All Forum Posts by: John Maxi

@Braden Smith and @Mike Wood thanks for the insight. I'm at the stage where I'm trying to follow Branden Turner's advice to analyze 100 properties to learn the market. It will be really helpful to be able to take flood insurance info account! 

Does anyone have any experience estimating flood insurance premiums? I found the FEMA flood map and determined that the area I am looking at (Gentilly) would require flood insurance.

Have you estimated flood insurance before?

Should that be a deal breaker? It seems like that will almost always be a risk in a place like NOLA.

Thanks!

Mike, thanks for the input! Do you also work directly with brokers? I've seen that in some forums and books, but I haven't quite gotten a grasp on the concept. Does that apply to building new properties? 

@Mike Wood 

@Mike Wood Thanks for the input. One thing I have started to wonder about is how to determine potential rents when doing the property analysis. Do you have a particular strategy? So far I am just opening realtor.com and looking for rental properties in the same area. And what do you consider working class area? It seems like there isn't much middle ground in NOLA (it's either mansions or a street I wouldn't want to be on at night).

Timothy, thanks for the link! I have been playing around with the rental income spreadsheet available here: 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/88/topics/51334-sfh-rental-analysis-spreadsheet-

Peter - are you asking about % return (cash on cash? cap rate?) 10% rate of return? I've analyze a few properties in my area today and none of them were even close to generating cash flow. Is that normal?

Hi everyone! I'm excited to join bigger pockets community! I'm John from New Orleans, LA and I am just starting my adventure into REI. I'm currently a graduate student and will be finishing up my PhD this year.

My background in real estate is essentially non existent. I've read a few books and can see that real estate investing is great way to generate passive income. I've started listening to BiggerPockets podcast and have come to the conclusion that the best way to get started is to jump into it.

I'm primarily interested buy and hold renting: condos, single family homes, duplexes, triplexes, or quads. My first goal is to learn how to analyze properties, and use that analysis strategy to analyze 100 properties in my market. Does anyone have suggestions for what metrics to pay attention to when evaluating properties for cash flow?

Glad to be here!