All Forum Posts by: John Kaspar

I'm perplexed on the amount of people claiming Brockton as a good place to invest. The prices of homes versus the rent seldom come close to "1% rule." The prices continue to climb however the rents have stayed relatively stagnant as the work class is "c class" to put it nicely.

However, Fall River and New Bedford and Springfield show great potential

Worcester on the other hand is actually growing in rent and home value due to a lot of re-investment into the area. There was actually talks of tax cuts for businesses who left Boston and moved west, not sure if that ever came to fruition. 

Just my perspective, I'd suggest looking at cost of housing versus cost of rent data to make your final move.

I usually look at their profiles and judge a book by their cover. I've had MANY posting up and generally the "younger" crowd tends to flake more than the seasoned veteran. Not to say the seasoned guys haven't burnt me before as well, but at least they show up. If they have a business page, look at the reviews, see if they're generic pass it over. Also if all the people seem similar to the person, likely they are just friends helping them out. 

I know a general contractor who was on his own for less than a year with plenty of reviews which were mostly friends and family.

In short: FB is a very hard place to filter contractors who are legitimate. I do on the other hand call around and see who has a wait time. If they have a wait, they are in demand. If they don't, there's a reason.

 That's an interesting tidbit of information!

I remember listening to one of their webinars, they said that those stats are based on general area and don't break it down by the neighborhood like many sites do. They were also saying that certain subsections could be better or worse than advertised and said due diligence was in your best interest.  

Not sure if you've utilized it yet, but datausa.io is a great tool to get a snapshot of many statistics  

Caleb,

The majority of the state lives on the eastern side of the state. a lot of economy is focused east of the I495 ring.

@Richard Damian

Thanks for the contact information

Just wanted to pop in and see if anyone could assist me. I've been here a couple of weeks and have been driving around. There's plenty of potential in certain areas, but I've been having a lackluster experience with finding agents who actually work. I was stood up today by an agent, which is interesting as I've seldom beat an agent to a showing.

Does anyone have a reputable agent they can refer me to?

Also looked around for PM's but the ones I could find all had lackluster reviews.

Any direction would be helpful, also willing to partner with someone if anyone is interested as I'll be leaving here in about a month but still see plenty of growth in the area, if anyone cared to put in a bit of effort.

-John

@Robert Williams

Welcome,

Put it this way:

You have more to gain than to lose if you get into RE.

@Richard Damian how often do you go into Lawton. I have been recently playing with the idea of investing, however contractors seem to be the hardest part of the area. Do you have any references? Please PM me if you're still doing work in Lawton.