All Forum Posts by: Luka Jozic

@James Wise Last scenario, lets say the attic has not been fixed up at all so its just a bare attic. Is it worth fixing it up into 1-2 bedrooms and charge higher rent for the second floor unit?

@James Wise what do you think such scenario would cost? 

@James Wise How about this scenario. Let's say the attic/third floor is already converted into the 2 bedrooms. That SHOULD mean that ceiling height, insulation and that stuff is done. Dry wall, paint and flooring is also done. In other words its already a livable space. Would it make sense at this point to basically just add a kitchen and bathroom (Plumbing, gas & electrical associated with that)  and whatever else safety stuff like fire escape etc.?

I am currently having essentially the same decision to make and the numbers are more or less the same. My intention is to hold the property longer than 5 years, but potentially do a cash out refinance in 4-5 years. Im assuming that when you do a cash out refinance you can also change to fixed if I wanted to?

Reviving this thread after some time, how accurate is the Ultimate Guide to Cleveland Neighborhoods now? Since its a few years hold wasn't sure if it still holds up, it kind of disagrees with neighborhoodscout.

 I mean it does take some time to build such a bot so Im not sure it'd be worth it. I was thinking it could mainly work as a tool to run numbers for cash flow, since I am not sure Zillow or Trulia's alerts has that functionality? Either way, is relying on an agent the way to go, or should I still try to find stuff on these public websites myself as well? 

Hello everyone,

I am just starting out my REI in the US and have done a lot of research of different areas that I am interested in and want to start looking for properties in some of these areas. I wanted to ask which of the following two strategies you guys think is the best, or maybe even both?

It seems like the conventional way is to reach out to an agent in the area, explain your goals and criteria and have them find properties for you.

However, as a software engineer I was thinking of creating a program/bot that could basically do the following:
1. Go on zillow or trulia, search for properties that match my criteria
2. For every property, find the estimated income by going either finding it in the description or checking the size/beds/baths info and pull a price from rentometer or something similar.

3. Calculate monthly expenses and then calculate cashflow

4. If crime data is available, check that too.

5. Could add other steps such as searching for keywords in description for example.

5. Save all the properties that pass the preceding steps to a CSV file.

Obviously there are some limitations. The bot can only search public websites and not MLS. The bot doesn't quite know which areas are good/bad. Furthermore, the bot will have a hard time analyzing pictures and/or the state of the property, but it can at least run numbers to find properties that have potential.

Now, do you guys think this would be useful at all or is it better to just let a realtor do the work?

@Jeffrey Albaum That does make sense and kind of ties into what @Tim Johnson. Maybe I could find a happy medium of maybe finding properties around 150K that gets the best of both worlds. Not crazy expensive but maybe also possible to find in B neighborhoods?

 So in your opinion, is it better to try to build a portfolio quicker with cheaper properties rather than trying to maximize with fewer more expensive?