All Forum Posts by: Markos Gerges

The area you are targeting is quite difficult with that strategy in mind. If this is your first property I would target something easier than doing that much of a rehab. If its a duplex the property should be cash flowing quite well. I typically pay cash and then if I need more cash a HELOC has been quite convenient for me.

Yes this would be good if Wayne County was my target. I'll reach out to you and give you an idea of what i'm trying to do!

As a soon to be MBA graduate this book is phenomenal and has opened my eyes to so much! It is more catered to recent graduates and I will strongly recommend it.

@Jason Munger

I admire your passion for wanting to leave your corporate job as I also dread the corporate world and cannot wait till i'm pursuing my goals of real estate full-time. 

A big problem I run into however that keeps me at my corporate job is capital. How are you planning on getting the capital you need to invest into the Metro Detroit market? You stated that you would be starting from the bottom and working as an agent at the same time. However, you also are moving to Michigan so how much can you actually save after expenses? Your initial goal may be very extreme, that is a huge number of properties if were considering cash flowing rentals that require a ton of capital. If were consider flipping realistically that number may be hard for your first year regardless of all the news about Detroit having the highest return on investment when it comes to flipping. I would say realistically first year would be near 40k but that is very subjective as I'm not a full-time investor.

 Getting the information from a dozen of addresses by doing a search on the county's website is perfectly legal but for me to scrape using 30k addresses violates their terms of conditions.

 Any recommendations on 3rd partys? 

Hello all,

I have a good list of addresses in the zip codes I am targeting for my direct mailing campaign. I am an engineer and have the software knowledge to make a program to scrape all the relevant information I need. However, I'm concerned on the legalities of scraping utilizing the county's website. I know with scraping before my IP address was literally banned from certain websites due to violating their terms & conditions (non-real estate related). Is there a better way to go about getting the information I need in an ethical & convenient manner?

Now you got me curious on making the switch just because of the free background and credit checks, I hate asking tenants to pay a fee.

How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie

Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey

Unpopular opinion, that business management degree is worth it (as long as you're not paying 60k a year for it). To climb up the corporate ladder at big corporations the fundamentals of the degree will be beneficial. Will it be the most important thing? Absolutely not, real experience will always beat degrees. However, If it aligns with your goals in life then pursue it, if it doesn't then don't do it. In my field of work having an MBA will promote you to a manager more likely than the next guy. I also utilize a lot of the stuff I learned from my degree to manage my portfolio of rentals and expand my business. Regardless, I've learned way more from hands-on experiences and the countless self-help books I have in my collection.