All Forum Posts by: Manfred Philo

Hello everyone,

I am looking to invest in Cleveland, in the Shaker Heights area.  I wanted to know if anyone has connections with good reliable contractors that work in the area that they can refer.  I am looking at a duplex that needs the kitchens, bathrooms and flooring redone.

@Brett McManus

Thanks for the response, that’s exactly what I was thinking. My thought is to add value by finishing the basement and adding an additional bedroom and bathroom down there to accelerate the appreciation.

Hello everyone,

Just looking for some advice about a possible house hack deal that I am considering. I am located on Long Island, NY and real estate is expensive compared to other markets.

I was able to find a property that I would be able to house hack but after running the numbers the property would cash flow -$700. The property has three levels with 3 bd 1 bth on the top level and a 3bd 1bth and unfinished basement for the bottom 2 levels. The reason why I am considering this is because I believe that the property will appreciate well long term after a little work and having to spend $700 per month is cheap for living expenses.

The plan is that although we wouldn’t cash flow in the positive the drop in living expense would allow my wife and I to save more of our take home pay from our jobs to eventually purchase our next property and fully rent this one out. Once the property is fully rented out it would cash flow about $1000.

I would appreciate it greatly if I can get some feedback about any potential pitfalls and issues I should be looking out for, or if this is just a bad idea.

Thanks

@Josh Feldman congrats I in the same situation and didn’t realized how much I enjoyed real estate until I went through the process of buying my first home in Suffolk County

Hi Everyone,

Brand new to BP and I’m learning a lot every minute I spend on the App and website. During my time reading I’ve realized I have made some mistakes and I wish I found BP 1 year sooner.

So last September my wife and I purchased our first home a condo 2 bdr 1bth in Suffolk County. It was a bank owned foreclosure that we got for 305k and we put 15k down. Other condos in the development are selling currently for 320k-335k. The only work needed was new flooring, paint and the kitchen (functional) needs to be updated. So far we painted and replaced the carpet in the bedrooms and laminate everywhere else for about 6k and we want to redo the kitchen soon.

I've discovered BP podcasts and other similar sources of info on YouTube and I'm now interested in cash flowing properties using BRRR. Our board does not allow for the condo to be rented unless it's to family (rumors around the development was the last owner of our unit got caught renting during the early stages of foreclosure) I currently have no savings besides 2k in stocks and 3k in our bank account. We used our savings to get into the condo and pay for flooring, paint and furniture.

I am thinking that the best course of action would be to finance updating the kitchen (make it nice but don’t go overboard) sell for as much as I can and use the profit to pay off the kitchen and purchase a multi family to house hack.

From that point I am hoping that the income coming in from the rental will allow us to live off one income and use the other to purchase other properties to BRRR.

Is this realistic or should I hold onto the condo longer to build more equity. I’m afraid of selling to soon and not having the same or more than before the condo purchase. At the moment we are not able to save much due to mortgage and other expenses that keep popping up ( I am going to have to scrap 1 of our 2 cars by the end of the year that is over 10 years old). I would appreciate any feedback I can get.