All Forum Posts by: Christopher Elliott

@Robert M. Once I saw your post I thought it may of been you. Definitely a small world. I haven't bought anything yet as I am trying to pay off my student loans before I start investing. I'd like to try and make a career out of it someday but that is a ways off. I am tired of the cubical life so hopefully this can lead to something more exciting.

I have come across an interesting situation via a coworker. My coworker and her husband bought a condo in a 50+ unit complex. However, the builder/owner was only ever able to sell a dozen or so of the units. To cut his losses he started renting the remaining units out. With a such a small portion of the units owner occupied the owners are having no luck in selling their properties. Bank won't give any new mortgages to the units due to the ratio of owners/renters.

The owners are now suing the developer over a variety of issues but the suit really isn't going anywhere. My thought was the following... Could you pull together enough funds to buy out the 14 owners and turn those into apartments. The positives would be two that I can see. The owners just want out and therefore will accept well below market values. The second is that the units were built in a tax free zone for 10 years. There is roughly 5 years left of no property taxes. 

The negatives would be you would somehow have to deal with the developer and how he is renting the majority of the units out. There is also a condo association where the developer is the major stakeholder as he has 50 units compared to the owner's 12 or so. The owner occupied units are scattered throughout the complex so, there is the complication of shared maintenance costs. The developer is trying to sell the units, so maybe the deal could be expanded and the deal could include whole rows of units so that their isn't a mixture. 

I haven't even bought my first property yet so something like this is out of my league right now, but I know a few people that potentially could get it done. Does this sound like an idea worth bringing up to them? I'm still in the I don't know what I don't know stage so there is probably a bunch of holes I am missing. 

Welcome! I am also in the Erie are but have not yet purchased my first property. I am in a similar circumstance as I am trying to pay off student loans before I commit the funds to investing in real estate. 

While I haven't bought anything yet, I would have to agree with Robert's post. It is very seldom that I have seen a multifamily house come onto the market. If they do come on the market, the price doesn't really make sense if you are trying to get any sort of cashflow. 

Keep in touch and best of luck to you!

As my finances are not quite ready for me to purchase my first property i am resorting to trying to meet as many people in my local market to make some connections. My question for people who have done this before is, what are some specific questions that make sense for me to be asking. I have a pretty good list but figured there could be some important ones i am missing that could be beneficial when learning about a market. Any questions i should avoid asking? I have a family friend who was reaching out to some of his contacts to see if they would talk with me, so i don't want to come off in the wrong way. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks and have a great day.

I am just starting out and just met with a family friend today who used to invest in real estate. Throughout my time researching and reading I have been leaning towards the efficiencies that could be had by focusing on multifamily housing. My logic was you had one roof covering multiple tenants, if one tenant moved out, you still have one or two to pay the bills, etc. However, the family friend opened my eyes to some negatives on multifamily housing and in his opinion he preferred SFH.

His main point, and it made sense to me, was that tenants in SFHs tend to treat the SFH as an actual Home and not just a house. In his experience people in multifamily tended to treat the units as just some place they live rather than a true home. In the SFH his tenants tended to be more willing to help maintain the yard and such due to for lack of a better term, the neighborhood effect. The SFH tenants felt they were in a true neighborhood and would tend to want to feel apart of it and that helped in the maintenance of his properties.

I was just wondering if there were other pros and cons that could be seen from the SFHs and Multifamily houses and even commercial investing. I never would of thought of it in the way that it was explained to me and was curious if anyone else experienced the same thing.

 THe best part of not only meeting and gaining some new insight on real estate, he also offered to reach out to two other people in my area to help expand my network. All in all it was a great experience and even thought I am taking baby steps into real estate investing it is still exciting.

Have a great evening, 

I do have a question for members that have joined local Real Estate Investors Associations. I know every association is probably different, but have you found the local clubs to be beneficial? I guess I am thinking that on Biggerpockets, most members aren't really competing with each other, so offerings tips, suggestions, etc, doesn't really impact their business. However, at the local level you would be offering advice to someone that could be your direct competition... Just curious. I want to reach out and network with local people but wasnt sure how receptive clubs are for people who are just starting out. 

Good evening Biggerpockets Community!

My name is Chris E. and I have been following the forums on biggerpockets for a few months now and decided it was time to dive in. I have always been interested in real estate and land as far as I can remember. Someone once told me there is one thing that they can't make more of... and that is Land. That has always stuck with me and figured real estate would be the best way to exploit that truth. 

I do not currently own any rentals, as I am still in the research phase of my real estate investing plan, but that will change some day in the next few years. In my professional life I am a CPA that is our of public practice, once the baby was born I couldn't do tax season anymore and spend the time with my new family that I wanted to. Crunching numbers and financial analysis is something I enjoy as weird as that sounds, so that is another area of Real Estate Investing that sparks my interest. 

I am balancing the tasks of paying down students loans and saving for my first purchase. In the mean time I plan on refining my approach and determining the niche I wish to practice in. Right now I am leaning towards multifamily housing with a buy and hold type strategy. My home town, Erie, PA, is fortunate in some ways and not so in others. We did not experience the large downturn a lot of the nation experienced, but we also didn't have the large increase in values either. I don't know a whole lot about my market, so if anyone else is in the Northwest PA or Eastern Ohio or Western NY region, and would like to meet up to talk real estate, Pittsburgh Pirates baseball or even just the weather, count me in. 

Thanks for listening to my little spiel and have a good rest of the evening,