All Forum Posts by: Jordan Hanksion

@Mike Hill I appreciate your detailed and well thought out response. I would tend to agree that on many forum posts there tends to be a number of, may I say, overzealous responses. However, to say that this has in any way discouraged me from diving in and continuing my real estate education would be far from the truth indeed.

To answer your question: my real estate goal, long term, is primarily to buy and hold. The strategy I intend to use to achieve this goal in the next 1-2 years is to first house hack a multi-unit (likely a 3 or 4 plex). After the first purchase I intend to take advantage of the stellar market prices in Milwaukee to purchase an incredible deal (hopefully, at or below the 50K range). 

Now here is the rub, the first property I will be purchasing will be in my primary city, Madison, WI.  I know Madison very well.  I have friends there, many who are in real estate. I have a solid knowledge of the neighborhoods and decent of the market value of the real estate there. I don't, however, have such intimate knowledge of Milwaukee, and while they are manageably close to one another (1.5 hour drive), I need help when searching for deals in that area.

My primary worry has been, "Is this property a great deal because it's so cheap, or is this property so cheap because it is a horrible deal?". Another concern of mine is the neighborhood of properties I'm investing in. Milwaukee has some notoriously bad neighborhoods and, unfortunately, a lot of them . Not being a Milwaukee local it is difficult to pinpoint where these bad neighborhoods end and the good ones begin. There is not a whole lot of statistical data telling me how to find these neighborhoods, or more accurately, I don't know where to find these data sources, or how to interpret them. 

The end result of this "market blindness" is that I have a wide city of properties for sale, mostly on the MLS, but not a whole lot of knowledge about where to look, the market values specific to an area or, most importantly, what a good deal looks like for that particular neighborhood.

I know this is rather long winded, Mike, and I appreciate you sticking it through. Let me know if you were curious about anything else. 

Much appreciated!

Jordan

Hey, BP

I have heard a lot of investors rate their properties' neighborhood, or the neighborhood of a property they are investigating with the school grade system (A to F). Are these just Arbitrary ratings, given as a best guess by the individual investor? Or is this rating something more calculable and solid?

Thanks!

@Donny Widjaja I actually lived in PA for a little under a year, though not in Pittsburgh. Perhaps one day you and I can work together on a deal in one of these areas. 

@Mark Nelson That seems like good advice. My foremost plan for Zillow is to use it as a platform to find properties where further investigation might be worth pursuing. 

It just so happens that I plan on expanding my market to Portland, OR in the next few years. How do you find the market is for deals there? It definitely seems like a tighter scene there than in the Midwest, from the research I've done.

@Ingrid J. I had considered investing in Israel, but my financial and market situation is not congruent to be making those moves right now, I simply don't know the market in Israel the way I do in the US. 

@Ian Ippolito Extremely Helpful, thank you. I've been investigating the last hour and a half! 

@Ian Ippolito, I can definitely say that I am not an accredited investor, what are these other crowdfunding options you're talking about?

@Sam Erickson Interesting! I had no idea about Redfins new service. I will certainly look into it. 

@Bill Gulley I am aware that much more research is going to be required before any offers are made, this is why I referred to these as "blind estimates". If you know Milwaukee then you know that it is one of the most segregated cities in the US. one area will be gentrified with high rents and property values and another 3 blocks over will be a ghetto. The ability to have a rough estimate would help me significantly to funnel which properties are worth investigating further and which are likely duds. Very useful in a city where there are hundreds of properties that are under $50,000.

@Saul L. This is kind of what I figured the situation was to be. I have to say it's a little maddening to have to wait when you have an idea burning a hole through your brain! Perhaps it is for the best though, this way I think there will be less risk of me entering into a deal without having done my proper home work. 

I thank you for your advice, and chag sameach!

Hey BP

Zillow seems like it could be a very useful tool for searching for real estate and gleaning a blind estimate for locations value and rental income.

My question is, just how accurate are these "Zestimates"? Especially in larger cities like Milwaukee, my target market.

Thanks.