All Forum Posts by: Raymond Y.

Paul,

Like yourself, I am in the NYC area and was paralyzed by the insane RE prices. I started to look elsewhere and thought the Lehigh Valley had potential due to the great purchase price to rent ratio along with some exciting developments in the area. I decided to take action and took the plunge and went the Allentown BP meeting Justin mentioned. It was a great experience and I was glad I decided to go. There was a good mixture of new and veterans investor and everyone had a blast. I hope you can come join us at the next meeting. Let me know if you have any questions.

I would first read up on how the credit bureaus calculate one's credit score. There are a lot of resources online and my personal favorite is Reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/...

Ultimately, building a good score is mostly dependent on paying all your credit cards/debt on time. Credit cards are dangerous in the sense that they can greatly increase your score by having large credit limits. But at the same time, they can ruin you if you don't pay them off. With enough discipline, you should be able to use credit cards to your advantage and even take advantage of sign-up bonuses. I abuse credit card bonuses and I haven't paid for a flight and hotel in years.

Also, sign up for creditkarma or anything similar so you can track your credit score.

Welcome Cory. Like yourself, I am fairly new to this and I upgraded to PRO the moment I began. I honestly haven't used much of the benefits so far other than the calculators, but that PRO membership shows everyone that you are serious and they are more likely to respond to you.

Thanks guys! It must be a thing specific to my area because most of the guys aren't bonded.

I am currently searching for a general contractor for my first deal and I see a couple on Angie's List that are licensed, insured, but not bonded. Do you guys recommend I use them? A few of them have been referred by people I know.

Do you have good recommendations for contractors in the Lehigh Valley / Allentown area? I am going out to inspect a property soon and wanted to know if you guys know any good ones. My broker gave me this list:

Classic Exteriors: Bill Blazer, http://classicexteriorsinc.com/

Eisenhart Construction (General Contractor): Brian Eisenhart

Feungsheui Flooring: Calvin Witherspoon

DSS Construction (General Contractor): David Stauffer

Giacalone Construction, LLC - Paul Giacalone

 Yeah, I am just worried that I won't be able to find out about any deal breakers within 5 days. Do you recommend that I bring contractors and inspectors with me when I do the walkthrough?

I finally mustered enough courage to make an offer this week and one of them actually got a counter-offer!!! I still have to run the numbers on the counter-offer, but assuming I accept, the seller is only giving me 5 days to inspect the property. Given I am new to this, is there anything I need to do right away (line up inspectors, contractors, get a quote from insurance)? I am also worried that the seller is trying to hide something from me, which is why he is only giving me 5 days.

I had a blast last time and I hope I can make it to this one.

I have $50k to invest with and I am looking into the Lehigh Valley/Allentown area. Looks like I can pick up single family homes for $50k or duplexes for $100k. I am comfortable with leveraging myself, but at the same time, paying all cash seems to make the closing process a lot easier. For a complete beginner who cares about getting higher returns, in my situation is there a clear winner for SFH vs MFH?