All Forum Posts by: Nick Scullin

Hey @Kelly Klein! Nice to hear from a fellow future investor in the area. Just like you I am new to this. The only advice I can feel comfortable really giving you at the moment would be to start with a house hack to get your living expenses as close to zero. Even better to get a cash flowing investment. Good luck with your license! 

@Rich O'Neill That's a great point. The reason I say this is because I am going to start with a house hack, so I need to be bale to commute to work at the moment. After I make this first move then I will be willing to expand out to lets day Delco. From what I understand its like you say, if you got the right team then you can invest anyway. Being new to all this, I need to first get my house hack and network along the way so that I can have a team at the ready for when I want to branch out and be confident that the team will help me achieve my goals, and help them!

@Jim Hogan You are totally right, I am most likely over analyzing. I'm getting to the point where I am consciously ignorant about the subject and just being a sponge learning as much as possible. It seems scary to jump in without knowing everything, but I get that that isn't possible. I have been practicing running the numbers and just need to get buy when the numbers make sense.

I'm glad you mentioned Montgomery County because that is where I would start. Trying to learn as much as I can about the market so that I can find where to jump in based on what I am looking to get out of an investment.

This is all great information! There seems to be great insight in this thread. Among this thread and others, i've heard great things about investing in Delaware county. Unfortunately for me at this stage of my investing, I have to be close to my day job. Because of this, what are your guys thoughts on Montgomery county? More specifically on the East side of the Schuylkill?

To focus things even further, multifamily potential? I've been analyzing a couple deals a day in various towns from Lansdale to Jenkintown. Some seem tangible. Obviously not massive cash flow, but I have to look more towards things such as school district and crime rates and their effect on the potential for appreciation for wealth generation since my job is very stable. Now I am not being naïve and banking on appreciation, just knowing that that can be what creates the wealth over time in these areas, not cash flow. Or do I have it backwards? 

Any thoughts are welcome and encouraged! Hopefully this helps others on here as well

Awesome information thank you for sharing! Great insight into the local market

I am also looking at Duplex's around Philadelphia. Is it common that the zoning for a property is incorrect? Is this something you guys will normally look out for and always ask about?

@Ola Dantis That's a good way of thinking about things. I'll check out that website. 

Do you have any other websites you recommend, or anyone else in here, for market analysis? I currently will look at Niche.com, Rentometer, neighborhood scout, and the MLS (Realtor, Zillow etc) to get a feel for an area. I will look at prices of the neighborhood, to see if I can even start there, look at school ratings, and rent to buy ratios.

Any other resources you guys have would be super helpful!! Or other big things I should look for.

@Cory Pflipsen That is a great point. I'm also a young single investor so that is most likely where my mind is going. Not towards what families are looking for. I have started to analyze at least 1 deal a day in the surrounding burbs and plan to keep this up for a couple months until it is clockwork. 

I haven't thought about calling City Planning officers, but that makes sense. That makes me think of something I heard years ago about buying real estate. The point was made to look around and see where new chains were popping up. For example, a town/suburb could seem not so special, but then one day they start building a Chipotle. The advice was that these really profitable businesses have teams of experts who do a TON of market research to find up and coming areas. If they are starting to build there, they have some reason to believe that the surround area is going to boom in the near future and bring in money. So to go with your point Cory, calling and seeing if anything new is popping up in the area is a very smart move!

@Jimmy O'Connor This is amazing information thank you!! Things you said that really jumped out at me are first and foremost the U&O tax. A quick Google Search got me up to speed on this. From what I understand it is a 1.21% tax paid every month, but i'm confused on your sidewalk comment. Do they inspect your property before you can buy it?

The other nugget of gold that you said is that school districts sell homes. I've known how important this is, but it's nice to hear that from others.

I will be primary be looking in the Montco area actually so I will start adding a more in depth look at schools into my research and I will start asking friends who live here more about the U&O. I want to understand this before I would buy an investment to find out the this tax makes or breaks my cashflow.

Thanks for the great information!

@Jonathan R McLaughlin That's a good point. There are people who are in the proximal suburbs of Philadelphia who commute into the city because they don't want to deal with the rent of the city. From what I have read through Neighborhood Scout and knowing the areas a little (new to living here) is that the vacancy rates are very low. 2% or less. Generally because these towns can be close to mainline trains that go into the city.

Thanks for helping me get my brain turning guys! This is encouraging!!