All Forum Posts by: Jason H.

  @Colin L. @Eric Teran @Bryan LaRoche I’m glad to see all you architects finally coming out of the woodwork...j/k.  Funny how it took an engineer speaking out to make the architects have a conversation amongst their own.  Obviously our road to becoming an architect with the years of education and training, licensure and practice were all very similar, but what’s interesting is the diversity of how we adapted the mindset shift towards real estate to our own unique careers and goals.  

I’m also curious to hear how your experience with building, design and architecture has influenced the way you invest in real estate compared to other non-architect investors.  I often think our biggest strength which ironically is also our biggest weakness, is the emotion that we have with design that on one hand is the catalyst that produces great architecture, but at the same time such emotion allows us to willingly work for low pay or accepting a lower fee, just so that we have the opportunity to get something built...again to satisfy that emotion.  

How does ‘emotion’ factor into your investing strategy? Or does it?

Hi Ali...Great to see an interior designer joining in on the discussion.  If you have experience with residential interior design, I can definitely see you capitalizing on your skills in the short term rental market.  Obviously the virus has temporarily killed off a lot of the metro market STRs but if you can somehow break into the vacation markets and market to those who are looking to up their listing and make them stand out more with professional interior design services, that would be a great opportunity. 

of course...I wasn’t referring to yours and was just saying it as a figure of speech to explain my point.  I was born here but come from an immigrant family so I know what you mean.

 You need a good source of lead generation for off-market deals.  With so much talk of multifamily investing, demand has been high for 2-4 units with only properties having fundamental problems still sitting on the market - either structural issues, undesirable location or seller not willing to budge on asking.  Then there are also sellers who only want to sell their multi's to owner occupants for sentimental reasons, which I have personally come across recently and lost out to someone else.

Bottom line, yes you can make the high taxes work.  Just keep an eye out for a new purchase price spread triggering a tax reassessment of the current assessed value in your municipality.  School boards are notorious for wanting whatever they can get their hands on.

Totally agreed.  If you walk into any of the boutique starchitects offices, they are often staffed with young designers that come from families that aren't "starving" by any means.  But it works somehow, the pay is notoriously low in those firms, and yet there are people knocking on the door wanting to work there accepting low pay for a chance to work with a celebrity.  The corporate firms are where you start to see less of that and more professionals earning a decent salary through a gradual career trajectory.  However, glad to see another architect who jumped out from the tunnel vision that so many of us fall in...there's definitely a balance worth striving for.

@Filipe Pereira. I don’t think many people have used the term “former architect” and “regret” in the same sentence.  Haha.  But the low turnout on this really has proven my point.  I think they’re all too busy drawing toilet details while sheltering-in-place!

Totally agree with Jonathan on all points.  Four units and less don’t appraise using income approach.  They will likely go off of square footage and/or per unit cost.  I would have to agree on the rent comps too...A multi-unit residential property isn’t going to have the same amenities as larger apartment buildings with facilities.  Your rents are going to be in alignment with the rest of the neighborhood, with the only legit way of getting a bump is to renovate and/or provide central A/C.

@Stephen Brown @Stone Jin. You guys are absolutely right about killer taxes.  No way around it but to avoid investing in these areas.  Where I invest in PA, you can count on paying anywhere between $2,200-3,000/door per year...and these are not SFRs.  These are <1,000sf units in a duplex set up.  Despite high taxes, no negative cash flow.

I will start off by disclaiming that I cannot take credit for the idea behind this post.  I recently read and responded to a post initiated by @Adam Zach surveying all members wanting to see who in the real estate investing world came from an engineering background.  I posted a reply mentioning that the ironic thing about this topic was that the group of people who should know THE MOST about real estate (minus the investing part) were architects!  And then went on to say that it was likely because of an architect’s (low) income versus an engineer’s which prevents architects from investing.  But then I gave it more thought, and what’s even more ironic is that...most architects are so preoccupied with their craft that they fail to see the what their clients are doing right under their noses...Developing buildings to make money!  I know there’s at least a couple of us out there...let’s represent!

The funny ironic thing about this conversation (for me) is that the group of people who should know the most about real estate (note I didn't say real estate 'investing') are architects!  But in the end, it's really a testament to the income of architect versus engineers (and the rest of the professions)!  As an architect, I am so glad to have found finally found real estate investing, but often wonder why the light bulb didn't go off earlier...when I was helping all my clients design apartment buildings, I was there just taking a paycheck...Still, never too late.