All Forum Posts by: Peter Ulstad

Hey @Sean O'Brien, welcome to BP and to the real estate game. I recently purchased my first duplex in Whittier and have been loving it! As Nick pointed out, Brandon's book list is a great starting place, I especially liked The Book On Managing Rental Properties. A couple of other good ones, not necessarily real estate specific, are The One Thing by Gary Keller and The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. 

There's also a good podcast by Clayton Morris, episode 197 of Investing in Real Estate with Clayton Morris, which talks about a bunch of legal issues. I'd check that out as well. 

Lastly, go to some meetups and meet people. There are a lot of smart people in the game that are willing to help! There's a bi-monthly BP meetup group you can find on meetup.com, MNREIA, and others. 

-Peter

Welcome Faraz! There are many forum and blog posts on here debating whether SFRs or MFRs are better properties to own. Here's a link to a good one.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2016/03/0...

There's a BP Meetup going on tonight, link is below. 

https://www.meetup.com/BP-Bi-Monthly-Meetup/events...

See you around!

I keep an eTrade account open for situations like this and throw my money into an index fund (usually an S&P 500 index fund). Granted, these are more volatile than the money market or savings account which @Joseph M. noted above, but at least have the opportunity to make a little money while you wait. Or lose a little money depending on the market. You can generally get the funds out within a day or two after selling the securities. 

@Dan Bryskin @Bruce Runn @Tony Otis Thanks for the input, I didn't realize going from 2 to 3 meant going in the the IBC world. Perhaps you are right, adding a bedroom or two to the first floor unit might be the best option. 

Hi BP Community,

I recently purchased a duplex in Whittier a few houses south of Franklin. The property is located in an R2B zone. The property has a basement which as of now is not considered a legal unit, but has a kitchen, bathroom, and space for an egress window. I'm interesting in trying to convert this to a triplex, but don't know where to start with the city. 

A few items on the location: directly behind my property is a multi-family property zoned R5 and is two properties south of a large R5 district. Also, catercorner to my property across the street is a property zoned R3. In looking at the surrounding blocks, there are a few other properties zoned R5. 

Has anyone had any luck getting a location like this rezoned with the city? I read quite a few proposals online and most seem to get declined. Any advice would be appreciated!

Hey @Jessica Wood, welcome to the real estate game and welcome back to Minnesota! I'm a native Iowan so I understand the desire to move from the great corn state to MN!

I'm in the same camp as @Kevin Powell on this one. One of the amazing things about real estate is the concept of leverage. I believe we were brought up in a world where the concept of owning something free-and-clear was considered "good" and debt was considered "bad". However, I'm a firm believer that getting the highest returns on my dollars invested is my primary goal. Leveraging assets is a great way to accomplish this. 

Good luck to you and I'm sure we'll see you around!

@Dave Crussel @Suzanne Griffiths Thanks for the input. As for now, I'm not moving fast enough to need money in less than a week, but who knows what the future has to hold!

Hi All,

I'll be purchasing my first duplex in Minneapolis in a couple of weeks and have a banking question for everyone. I currently bank with one of the large, national banks (not going to name names, but it is one that has been in the news a lot recently) and am potentially looking at moving my funds. I've been told that it is advantageous to start banking with a local or regional bank in order to leverage that relationship for better rates or terms on loans, etc. The one thing that I really like about my current bank is the ease of use for their online banking system, but I know that will likely be downgraded if I go to a smaller bank. Does anyone have any recommendations for which banks to look at? 

Welcome Sean! Check out the BP Bi-Monthly Meetup here. I attended my first meeting yesterday. It was very informative and some great networking.

https://www.meetup.com/BP-Bi-Monthly-Meetup/