All Forum Posts by: Kevin Scanlon

Hey @Dale Kuhn just wanted to say welcome to the site! I'm a buy-and-hold investor in the Mystic and Stonington area with construction and property management  experience and an "investor-oriented" agent. I'm also happy to help out however I can as you get started in the business. These guys @Mat O'Grady @David Wolber and @Michael Spittler are all making major moves and are great to talk shop with and bounce ideas off of. I highly recommend checking out the meet-ups Mat's been organizing. Hope to meet you at the next one!

Hey Rachael,

Just saw your post.. it actually triggered my keyword alerts for Groton and Mystic. I'm an investor and agent in the same area and grew up in Mystic. Very familiar with Groton and Waterford as well. I have been able to help two other investors I met here on BP purchase investment properties in Groton in the last year. I'm sure they'd both be willing to provide a positive referral. It would be great to catch up and talk about your plans at some point! 

Hey @Mat O'Grady

Call my guy Ray from Feature Marble and Granite. (I guess I'm not allowed to post their number so I'll DM you. They are out of Uxbridge, MA but travel all over CT. They've done a couple places for me so far and always come in very tight with their numbers and throw in a stainless under-mount sink (you can choose from one of about 5 options). I think they have a few granite options that start around $35 - $40 / sf and I just got a ballpark estimate on quartz and he said to figure about $55 - $60 / sf. I haven't shopped around recently but think those are pretty competitive numbers for the area.

Hey @Kevin Lefeuvre 

I still use Google Calendar as my master calendar to capturing all of the confirmed reservations. I have a different calendar layer with unique color for each vacation rental.

To sync calendars between sites, I do the following:

• Import my Airbnb calendar to the VRBO calendar for each listing
• Import my VRBO calendar to the Airbnb calendar for each listing
• Manually add any off-site reservations (people who reach out to me directly) to the VRBO calendar for each listing

This is the best workaround I have come up with and has been working pretty well for me. As long as I remember to add off-site reservations to VRBO, I can accept instant book reservations on all my listings without the fear of double booking. I guess there is a small chance of a double booking depending on the sync frequency of the calendars, but I haven't seen it happen yet.

Not through a self-directed IRA but you can do it through a self-directed Solo 401(k).

Basic rules:

• Must be self-employed with no full-time employees
• Limit is 50% of your vested account balance up to $50,000.
• Must pay yourself a "reasonable" interest rate (prime plus 1% ie 4.5%)
• Must be paid in full within five years (unless loan is used to acquire a principal residence of the participant then 15 to 30 years may be allowable)
• Amortization of principal and interest, with payments required at least quarterly

Added bonus:

• You can contribute up to $53,000 / year in tax deferred income to your Solo 401(k)

There are obviously some other details and fine print, but it's worth checking out in further detail. There are plenty of other forum posts on the topic. Good luck!

Hey @Jaclyn P. I'd be happy to set something up but given my somewhat sporadic schedule of being down in CT maybe someone else would be able to take the lead and offer more flexibility based on everyone's schedules. Just let me know or keep me in the loop! Also, @Mat O'Grady may still be hosting monthly meetups in East Lyme but I'm not sure. Hope we can all connect at some point!

Hi @Sherri Stokes,

Good to meet you. I'm also a full time investor in SE CT and an agent. Feel free to keep me in the loop! Me and @Mat O'Grady grew up together down there in the Groton / Mystic area!

Great. Yes I think we would try to keep it around Central Square due to the central location for everyone around different parts of Cambridge.

Hey @Stuart Gardner and @John Pauler sorry it was such short notice. Yeah, Chad and I were actually thinking we should try to do this on a more recurring basis so more people will have the opportunity to plan a head for it and meet up. Do Tuesday evenings usually work for you guys?

Hi everyone. This is a little last minute but figured I would take the opportunity to create an event for anyone in the Cambridge, MA area interested in meeting up for some beers and casual networking at Tavern in the Square (on Mass Ave in Central Square) tonight around 7. I'll be meeting up with @Chad Duval and possibly a couple other BP members. 

I look forward to meeting anyone who can make it!

We usually meet over by the bar on the left side when you come in but you can text me at 860-235-4406 if you have trouble finding us.