All Forum Posts by: Nick Peters

Welcome aboard Yvonne. BiggerPockets is full of great resources for real estate investors.

A good deal is always relative. It depends on our age, situation, objectives, risk appetite, etc. For me, good deals offer a balance between return (cash flow) and location (appreciation potential / tenant quality). I'm not looking at houses in top locations because the return is way too low and I could get better results somewhere else. But I won't look at dangerous neighborhoods either because I hold my properties and don't want to spend my time fighting with my tenants. So I always pick average locations and I run the numbers on excel. I don't further investigate if the analysis doesn't offer at least 10-12% IRR (which is always my focus, much more than cash on cash, cap rate, etc) because anything below is achievable with less risk, less leverage and less stress with other financial investments.

Please provide a larger picture. Hard to help with what you provided.

Depending on where you're investing you may not have a choice, really. Obviously, cash flow seems to provide more benefits than appreciation and is less uncertain. But in a booming market, it seems like people got rich thanks to appreciation more than cash flow per door. But will it continue? Who knows. So that's why I think it's fine staying open to both angles depending on your market. Always do the math, with fair assumptions and assess if the opportunity matches your criteria.

1% is the new 2%. Honestly, as mentioned by other people, this has become more of a back of the envelop calculation than a guideline for most big cities in the US.

Hi Kyle, welcome on Biggerpockets. You'll see Charlotte / Lake Norman is a great place to invest with still good deals to be made.

Hi Brian, I develop excel spreadsheets (see profile) and would be interested in learning more about the features you would like to have in such spreadsheet (apart from what you're mentioning in your initial message) so I can work on that in the future. I'll send you a PM if that works for you.

In the meantime, I'll take a look if I have anything that suits your needs.

Have a great day,

Nick

Investment Banker for a large bank in NYC during the day, I've also been investing in real estate on the side and I created my own website to distribute comprehensive spreadsheets for real estate investments (see profile). All in all, pretty focused on real estate right now.

Real Estate is a math game so invest where numbers work. Obviously, coming from NYC, you will quickly realize that numbers hardly work there (unless you bet on appreciation) so you'll have to look at bit further away. There are still deals to be made in areas such as Jersey, Yonkers, deep queens, Bronx etc. Keep in mind that 99% of the deals you'll see are not good ones, so be patient and persistent and you may find the one. 

Some people will tell you to invest in other states. Although it makes sense from a math standpoint, I would not encourage you in doing so, especially as a new investor.

Overall, spend some time screening the market, run the numbers and be reactive. Build your network and be ready to pull the trigger (both mentally and financially)

Best of luck