All Forum Posts by: Jay Mitiguy

@Jake Marin

Hey Jake - The group isn't very active any more on an official basis, but several people still get together occasionally for a drink or round of golf. One of my business partners and his wife (also a good friend of mine) live in Richmond and invest in Burlington. @Blair Knowles

When I'm in VT, I'm usually available to grab a coffee or beer and talk. Let me know if you want to get together at all.

Hey @Christopher Fougere. We haven’t met in a while but I think we’re due for a meeting at some point. We’ve all been pretty busy scaling our businesses and this kind of went to the wayside. In the mean time, if you ever want to grab a coffee or have an informal meeting with a few of us, I could make that happen. 

Hey @Josh Bondesen

Welcome to BP! As a fellow investor in the St. Albans market and a licensed commercial agent, I'd be more than happy to share what experience and knowledge I have gained over the years. 

It looks like you're on the right track to finding your financial freedom... Best of luck to you and Autumn.

Feel free to reach out any time! 

Hey Emily,

We do have a group that meets informally every month down in Waterbury. We're actually scheduled to meet tonight, if you can make it? If you can, reach out to Reuben Stone on Biggerpockets and he can get you the details.

Thanks and welcome to VT!

jay

Sorry for the disjointed comment starting at "(although having listened...". I clicked post before I finished that thought!

I intended on saying "although, having listened to every BP Podcast, I've found value in nearly all of them. So don't let your niche confine your education, but be sure to focus a majority of your efforts on your end game strategy."

Hey @Michael McWatters,

Welcome to BP and the wonderful world of investing in Vermont! Congratulations on the first investment too. Just about 18 months ago, I was in a very similar position as you, and now I'm working on closing my next property giving me 19 units, all in downtown St. Albans. The blessing and curse with real estate is that you have so many routes you can explore. As many others have pointed out, find a niche, learn everything you can about that niche through experience (if possible), and make a decision if that's how you want to proceed. Better yet, define your end goal (be very specific) and work your way back from there. If you want to own 100 unit complexes, I would be cautious about spending time learning how to wholesale deals, or fix and flip strategies (although having listened to every podcast. Knowing I wanted to own large multi-family with some commercial units, I started with a duplex and have gone after progressively larger deals in the same area. After three deals, and having spent thousands of hours analyzing properties, going to REIA meetings, and talking with other local investors, I'm moving into the mixed-use space as the next step. In the mean time, find a mentor, a friend, or local who's brain you can pick. You'll be amazed at what networking with like-minded individuals can do for you, your knowledge base, and ultimately your business. Best of luck to you and if you ever want to grab a beer/coffee, I'm in the area a fair amount.

@james smith Yes they are adding new jobs every day. Whether it's Mylan Pharma, DOS, ICE, or any other fed or state group. It's getting better every day!

@Blair Knowles

Thanks for the kind words Blair! I'll see you tonight at the REIA meeting!! If anyone has questions on the greater Chittenden Country area, Blair is your woman!

As for my input on the VT market, and more specifically the St Albans market, I'm a firm believer in investing here. While I choose to live outside of St. Albans, all the economic indicators are showing that the city is on the right track, and coming out of it's "slump". Their has been major municipal investments in infrastructure upgrades, with many more in the planning phase. Their overall vision is promising, and with the right amount of time, it will be a vibrant city again. Currently the price to rent ratios are fantastic. As Blair pointed out, I snagged a 5 unit for $207,000 that is grossing $3,615/mo with 4 units wayyyyyy under market rent (the caveat is that my partner and I put in $7,000 in reno to make the 5th unit habitable again). Within the next year, we'll be in the $5,000/mo gross range as we cycle through tenants/leases. While this isn't the norm, I'm seeing a lot of opportunities coming in close to the 2% rule, on a fairly regular basis. Vacancy is 3.9% according to a housing study published by the city in July of 2015, and I would expect that to remain around the same for the coming years. The drawback to St. Albans is the lower class tenants (lots of need based subsidy programs), and the overwhelming demand for Section 8 usage. All in all, I love investing there, and plan to continue until I'm broke, dead, or the city has a change of heart.

Hi All,

@Ashley St. Gelais, @Account Closed, @Krystina L., @Peter Amour

Sorry I've been MIA on the forums here! We do have a formal REIA now that meets monthly on the first Tuesday of every month. We just changed venues but we try to keep it located either in Waterbury or Colchester, to keep it as centrally located as possible. For those of you that listen to the podcasts, Graham Mink helped me and another friend organize it all. Tonight we are meeting in Waterbury at 6pm and have an attorney coming to speak about corporate entities for real estate. Feel free to email directly if you want more information. Or better yet you can email Reuben Stone to get on our email list. His info is on his BP profile. Thanks!

Hi @Ryan York

The cash on cash return in the spreadsheet is simply a measure of my "true cash investment" against the return on the property. In this example, because I have no cash out of pocket, it is an infinite return i.e. $3,830.14 divided by $0 equals indeterminate or infinite. If there was cash out of pocket, it would simply be the annualized cashflow divided by the cash invested. Hope that helps clarify things for you.