All Forum Posts by: Matthew Irish-Jones

That is a good plan and what many of our customers do. If you can get all of the key team members in place, buying in cash (HELOC), doing all of the reno work and then taking out a mortgage is a good strategy.

You may have to hold the property for 6 months before a lender will provide a cash out refinance though. 

 NY is a big state, you can't find cash flow in any of the roughly 8,500,000 housing units available?  That is a bold statement. 

 Its interesting there are no good deals 1.5 hours north of NYC.  With Rye, White Plains, Patterson, Newburgh, Red Hook, etc... all within that area I would think there would be some options.

Most of the rust belt cities are similar, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, etc... I like Buffalo because I am biased, but the advice is the same.

There is old housing stock, the asset condition is extremely important.  You need to know what you are buying, how old the mechanicals are, where and how to look for asbestos, lead, etc... Location is more important than asset condition, the C and F class areas are all the same no matter what city you are in.

Prioritize Location and Asset condition over cash flow and you can get some cash flow.  Prioritize cash flow over location and asset condition and you will get a headache!

@Vincent Pflieger I think 100% leveraged is normally a bad idea.  

1. Will the HELOC also provide funds to force appreciate?
2. This is a tough investing environment with labor costs so high, in particular in NY. I use the BRRRR strategy and do everything in house with my employees and still am leaving a lot of funds in each deal. With the potential for construction delays, increased renovation costs, rising interest rates on the HELOC and final refinance on the DSCR loan, being 100% leveraged in a deal feels risky.

Most of the deals I have been 100% financed in have required me to dump a lot of cash into them consistently because there is no margin between debt, cost, and revenue.  If you get into a big project like a 15 unit with NYC construction rates, you may want to make sure you have ample reserves. 

@Mike Teeple shot you a DM our team can help 

 There are lots of wholesalers in Buffalo, buying from them is as high risk as it gets.  Are you local to Buffalo?  Buying from a wholesaler, managing a small contractor from afar, and selling for a profit is an extremely difficult strategy to pull off.  

It can be done, but there is a lot that can go wrong.  There are deals to be found through local investor focused agents in Buffalo all the time.  Finding quality flips through wholesalers is tough.  Finding a multi family that needs some work that you can rehab then hold is a higher % play in this market, in my opinion. 

@Brandon Le welcome to BP.  It's going to be tough to buy a property without steady W2 income.  8k is a good start, but you might need to keep saving.  

I would suggest finishing school, working as a part time agent while you are at school, saving commissions for investing, and working with a team that focuses on investing as opposed to residential sales.

There are also local meet ups every month. 

Good luck!

 BP is the right place to connect with RE people.  There is a ton of info on this site, as well as a meet up that others have mentioned.  

 HI Polina, I don't use the software or have any experienced with it, but Yardi Breeze markets themselves to DIY landlords.  They offer a watered down program that does not have all of the amenities a property management company needs. 

They may be a better fit. 

 Nice!  I started a property management company in 2017 and am now managing almost 800 doors and 6 construction crews.

If I could do it all over again, I would have spent a little more time setting up business systems prior to jumping in.  You will need a software, screening policy, work order request system, etc... 

You can do a lot off of spreadsheets in the beginning, but eventually you need automation.  The overhead to start a company is low, but the cost to scale is high.  Our software cost for all of the above is outrageous.  If you can care a hell of a lot more about your investors returns than the competition you will be fine.  

Good luck!