All Forum Posts by: John Clark

It wasn't overnight. According to the PM, the city was making efforts to clean up the streets around my neighborhood. When they got to my street, they stopped. Funds may have run out. Police force reduced. I don't know. Hartford has pockets of bad areas. My street had a crack house across the street and a brothel a few doors down. You cross the avenue onto the other block and it turns nice. This wasn't anything I could control

Your analysis is wrong. Neighborhoods don’t decline because improvement money runs out. They don’t improve because improvement money runs out, and simply remain as they were.

Now look at what you wrote. There was a crack house across the street. C NEIGHBORHOODS DO NOT HAVE CRACK HOUSES!!! Then you say there’s a brothel a few doors down. Most C neighborhoods don’t have brothels, and if they do, they are discrete and the girls are pretty.

Bottom line: You bought into an F neighborhood, not a C neighborhood. It remains an F. Whoever sold to you unloaded a bag of s**t on you. I have to question your mental acuity first, though. How could you think that a neighborhood wits crack house was class C?

Your ignorance is so typical of what exists in this industry. Are you from Hartford? Do you make assumptions on places and base them on where you live? Are you saying that I'm a liar and that when I bought the place the crack house and brothel were already there?? No they weren't, because I didn't see them when I inspected the neighborhood. They get chased out from other neighborhoods, but it seems you lack the basic common sense to realize that. Why can't you accept the fact that they MAY HAVE come after I bought the building? Is that not possible to you? Cities run out funds all the time. They allow their neighborhoods to tank because their focus is on more upscale areas that pay higher taxes. Were you perfect in your first investment? Does everything you touch turn to gold? How many mirrors do you own? Just wait when Karma catches up to you sir. Good luck is like bad luck. It has a beginning, middle and end. I'd have to question your mental acuity too and wonder how you speak to your wife or kids like you do to other investors here. Get a life instead of harassing other investors from behind a keyboard.

You said that “soon after” you bought that the neighborhood went from C to F. Neighborhoods don’t decline that fast, and the fact that you “didn’t see” them doesn’t mean that they weren’t there. So I apply Occam’s Razor and go with the simplest explanation that accounts for all of the facts: You did not do a good job vetting the investment, which includes vetting the neighborhood.

Knock off the histrionics about lying. You made a serious error in judgement. Once the real, initial condition of the neighborhood is accounted for, what does that tell you about the performance of the property manager?

I was there. You weren't. Don't come off as a know-it-all, because your failures have yet to pop as they have to every investor. It just makes you feel better when you trash and berate other investors from behind a keyboard. Why? Because you're the epitome of a coward. I owned my error and I made the move to sell. This is was my experience, not yours. I learned from it inspite of pity-parties of one such as yourself that judges others without knowing them or their experience. You don't even know Hartford. The PM was fuel to the fire and in that neighborhood he was a complete disaster. So how was your first investment? Care to enlighten me? Maybe someone needs to go back to their basement.

I simply pointed out that your analysis was wrong: neighborhoods don’t decline that fast. The fact that the city ran out of money may mean that a neighborhood doesn’t improve, but it doesn’t crater a neighborhood two levels “soon.” The simplest explanation is that you missed your analysis of the neighborhood because you were too eager to get into the game.

I sold my first investment 8 years after buying it, doubling the purchase price and making multiples of my investment. I had good tenants and house hacked. I spent a lot of time checking out the neighborhood before I bought.

Oh, and it had a finished basement.

So you succeeded in your first investment. Not everyone does. The difference between you and I, is that I'm not afraid to share my nightmare on Biggerpockets, because I learn from other investors that are respectful and don't need to berate me. I deal with reality instead of tooting my own horn so that everyone can see what a wonderful and successful person I am. Everyone makes mistakes, but at least I own mine. So you've never made a mistake in RE in your life. Woopee!! Maybe RE isn't for me, but I'm not about to let someone's pessimism get in the way as if that's a reason to give up. RE is different for everyone. Experiences are different and cities are different, but I'm sure you're old enough to know that. So YOU"RE WRONG about Hartford, some neighborhoods do decline quickly there. You're just comparing the areas you have your investments to Hartford, CT, which is seems ignorant to me. Ask anyone who knows that city and they'll tell you the pockets that can change a neighborhood from C to D to F, just by going to the next block. I got knocked down and now I'm getting back up. That's all. I now know which questions to ask, which areas to stay away from. Mistakes are to be learned from, so save your arrogance for someone else please. You'll fail big time one of these days. Trust me.

My problem with you is that you are blaming the PM for problems that could have been avoided by you doing better analysis of the neighborhood. It had nothing to do with the city not paving a street.

1 Vote

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

Quote from @John Clark:

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

Quote from @John Clark:

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

Quote from @John Clark:

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

No, not all of my investments were golden, but I read the neighborhoods correctly, and never blamed a PM who was caught between a rock and a hard place.

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

whats the reality of Auto industry popping back up in this area.. can the existing factories be put back into service in a reasonable amount of time.. Will Detroit and MI fast track any new facilities like Texas did for Tesla.. ?

Could now be the time to jump back in and buy in the very best school districts ?

Econ 101. The tariffs are going to crater the economy and hit the auto industry very hard.

5 Votes

Detroit, Michigan

Quote from @Rodney Lorenzo:

0 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Ying Tang:

Hello everyone! I’ve received a lot of helpful responses on my recent posts—thank you all for your time and support! I have another question today. My husband currently has a 30-year fixed $315K mortgage that was secured around November/December 2023 at a rate of 7.99%. With mortgage rates trending downward lately, should we refinance now to secure a lower rate, or would it be better to wait until autumn for a potential further drop? I found several online opinions suggesting that high refinancing costs might negate any monthly savings for a couple of years. Given that a rate cut is anticipated later this year, do you think refinancing is the right move? For reference, his credit score is over 810.

My bank will not refinance my into a lower rate unless the savings will pay for the refinance costs within 3 years. It tends to be paternalistic, but that’s a good rule of thumb.

1 Vote

Phoenix, Arizona

You skip over the most crucial part: just how did this neighborhood go from C to F overnight?

2 Votes

Hartford, Connecticut

Quote from @Derek Robinson:

Quote from @Eric Gerakos:

Personally, I wouldn't work with anyone who can't spell Steve. But that's just me.

Maybe his parents were creative?

Or a product of the Chicago Public Schools.

1 Vote

Chicago, Illinois

If you get no love from the water department call your alderman and be a pain. Water bills don’t triple for non-obvious reasons. If there’s no running toilet, then the water department has a problem.

0 Votes

Chicago, Illinois

Quote from @Taylor Kendrick:

@Chris Seveney got it - this would be ny first purchase, but I don't intend to reside at the property. so I'd likely be DQ'd from the vast majority of these assistance programs?

These programs are not for investors. They are for primary residence buyers. That said, you can use it to buy a duplex, but keep in mind that many of these houses are going to be in appalling condition.

1 Vote

All Forum Posts by: John Clark

John Clark has started 5 posts and replied 1293 times.

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Post: How often do you folks leverage down payment assistant programs to make RE purchases?