All Forum Posts by: Alison Koenig

Hey Paul,

we will be moving to the Lebanon area this spring, and looking for REI's as well, will touch base once we hit the ground in April!

Sounds like a great plan, especially for investors that invest out of their area. I would agree start in your area, prove the system and scale up. Almost like a franchise. Perfecting the system locally will allow you more control and tweeking before exposing it to a large market.

Great thread! Thanks @David Dey for all the awesome advice!

And maybe find a new accountant. Thanks for the post, lots of good insight from the responses. Congrats on your first flip and being so successful on it!

I don't know a lot about this, but JUST listened to podcast 162 with Amanda Han...what about a self-directed 401k?

I can't be there this month but I have it on my calendar for next month! Part of my action steps!!! My husband (Bryan) and I will both be there!

So I wasn't sure what forum to put this in, I figure the Newbie area since I'm still a newbie would be appropriate. As I've been doing my education through webinars, blogs and podcasts I've been hearing RedFin thrown around. So this morning I decided to check them out. I had no idea they were a totally different business model than Zillow or Realtor until I went searching for homes in CT. Well guess what, CT isn't even on their site! After further investigation I realized it was because RedFin is trying to redefine the way houses are bought and sold. Now coming from WI to CT has been more than a little shocking when it comes to Real Estate. But I never realized what a strangle hold agents have out here (hope not to offend agents). WI is a very FSBO friendly state and it surprised me when we were looking for rentals in CT I was basically forced to work with an agent. My point of all this is, I think because of the area I'm trying to invest in, having my license is essential to get on the spot access to the MLS. I will be starting classes in August!

In other updates, I have my hubby totally on board with my plans and we are analyzing a vacation deal in Saratoga (I posted previously on asking about vacation spots in NE). I have a good friend that lives there, we visited and I'm totally in love!

We also have narrowed down our plan to focus on multi-family rentals. So now time to start analyzing deals strictly focused on that! We are planning on making our first offer within the month!!! So excited to be taking action!!

I don't know if it was promoting or not but I appreciate the info! I will starting the classes to get my license in the fall. Thank you everyone for the helpful info! Kim I am planning on getting to the next meet up or would love to meet for coffee or something. Thanks again!

@Juan Gisone...welcome! I'm really loving Norwalk, just got here in April. From all my research and where I settled, the East side is the best school side (east of Hwy 7/Merritt Parkway) and I settled in the Cranbury area which does have the highest rated Elementary school. Wolfpit is the other good one, same-ish area. Or you can go a little North to Wilton that has excellent schools, or a little farther east to Westport, but Norwalk is by far the most affordable. I have found some good flip deals in Wilton I've been investigating but we aren't ready to buy. I'm not a realtor (yet) but I could definitely answer a lot of questions for you because I just did all the research before we moved and have really been doing a lot to start planning my first flip. Let me know if you are interested in chatting more! 

Having "mis-matched" is in right now. Light uppers, dark lowers, that sort of thing. I think if you are going to go with 2 different things, you need to do 2 different materials. ie granite for cabinets, butcher block for the island, or quartz for the cabinets and granite for the island in complimenting colors but not matchy. You want to make sure that the decision looks deliberate. Materials depend on the style you are trying to achieve for the whole house. If it is a cottage/farmhouse vibe you could do granite and butcher block. But if it is more contemporary you could go with quartz and granite, or quartz and stainless, marble and stainless is really in too. Good luck!