All Forum Posts by: Ziv Magen

I would say a big, resounding NO!!!! to renting out to classmates or buddies, actually. Sure recipe for disaster, in my opinion.

Would also say a big resounding NO to debt - find an affordable market (and you don't have to limit yourself to your own back yard, the world's full of those at any given time, even if there's nothing around your home town at the moment), and don't give in to the temptation of easy money.

Kenny Estes wrote a great piece about that one, and I couldn't agree more - http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/07/24/real-estate-leverage/

(all of the above is just my opinion and experience, of course. I'm sure there are people out there who rent to friends and family and have had a fabulous time at it - and I know most of the world disagrees with me re debt ;))

Don't let the naysayers bring you down, Matt Miller!

When I started doing RE mom asked me "when I was going to get a PROPER job". Then when we started sourcing Japanese properties, all sorts of people, including very influential hedge fund managers etc (of the sort that brought the market crashing down in 2008) were saying similar things ("prices haven't risen in 15 years etc") - they're all (mom included) laughing out of the other side of their mouths now ;)

Slow and steady does it - it takes those who go against the grain to make a real killing - and Detroit may be just the place to hit now, of all times.

Best of luck and welcome aboard!

What Karen Mikolainis said - if you put it all down into a spreadsheet, I think you may find that renting where you NEED to live and investing where you WANT to may make the best sense - and will more than cover up the need to pay for the services of a good property manager and others - if you follow the deals to where the money is.

Also, being remote will free you from being emotionally and time-wise consumed in management of your property/ies.

I second that.

With all these numbers thrown around, I'm wondering what exactly they all represent?

We normally quote % as net pre-tax - meaning, after all purchase and routine running costs have been taken into consideration (barring unexpected expenses such as vacancies or maintenance).

Is this what you're all referring to here? If so, "high teens" sounds very promising, unreal even - would love to see those deal calcs!

Welcome aboard, Christian. Your analytical skills will come in very handy in quick deal analysis - you'll be able to save yourself hours and days of work (it all happens in excel anyway ;)) and, as a result, review, skim, delve deeper and act upon before the rest of the market does, nabbing you the best deals, whichever particular strategy you may choose.

My background was project management, and I felt so at home when I started analysing my first RE deal, it was a bit of a shock - but those skills are serving me oh so well now.

Best of luck to you!

Welcome aboard, Garold. The content here is great, isn't it? :)

I wish I knew enough about your local market and/or your finance options to give any relevant advice. If you've got money for a down payment, maybe you've got enough for a small cash purchase that'll yield enough to ease the pain a bit on the non-functioning property - at least until the time is right to sell it?

Note investments and/or overseas properties would fit that bill, if researched carefully - as would some of the lower end properties in the areas worst hit by the GFC in the US - up until a few months ago, $50K cash yielding properties were still advertised in the US - haven't been following offers since though...

Bla :)

If you're after RE investing wisdom, the posts here and on similar forums, and other investors' experience and daily tested analysis tools, are your best learning tools - and it's all free!

I'd second most of the above - not just leave your wallet at home, but don't even spend your time when you could be reading bp posts with it - there's no comparison.

Manny C. -

1) In essence, regardless of the particular uniqueness of the property, your offer says that prices in the area are now more than 30% over their 2004 peak. Is that the case?

2) If the numbers aren't attractive anymore, with what you now know may happen to the taxes, why are you still considering the deal?

Would love to hear your thoughts,

Welcome aboard, Frank F. - sorry it had to be this way, but still good to see you here. :) As much as I love Brandon's work usually, I'm actually with you on this one - being gun shy until you have a better strategy in place is probably a wise choice (in my book at least).

I'd look into refinancing and also potentially rehabbing and selling to move on - maybe starting from scratch is the best that can be hoped for here, with a new, better informed and better formulated plan.

Incidentally - are you landlording by choice or necessity? have you considered that maybe your bad luck with tenants and payments could have been alleviated by going with a good, locally adept PM?