All Forum Posts by: Matt Dingus

Hey Vinod - Congratulations on taking down 2 properties. That's a huge step. I'd be happy to connect and hear more about what you're looking to accomplish. At the very least, I'm sure we can help each other by bouncing off challenges/hurdles we've experienced in Pittsburgh, and I can offer you some guidance if that'd be helpful from what I'm seeing in this market based on my experience and my clients projects/deals. Feel free to reach out. 

Keegan - Congrats on taking some first steps on your real estate journey and happy to hear you're targeting Pittsburgh.

Some areas where student rentals work well at are in Oakland, South Side, Shady Side, Squirrel Hill, Bloomfield, Lawerenceville, Greenfield. South side, Greenfield will be your best bet considering the price to rent ratios. The other areas there can get higher on purchase price so can sometimes be tough for the deals to make sense. You'll get some great appreciation on most of these areas compared to most other areas of the city. 

Pros/Cons I've seen with this strategy (some being obvious) - Pros being high demand and low vacancy. High rental yields since you can charge higher rent typically than traditional. Cons I'd say high turnover/shorter lease terms (many investors absolutely hate this), high wear and tear/higher possibility of careless tenants, management intensity can be higher, seasonality.

Hope that helps. It'd be interested to hear more about what your goals are, which would help narrow in more on what you could focus on when investing here.

Hey what's up Sebastiano,

You picked a great city and market with Pittsburgh. I agree with the areas Jeremy mentioned above. Couple thoughts and suggestions if it helps. BRRRRs in general can be tough to find any more in today's market that pencil out, unless you're ok with leaving a chunk of $$ in the deal. A 2-4 unit BRRRR deal where you pull all of your cash out is a home-run. It can be very tough to find those deals because A) Most 2-4 units are occupied so you can't go in right away and start swinging hammers and renovate all the units and I'd say B) Because most of them aren't totally distressed where there's enough value-add potential, especially in the somewhat decent areas (different story in the D-F areas).

With that being said, I would certainly still target this as your goal for your first deal here because it can certainly be done and would be awesome. However, I would invite you to open your buy box a bit and include single family homes as well. The cash flow may not be as nice on the backend as they are with the multis, but I think the key here is there will be a lot more opportunities for you to get a deal done. Plus there's a large demand for single family home rentals here, the tenants stay longer, pay all utilities...among some other benefits compared to the 2-4's.

So in my opinion, that's one of the most important things to consider when you're first getting started is to start doing deals, get experience, grow your team, etc. - if you're someone that wants to grow a large portfolio and continue doing rehab projects. More important to me than finding the perfect deal is to get the reps and create those opportunities to do so. Hope that helps a bit. Reach out if you'd have further questions.

Hey Juan - I use an app called Innago. Free and gets the job done especially if you're just starting out. Has worked great for me to this point.

Hey what's up Corey. I'd be interested in attending. My pgh investor circle also has a casual, relaxed meetup set up each month - so perhaps we could mesh the 2 in some way. 

Hey Ben - I can help you out with the PA lease docs if you want to shoot me DM. 

Everyone - If interested in the meetup please send me a direct message. Thanks.


If you're seeking an investor-minded realtor in the Pgh area let me know that as well and I'd love to help. Nonetheless I hope to see you all at a meetup soon!

Hi Jennifer

I think you've touched on the big hitters for both strategies with these prime locations. These are also going to be some of your most expensive areas to get into and high competition. I think some others see success with STRs in other areas that might not cost as much but could still have strong-to-decent STR demand in respect to Pgh as a whole. It depends a lot on budget and how quickly you want to see a return I think.

Just off the top of my head maybe some to look into...

Crafton/Carnegie - Close to airport and city. Nice areas.

Fineview - Right above the Northside and super close to the city. Scenic views.

Troy Hill - Super close to strip district. This area continues to get nicer and nicer, but still depends what street you're buying. 

Millvale/Sharpsburg - Across bridge from Lawerenceville. Mr Smalls theater in millvale. Breweries. Kayak/Jetskis in Sharpsburg.

Hope that helps a bit...

Hey Eric

Congrats on some of your success flipping/wholesaling. 

Let me know if there's anything I can help you out with. Our agent team in the area is mostly dedicated toward servicing investors, and we also have a successful monthly meetup group running in the Pittsburgh area if you're ever in the city. Happy to answer any questions you might have regarding the market, etc.

Good luck with everything!

Hey Elliot - Maybe a useless comment but I am running a monthly one on the 19th, Wednesday if you'll be town by then. Shoot me a message if interested.