All Forum Posts by: Nancy DeSocio

Hi @Andrew Perkins,

Your post will resonate with a lot of us.  I think you can replace "Investing" in your question with anything:  "How do you balance work, family, and [investing, my health, starting my business, caring for my aging parents, etc]?"  

I think that part of it is accepting the fact that while important, investing is not the top priority right now.  You can still do it, and you will be successful, but accept that other investors will get deals that you didn't see, because you were busy with your family.  Tenants may have to wait longer to get a repair done, because you were watching your kid in the school play.  You miss a call from your realtor, because you're taking your lovely wife out to dinner :)

You can maximize the time you have alone by listening to podcasts or audiobooks on your commute to work.  Or use your lunch break at work to step out and make a few phone calls to network and build relationships.  Or just enjoy holding the little guy in your arms at 2:00am...nothing wrong with that either! 

Good luck on your journey!

Hi @Andrew Moullin

Welcome to the exciting world of real estate investing!  If I knew at 24 what I know now, I absolutely would have house hacked, so that's a great place to start.  Even if you end up taking your focus to different areas of real estate, you can't beat the benefits of what house hacking has to offer.  My suggestion for the next 6 months are education, and you can do that practically for free.  Outside of the research you have noted, I'd suggest:

- go to open houses and look at properties
- find your local RE investment group (and join!)
- start meeting people and build up your network (looks like you've started that on BP already!)

Good luck on your journey!

Congratulations, @Brett Aguiar!

In addition to what others noted, I'd highly recommend "The Book on Managing Rental Properties" by Brandon Turner.  You won't have all of your systems in place on day one, but this will help you understand what types of systems you'll want to create in order to make the job a bit easier.  This book helped me a ton in my first year of landlording (and still does in my second year of landlording!).

Good luck on your journey!

Hi @Obed Bermudez , 

I wouldn't avoid it altogether, but if you include that expense when you analyze the property, it could still work.

You can pay the utilities as the landlord and include that cost in the monthly rent.  Tenants don't like bills just as much as you don't, so if you offer an "all inclusive" rent that accounts for the utility usage, it could work in your favor.

Good luck on your journey!

@Max T.

Yours was 5-5-5 so I thought all haiku rules were out the window :) But good luck with the issue. We’ve gone through so many HVAC issues this winter, so I definitely empathize!

@Travis Zurawski

Persistence is key, though sometimes frustrating. I wouldn't advise anyone to buy a bad deal, but I'll tell you that our first purchase had very little meat on the bone, and I have no regrets. The education it has given us has been invaluable and helped us make a better decision with the next property and hope for better returns with each new property we acquire. That might not be the suggestion you were looking for but if you're buying off MLS, you've already gotten a taste of how this goes. You'll find something out there for sure.

Good luck in your journey!

@Max T.

The weather is turning soon

Spring is almost here.

Ignore it til October.

Hi @Account Closed,

I agree with the others that the applicant pays for this fee, and depending on where you advertise your listing, they may already expect this cost.  I've never used Cozy specifically, but if you list on Zillow, the applicant pays about $30 and can use the same application and screening report for as many apartments as they want for a month.  

Good luck!

Hi @Jared Baker, I think you already got a sampling of diverse perspectives with your post!

Ultimately, it's going to be your level of comfort.  I haven't come across new investors that take the approach you suggest, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.

You don't use pictures from the listing to analyze the deal...you use real numbers.  They don't take pictures of the stains on the ceiling from the leaking roof.  That doesn't mean you wouldn't buy the property, but you need to account for those expenses in your analysis.  

I agree that keeping emotion out of it is key, but you should be able to go to a property without being emotional about it.  If not, you have a different issue to solve :)

Good luck in your journey!

Hi @Sergio A. Molinar,

Do you have any equity in your primary residence? If so, you can take out a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) to put towards a down payment for the 4-unit. The interest rate is adjustable on a HELOC, so it's will fluctuate, but I'm guessing it will be a much lower interest rate than a hard money loan. Just a suggestion but interested to hear how others will chime in on this!