All Forum Posts by: Jason Simon

Hi Matthew,

Congratulations on starting your investment journey and thank you for your service. I faced a similar situation as I was overseas when I closed on a house. There are virtual notary's based out of VA but most title companies won't accept those. It's worth double checking with yours first. If so, problem solved. If not, you will have to go to the Embassy because a notary has to witness on US soil for reasons I never fully understood. That's what I did and it cost a few hundred dollars plus the cost to mail the documents so not ideal but not much you can do. I do wonder if because you're on a military base there might be exceptions so again, check with the title company. Best.

@Carlos Villalta

I didn't end up investing in El Paso but best of luck to you. 

I was a big user of the BP app. When I purchased a new phone and had to update and reinstall all of my apps the BP app wouldn’t update and wasn’t available in the app store. I wrote to BP customer service and they confirmed that the app doesn’t exist any longer. That said, you can still use the existing app as long as you don’t need to update it. 

Hi Lesley, I am also looking in the Cleveland area and have a duplex under contract. This is my first Cleveland property and I'm an out of state investor. What I was finding was that there were two types of properties available, which is probably what you're seeing. Either it cash flows really well but is in a really rough neighborhood or the cash flow is less than I hoped for (my goal was 8% +) but in a B/C+ neighborhood. I think the high taxes play a large role in depleting cash flow in Cleveland's nicer neighborhoods. For what it's worth, I settled on a duplex that will CF at about 6% with the goal of increasing rents and seeing appreciation over the long term. Being an OOS investor, I didn't want to get into a property located in a war zone so I sacrificed CF for piece of mind. 

@Isaiah J Aragon I agree with you that anything less than stock returns is not a good bet. Appreciate you analyzing the deal. I'm going to look into a significant rent increase with a new tenant that would get me close to the 10% mark. If not, I'll move on. Thanks!

@Luciana W. thanks so much for the feedback and you're right, one issue and the profit is wiped out.  The property has  renter in it currently and they are paying $1200/month but rentometer has the median rents in the area at $1400 so I think there's room to increase. $1400 would get me closer to 10% so I need to look into this. Not much to do on the side of renovations, it's actually in very good condition. 

Hi all, 

Wondering if you could help me analyze this deal. The COC is very low at 3% (about $95/month) but I think the current rent can be raised. The property is in a B neighborhood and this would be a buy and hold/appreciate investment. Would appreciate anyone's thoughts on if it makes sense. Thanks in advance.

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@Michael Swan: appreciate the advice! I’m staring to look in those areas.

@Michael Swan have you invested in the Cleveland suburban market?