All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

Welcome @Rasheedah Muhammad ! Always good to see more people from Montclair on here.

Hey @Danny Rollins II , welcome. As others have said, the books are a great start to get familiar with how it works, but your best bet for starting is to find an investor who does this and ask how you can help them out and learn as you go. You need to gain some on-site experience to really make what is in the BP books make real-life sense. I hope that helps a little bit.

Hey @Jonathan S. , welcome. Good advice from @Johnathan Boyle  above and I would add a few questions/thought:

1. How much space do you need for your unit? You can increase your personal cash flow in a unit if you are able to occupy the smallest unit and rent the larger one or ones. Best house hacking is done from the cheapest unit of course.

2. Find out your ultimate price point and don't be swayed by lenders telling you how much more you can afford for a multi vs. single without checking to make sure the rent rolls are what you are looking for in the neighborhood.

3. Watch the taxes closely on each property.

4. When you begin looking as a first-time investor in multi-units, look for easier options, meaning the utilities are already separated. Cosmetic work is much easier and cheaper than adding a new furnace.

My personal opinion is that you aren't flipping if you are holding for a year every time to maximize some perceived tax advantages. You can't grow a business process like that in RE investing, it makes things too stagnant and you lose the build up of finishing a property. If you are doing pre-marketing for the flip and documenting it, it's silly to just let it sit there for 6 months. Every buyer will wonder what took so long for the flip or why it just sat there.

Welcome @John Caruso III . I have managed multiple investment properties that we had on VRBO/Homeway for several years (NY, CA and FL) and did very well on. I also don't know about books on this, but my best advice if you want to play in that arena is the following:

1. Check recent town meetings, etc. to make sure the town is not trying to do away with vacation rentals. In parts of CA they have outlawed stays under 30 days and killed the VRBO market altogether. More towns are cracking down because neighbors got tired of the changeover in nicer neighborhoods and because it was hurting the hotel industry.

2. Live close by and if not you HAVE to know your changeover providers very well. You need a concierge/property manager for all vacation rentals if you are not going to do that yourself. You must know your cleaning crew well enough to know 100% that they will be there when they say they will. If (they) you miss one change time and you get a bad review, it will hurt.

3. Make sure you know that value that your rental has against others in the marketplace. Research similar properties on VRBO/Homeaway and contact some of the owners for info. Many will tell you how well they do annually for similar properties.

Those are my top three. Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Happy to help @Alina Trigub , but you have multiple issues at play here. If you are buying a five-family from a wholesaler, comps aren't going to be as relevant as you think. The first few questions revolve around how well you know the wholesaler and what their reputation is. Are they only a wholesaler or are they wholesaling this one for a reason? How did you get this opportunity and who else has the same opportunity?

I agree with @Todd Magin that you can not take the word of the wholesaler on the rents as they are only an intermediary. Even comps in the area of similar size rentals will be skewed because units in a five-family rent differently than condos and two-family and each neighborhood will have a different value on these types of buildings based on the location, upkeep, etc.

Thanks @Odie Ayaga !

OK let me check with one crew to see if they have time in their schedule for Garfield. I will get back to you.

I agree with @Ray Reed. A rooming house is a bad idea in general, but dealing with the city of Newark on something like that would be horrific. @Brian Jennett and @Su Soma , why would you want a rooming house over stable renters? There is no money in a rooming house because of the points made above.

Hi @Alina Trigub . What town is the reno in? That may help me steer someone your way.

@Nick G., I was just speaking with my preferred lender this week about this. If you would like his contact info, send me a message.