All Forum Posts by: Mateo Oquendo-Chandler

There is a monthly meet up on the first Thursday of every month. You should be able to go to bigger pockets meet up, search Cincinnati, and see our next event scheduled for August 4th at MadTree. 

 Agreed. Consider coming to our next meetup on August 4th. Great chance to just talk about anything real estate. Can get feedback on thoughts, different perspectives on topics, and hear the experiences from other investors in the business in our local market.

To answer your original question, I probably would not buy a property without knowing I can get the work done. Your money isn't working for you if no value is being added to your investment. Even if you bought it and then nothing happened so you tried to resell, the buyer would look and see that it has only gotten worse due to it sitting and you run a risk of not being able to break even. 

If you're trying to find who will offer you the best deal than it sounds like you just need to get some price estimates and quotes from local banks, private money, and maybe even hard money lenders. If this is going to be your first deal then just make sure that you take your time. Run your numbers on best case and worse case scenarios. The more cash on hand you have to support potential problems that could arise, the safer you are during the process. If this is going to "break the bank" and you wont have any wiggle room then maybe you can look to whole sale or partner with an experienced local flipper/investor in your area.

I would be concerned why the owner wants out so soon. If it was bought on auction or as a foreclosure that could explain the low price from the last sale. The current owner could want out because they can double their investment without doing much rehab and sell quickly by selling it under market value. When going to look at this, I'd be on the look out for "patch" jobs. An inspection down the road will also confirm if its too good to be true or not.

As far as the $900/month. I would just get proof that the tenant is paying that amount and is current. If the tenant is on a month to month then I would understand it being more than "average." I'd be interested to hear your thoughts after you have viewed it and evaluated it from that perspective.

At the end of the day, keep in mind real estate is not a "Get rich quick." It's okay if it take a year or 2 to get the funds needed to do multiple projects at once. Over leveraging is a real thing and you don't want to be caught without a decent emergency fund because you tried to start running before walking. There are some great ideas and information being shared but its up to you as an individual to evaluate and determine the risk you are willing to endure with the funds you have available. 

Prefer baseboard because the heating cost can be covered by the tenants compared to the boiler system which results in the owner paying for heat more often than not. Installing baseboard heating usually is more cost effective than the additional modifications need for a boiler system that would result in the tenants being responsible for heat.

 Buy at least 1 book. Even if you don't read it for a month, its a form of investing in yourself that will go a long way so that you have resources available when you decide its time.

Recommend watching the valuable content that Bigger Pockets posts on youtube. Real world scenarios and real world solutions. If you are a reader, the are some great books written by some of the Bigger Pockets leaders as well that are great resources. 

@Christian Martinez Might be able to assist with this.