All Forum Posts by: Jamie O'Connell

I would not do Section 8 anyplace you dont live OR have a good team. I do it out of state but I have a prop manager who handles everything and a competent construction crew to handle everything. I have some sec 8 tenants who pay $400 a month for their portion (state pays the rest) and they have never been late. I have 3 tenants who pay $50 a month and ALWAYS have an excuse why they dont pay. I wait 10 months and start the eviction process to get them to catch up. They are also the trashiest of the spectrum. It's a good payday but as I said, if you aren't a few houses in I wouldn't recommend it. If you dont live there or have a team set up I HIGHLY suggest not going that route. 

Quote from @Jordan Frisco:

Quote from @Jamie O'Connell:

Quote from @Jordan Frisco:

Quote from @Jamie O'Connell:

I personally due the section 8 route. it is not stress free though, section 8 is rough. ! If you can do most of the work yourself, I would try and do a mix of buying, fixing and holding and buying and flipping. Get the monthly cash flow growing while also a mix of the bigger cash outs. 

I think this is one of the better routes for sure. Easy to off load as needed and can remove a lot of headaches after initial inspection and approval from the housing authority. 

 Yea definitely. I am not handy myself so I cant (aka dont wanna) do alot of the labor myself. So between that expensive fact and the fact that it's hard to find houses under 200k in my area I dont do it. I firmly believe in my area that after repair value values 300k and under sell MUCH faster than anything above. 

But if I could find something good I would definitely hop on it because the big cash influx would be nice to help continue buying more income producing properties.

Real estate is a journey, everyone goes their own route and long as you are looking at all the possible outcomes you will definitely do well. 

I think it is one of the things that people say is passive but they are lying to you because it takes you to be actively engaged mentally to make the right moves, book the right deal, keep a tight schedule and keep the ball moving forward to set yourself up for success. Do you mainly focus on 200-300k houses and do mix off fix and hold and fix and flip?

No the area I buy is much cheaper (cause it's a crap town) so I do fix and holds. If I could find good fixer uppers where I live in PA though, buying in mid to top 100's and selling for top 200s would prob be my sweet spot. 

Quote from @Jordan Frisco:

Quote from @Jamie O'Connell:

I personally due the section 8 route. it is not stress free though, section 8 is rough. ! If you can do most of the work yourself, I would try and do a mix of buying, fixing and holding and buying and flipping. Get the monthly cash flow growing while also a mix of the bigger cash outs. 

I think this is one of the better routes for sure. Easy to off load as needed and can remove a lot of headaches after initial inspection and approval from the housing authority. 

 Yea definitely. I am not handy myself so I cant (aka dont wanna) do alot of the labor myself. So between that expensive fact and the fact that it's hard to find houses under 200k in my area I dont do it. I firmly believe in my area that after repair value values 300k and under sell MUCH faster than anything above. 

But if I could find something good I would definitely hop on it because the big cash influx would be nice to help continue buying more income producing properties.

Real estate is a journey, everyone goes their own route and long as you are looking at all the possible outcomes you will definitely do well. 

I personally due the section 8 route. it is not stress free though, section 8 is rough. ! If you can do most of the work yourself, I would try and do a mix of buying, fixing and holding and buying and flipping. Get the monthly cash flow growing while also a mix of the bigger cash outs. 

Brad Sligh - www.callsligh.com

He has done work on a few of my properties when I was in real estate for clients and he did the work on my townhouse I sold last year.

He use to be in the real estate game (as a mortgage broker) and works with a lot of realtors so he knows the game. 

That is amazing! Always pays off to keep on it!

Quote from @An Nguyen:

Quote from @Jamie O'Connell:

start slow! You will learn new tricks and things you wish you had done differently with each flip. Im on house #7 (fix and hold though not flip) and while im happy with jumping in and spending money on the first few, I make the dollar go a lot further on the last few from learning from mistakes. I like Fix and flip loans. if no experience you might need to bring 15 - 20% down but they will prob cover most of your flip budget. 

I am also learning about fix and hold , as the young starter investor, do you think DSCR, construction loan, or what type of loan is relevant for the project?

If you are currently W2 or have two years tax return non W2 I would suggest a regular bank or credit union loan IF you can qualify. I was neither of those so loan 2 - 5 for me were DSCR. The points, Pre Payment Penalties (PPP) and fees are a bit of a pain but long picture looking it was definitely worth it for me. I haven't done a construction loan because I haven't built from grown up but the fix and hold loans worked well for me as well. Pretty much a DSCR loan without having to bring as much to close and they paid for my fix it part which was great. I would highly suggest not going that route until you have a few experiences under your belt because it is easy to go astray. 

Congrats! The first is the most exciting and usually the one that teaches you the most! 

If you dont have someone you trust in that town, I wouldn't give it a try. Spec for your first 5 - 10 properties. You will need someone you trust for collections, repairs, meeting contractors and such. You really do need a team. 

I find the older and less kids the better. Obviously there are rules on what you can ask and such but usually elderly section 8 tenants are there for life and keep up well. The families always have other things they would rather spend their money on, both responsible and non responsible things and paying their portion of the rent is last on that last. I have 7 or 8 sec 8 tenants and I have to FIGHT to get their $50 a month but my tenants who pay $1500 on their own are no problem. 

Goes by the person so like in all real estate investments, its a gamble.