All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@James S. Thanks for the reply! When it comes to Rochester, do you think the outskirts are better areas than downtown? I drove around the town and noticed that. Especially the Gonic neighborhood, I saw the Rochester country club over there so my guess was it was the better part of the town ? What do you think rents usually go for a 1BD & 2BD condos over there at Gonic? Talking about 900 sqft to 1000 sqft so average size townhouse ? 

We are about to purchase our first mutli-unit condo complex in New Hampshire. We usually do business in Mass but we are having a hard time finding good deals on the larger scale in MA. The cash flow analysis of the prospective property is great and seems like a good deal, but one thing i am a little hesitant about is the low population and higher rent averages compared to what we charge in Mass. I know that NH is a nicer and quieter area compared to Mass hence the higher rents (plus the high property tax contributes to that), but from an Investment perspective i am getting worried i might not find tenants easily and have high vacancy %, since it will be eating from our profits, and the mortgage and expenses aren't cheap. The locations we are looking at are mainly towards the Maine border towns ( Rochester, Dover, Portsmouth) mainly.

Anyone familiar with the real estate environment for multi unit condo villages in Dover/Rochester/Portsmouth area of New Hampshire? Any input is appreciated! Plus are there any things I need to be aware of before dabbling into New Hampshire real estate on a commercial scale that are different than Massachusetts ?  Thanks!

Bought an undervalued deadbeat 15 unit for $800k with gross rent $11,000 per month. Spent $200k for rehab and bumped the rents to $18,000 a month. A year later, now going for sale for $2.1 million and is under contract.

Bought a foreclosed 3unit for 150k and spent 15k for a new porch, after 6 months sold it for 320k. Bought it undervalued and market was going up and hot.

Our company has transitioned over the past 5 years from fix and flipping 3 to 16 unit buildings to fix and flipping/acquiring undervalued and neglected 40+ unit complexes for forced equity appreciation through renovations and rent adjustments. Generally in the price range of 4$ to $5 million and above. We have found 2 decent projects through loopnet and zillow before but it seems like Zillow is more for the average person selling or buying a house and loopnet is mixed up with a lot of industrial buildings and offices which is not our niche. Is there a better website that specifically caters to bigger investors to acquire big residential complexes ? I covered my entire state on loopnet and couldn't find a good deal and most of them were small. 5 to 6 % CAP rate won't cut it for us. We aim for 7.5%- 10 % with room for forced equity growth. Which is hard to find (but not impossible) in Massachusetts and Rhode Island where we do business. Any input is appreciated.

My dad owns a Real Estate company that invests in residential complexes that has 8 figures worth of assets, he has no degree, college drop out. He been doing real estate since a long time and went through cycles of boom and bust overseas and in the US. Got in a bad business venture overseas in our home country that left us devastated. We flew over in 2016 (my first time coming to the US) and Started all over from scratch in 2016 with $70,000 in his bank account only (residual settlement left from court proceeds). He negotiated himself in a 4 unit listed for $260,000 to $200,000, bought it FHA and took off from there. Fix and Flipping mostly (he once was short on funds to buy a short sale property and he did balance transfers on his credit cards to buy it in cash, very aggressive, but he knew what he was doing).

College degree is worthless. RE investments requires simple math and simple common sense.

I just graduated as a Mechanical Engineer. Im 22, but i won't work in engineering. Engineers are way underpaid for entry levels so its not worth the headache. Plus It's not useful in any way to Real Estate. I currently work with my dad as a financial analyst for acquisitions to grow the Real estate business, i learnt a lot from him and his style of aggressive expansion with fix and flips.

I am currently self studying for the CFA, chartered financial analyst certification, because I trade in the stock market and would love to get a job related to it. I would recommend the CFA if you have to study anything for real estate. It will teach you a lot about real applicable money, portfolio management, investing, economics, accounting, financial statement analysis and more. Even though its more tailored to wall street type of investments and public companies, i find the money management rules could be applied to Real Estate as well. It will sharpen the way u analyze a properties cash flow statement and balance sheet. Plus understanding basic economics like supply and demand is useful when u start dealing with large complexes in small cities or towns.

Thanks for the honest insight @Michael Doherty. For me it’s cash flow over everything so I’m gonna stock to the towns you mentioned and look around.

Thanks Jason! Will definitely keep that in mind. 

Thanks all for the replies. My job would be in Glastonbury actually so might as well look there since its a little better than Hartford. I will be driving there on Monday to check all the areas out. Thank you all very much for the help. Appreciated.  

I was attracted to the cheaper purchase prices for investing in rentals at first, but i knew that would come with headaches due to the low income population...

I might get a job offer soon in East Hartford, CT. However, i would be relocating from Massachusetts. I am gonna rent first then house hack later when my job is stable. However, looking through zillow, the rent for 1 bedroom apartment is in the $800-$1200 range, pretty much similar to MA. However, the purchase prices in and around Hartford and the surrounding towns is almost half what it is in MA for the same type and condition of property if not even less. Whats up with that? and whats up with the flooding of foreclosed properties in Hartford and its surrounding? Is there a real estate crisis over there that i'm not aware of?

Thanks everybody for the replies! I realized i had made some mistakes with the Cap rate formula. 

I always love to get some perspective from people with more experience and knowledge!  

As a young investor I am always focusing on yield versus growth, that's why I always preferred Class C areas where i can squeeze the most cash flow out of my money. I am willing to deal with high turnovers and headaches for a higher cash flow. But as my capital increases over time I will be moving towards Class A and B areas/properties. I got my answer to as why would people buy low yield but great properties in great areas, its the faster appreciation over time with less headache that substitutes the lower yield, never thought about it this way.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread! I learned a lot from you guys today! Much appreciated!