All Forum Posts by: Jason Rodriguez

People way over complicate REI for newbies. In this market— people are dying for food deals. Tripping over each other to find them. What's happening to you is overwhelm. I don't like when newbies get sucked into the rabbit hole of bouncing around forums on bigger pockets all day. All it does is make your head spin. It's not as complex as everyone makes it sound. Especially in this insane market where everyone dying for more deals. It comes down to two things:

1. Find deals- if you can't find deals, no one is going to take up with you or give you funds. If you find a deal, anyone will JV with you or buy that deal from you. This is how I started. Zero funds, took the deal to an experienced investor.. did a JV split. Don't kid yourself tho- the more experienced investor brings money and more knowledge to the deal so they aren't going to do a 50/50 split with you. Take the experience anyway as it is priceless.

2. Find people that actually do deals. Why? Revert to question 1. Where are the people actually doing deals? They are buying cash at sheriff sale and tax sale. They are buying cash at auction. They are at meetup groups looking for more people to bring them deals.

Find deals. Find cash buyers. That's all you need to know. If you can learn about those two things.. you are set. My advice— stop reading so many books and forum threads and take a no BS class or course on deal finding tactics and finding cash buyers. Master those two things and you will start doing deals. You will learn a ton by jumping in with an experienced cash buyer to guide you. If you find a deal and they turn down a JV with you asl them to be brutally honest with you about WHY. A lot of times it's bc it really isn't a deal at all. People bring me "deals" all the time.. and they aren't deals. Don't be offended when they tell you it isn't a deal. Just learn what would make it a deal.

For a whole host of reasons I'm ready to begin real estate investing, but there's one minor problem...I live in Brooklyn. This place is a competitive shark tank, margins are razor thin, and price appreciation has been insane since the crisis. My broker just emailed me a Nov 2017 recap for Brooklyn highlighting that the median sales price is up 20% YoY and the avg price per sq ft is up 5% YoY! I can't fathom making my first purchase under these conditions. 

When I think about expanding my location parameters a bit into NJ (because I might end up there in a few years) the picture gets a little better, but it's still somewhat intimidating since I don't have any local knowledge and I don't know where I'll end up exactly. Furthermore, a lot of the general advice I am reading about real estate investing (e.g. 2% rule), doesn't seem to apply to expensive markets like NY, SF, LA, etc. 

Does anyone have any recommendations for resources specific to getting started in expense markets? That may be a pipe dream as markets will always vary, but I feel like there should be something to the handful of markets that are not "normal". Any help or recommendations would be much appreciated! 

Full disclosure- I'm looking for a fairly traditional investment strategy of 2-4 family multi-unit, putting 20% down, using a management company, etc. Not thinking about flipping, trying to swing a no money down purchase, or screening tenants on my own with a toddler running around. 

@Jaime Salinas are you looking to buy a property flip or buy a property hold? Your post doesn't give much in the way of detail. I just finished up rehabbing a flip here in Berwyn, which is a great market for flipping. I can tell you that you need plenty of capital to flip, and that income cannot be an issue. Buying rentals is a different story, as the income from the property can help you qualify for the loan. I personally lean towards buying property to rent for newer investors, as flipping is a capital intensive sport that pays off only after holding a property for 6 months to a year!

Statutes are fact. People brokering real estate illegally and hiding under the cover of anonymity are just like cockroaches that scurry from the light.