All Forum Posts by: Matthew Dennehy

Hi Brian,

Welcome and congrats on taking your classes!

Your biggest concern should be what you want to do with your license. Are you trying to be a traditional agent or will you primarily invest?  Do you want to do residential or commercial or both.

Some brokerages will have specific requirements for you to be present all the time and work with other agents. Others will let you do your own thing as long as you abide by some general rules. 

Things to consider are the training opportunities offered by the brokerage. What structure you might like, and how your career will tie into your long term plan. 

There are larger franchise brokerages out there, there are discount brokerages, and there are smaller, boutique brokerages. All of them have their pros and cons. At the franchises, you might get more training and it’s geared for the more traditional agent. Discount brokerages are best for seasoned agents who like to do their own thing at the lowest cost to them. And boutique brokerages will differ widely. Some might give you excess business they can’t handle, some might have specific niche expertise, such as in investments, and etc. 

There’s a lot out there, don’t settle for the first offer you get.  

Hi Nicole, if you are investing in residential 1-4 units, then most residential agents won't have any idea what you're asking of them.  There just aren't a lot of analytic tools that residential agents have access to use.  That said, you should be able to get enough information to make an informed decision.

If you have a commercial agent, 5 units+, or and agent who can work in both areas, then I would expect them to be able to answer these questions for you and it shouldn't be unreasonable.

I hope that helps!

You need a good real estate agent and a good property manager. They can help with pricing vs rental income. 

A lot of rental properties being sold have under market rents, so not only do you need to know what rents are for your interested properties, but what rents could be if raised to market rate. And of course you want to consider deferred maintenance as well. 

Lastly, I would suggest not getting too wrapped up with aggregate data points, especially by neighborhood. NH is small enough that a good agent will know the market and how multis are/should be priced.  I still see good properties out there every day, there’s just a lot of competition. 

Hey Chris, congrats on moving forward with your real estate education and taking the next steps. It’s certainly very rewarding. If you want to meet up and just talk about real estate, let me know!  I’ve been doing it a while, but always like meeting new people!

Hi Brian, welcome!  I myself am a Blackhawk pilot with the NH National Guard. If you ever want to get together to talk about real estate, let me know! 

I just sent you a message with my favorite lenders!

Be careful not to overlook a property just because it’s “underperforming”. There are a lot of properties that hit the market with under market rents, which can easily be increased in a month or two, and consequently they don’t show well on paper. You need to look at where a property should be performing at based on the property itself in order to accurately evaluate it. A good agent and property manager who understands the market and investment properties is critical. 

Hi Kyle, welcome and congratulations on looking for your first property!  I really enjoy working in the NH market because there are still great deals to be found by those who know where to look. 

For a multi-family house hack, you don’t necessarily need to cash flow while you live there. Your main economic benefit you get from living in a house hack is the significantly reduced living costs. However, if your goal is long term financial independence, you want to make sure you buy a property that will cash flow when you eventually move out. That means running two sets of numbers when buy a property, one set for you living there and one set fully rented. You will only want to buy if it makes sense in both situations. 

With the limited inventory and all the real estate hype out there, you will find a lot of properties that are overpriced and don’t perform well. Avoid those and stick to the properties that make sense. They are out there!  And if you can find something that cash flows positive while you live there, bonus! 

Sounds like you will be looking in the Durham and Seacoast areas!  I went through the ROTC program at UNH when I got commissioned, it's a nice area down there.  Let me know if you have any questions about the area.

Welcome to BP and NH!  Is your husband Army or Air Guard?  I’m currently in the Army Guard as a Blackhawk pilot, only part time though because I’m a realtor and investor full-time. NH is a great place to invest and there’s lot of good opportunities for owner occupied places too.