All Forum Posts by: Jimmy Suszynski

@Adam Martin it would be nice if the incentive was sent to one person. I would take out ALL the trash for $50 for 10 minutes of my time.

But, $50-$75 split between 20-30 people isn’t that much of a plus. Seems like it would turn into a “tragedy of the commons” situation (which I guess this whole thing is anyways) since one or two people bucking up and taking out the trash to get $3.50 Venmo’ed to them wouldn’t be that sweet.

I definitely agree with the statement that Pittsburgh is street by street. It's hard to even use Rentometer and bigger pockets insight for rental rates is usually miles off. I live in Crafton and one or two streets in either direction brings massively different ARV's and market rents. The good news is, with the city becoming super expensive lately, these pockets sitting in between "nicer" areas have a lot of potential, in my opinion, based on the way the rest of the area has gentrified and/or improved. (Larenceville, East Liberty, Garfield/Bloomfield, North Side, Dormont/Beechview, etc. etc. etc.)

@Wayne Brooks

The last property I bought was a foreclosure and the closing wasn’t in person and I didn’t know this was even an option.

Going forward, would I need to have the title company work in the rehab costs onto the HUD-1 and then I wire the rehab funds along with the purchase price and then the title company would wire it back?

@Walter Fabiszewski for around $2.50/sf LVP is a great option. Just make sure your subfloors don’t have any major changes in elevation because, over time, the thin tongue and groove lock strips will snap from flexing.

I used an click lock engineered hardwood flooring in a dining and kitchen area for a BRRRR recently since it was much thicker and didn't flex in the small uneven spots. Technically counts as hardwood, though it doesn't make a difference for the location of the house.

@Christopher Manus

Any updates on this??

@Sarah Buchanan does the difference in gross versus net come from contributing a lot to a 401k?

I don’t have a lot of experience myself but if the wife is contributing the maximums that may leave room for adjustment if need be by reducing the dollar amount of monthly deductions.

For me, personally, if it came down to being evicted and/or hurting my credit score or putting more money towards retirement savings I would save my credit and keep a roof over my head.

To revive this thread, I am interested in this as well. My short term (2-year) goal is to generate $2,000/month of cash-flow. To do so, I want to take advantage of the low rates for refinancing and a bank I am working with currently on a BRRRR is offering very good terms on properties in my personal name. If I form an LLC, the rates on long term rental loans are higher, which will eat into the cash flows.

In a recent episode of Real Estate Rookie, the mother-son duo used hard money as first-time investors without an entity. I've inquired with a dozen HML's who only lend to entities. Internet searches do not help much since Google's algorithms only show what they want.

I hate this platform. I've had nothing but issues getting a listing. It says they syndicate to realtor and zillow.com but those websites don't allow unpaid listings unless it's via their platform. Why wouldn't they say that when I signed up?

Also, I can't get a refund. I spent $108 for a year membership to save xx% overall and now I'm stuck with it.

I'm not sure who likes the lack of a UI. And the whole reason I went with them was to have my listing syndicate to save time. I just blew $108...

I have 10 years in the Air Force. The first 4 were active duty, the last 6 were as a reservist. All 10 spent fixing very large planes.

I worked my way through my civil engineering degree, graduated in December of 2019, got a job as an assistant project manager in March '20 working on mostly public school renovations. It fits my personality, I want to manage projects. Long term, I could be managing my own projects instead, once I get to that point.

Right now, my take home pay is $834 per week, on salary. If I take the orders to work on planes full-time for the next year, I will bring home roughly $1,300 per week. I would miss out on the 5% match to my 401k but still contribute 5% myself. The net difference in take home pay, after 401k allocation, is ~$18,000.

I would work less hours (7-3:30 versus 7:30-5:30/6 currently). Right now my $/hr averages about $21/hour. However, the experience I am getting would qualify me for a PMP certification and a 6-figure salary in 3-4 years time. 

Long term, I want to make REI my investment. I enjoy residential construction way more than commercial. Commercial is very sterile and less personal overall. I enjoy the time I spend working on renovations and planning out the rehab process.

Faced with this dilemma, what would you do? I guess I feel like this fork in the road is the decision to choose myself and my business rather than setting myself up to be a better employee in someone else's...

The term "asset" is relative. It is used in more ways than the dictionaries states and can be quite subjective. People have varying assets within themselves. We have personal strengths and weaknesses (assets and liabilities). In terms of owning a home, I have and will continue to strongly consider opportunity costs. I am house hacking a duplex. My portion of the mortgage is $150 per month (I consider that my monthly rent since I am paying it to myself). That is less than the total applied to the principal per month. I already have a reserve account built to 6 mos. of mortgage payments so that frees up money each and every paycheck to save for my next investment or make improvements to this property. A 2 bed, 1 bath apartment that allows pets would cost me close to $1,000 per month, which is what I rent the other unit for.

Does it cashflow while I live here? No.

Is it an asset for me in terms of my real estate investing goals and long-term wealth? Yes.

What I am trying to say is: everyone is right. It's not as objective as those at the extremes believe.