real estate investors or potentially other investor focused agents in the area, you can likely find both of these with bigger pockets (depending the location). That's what I did as an investor first, then ended up joining the real estate team that helped me buy my first multifamily.

Greater Boston inventory has risen over the last few months with plateaued sales since February. The buyer market remains consistent since the Market Supply metric tracks the Listing Inventory numbers. Sale Price vs List Price spike in April from a constant 0% difference. With the number of Sales in the Greater Boston area this change is likely caused by a swing in competition from buyers raising the average over asking sale price.

New Bedford Listing Inventory is performing well and does better than the previous year (minus the big swing in February). Sales are inching slightly but have stayed flat for the most part. This swing in inventory vs sales shows an increase in overall Market Supply. Since the start of the year the Sale Price vs List Price has swung up to 0% and has not surpassed on average. This will be a metric to watch as the year continues as one of the indicators for buyer competition.

Fitchburg Listing Inventory has remained flat for the first quarter of the year, below the previous year with Sales matching near half the previous year over the last 2 months. Market Supply remains relatively flat matching listing inventory indicating a stable buyer’s pool. Sale Price vs List Price shows a stable pricing market indicating no major swings in pricing competition.

Springfield saw a slight increase in listing inventory, consistently performing better than the previous year. Sales remain healthy and at relatively the same levels over the last few months. Market Supply indicates that buyer activity remains constant as the supply tracks the listing inventory near 1 for 1. Sale Price vs List Price has a slight upward trend but nothing out of the ordinary indicating an upward trend in buyer competition.

Worcester Listing Inventory has maintained at the same levels as the previous month of March, which in these low inventory times is sometimes all we can ask for. Sales stay on track similar to the previous year with a spike this past month. Similarly Market Supply has remained at a more healthy value, but is not indicating any issue or distress of the market. Sold Price vs List Price indicates the Worcester market has hit an equilibrium on price. It may look like April data is not there but it is nearly at 0%.