All Forum Posts by: Robin Dassy

There are a few easy steps you can take to weed out properties that would be vulnerable during any kind of downturn. I would start with analyzing the labor market and finding the major industries within the area. You’re looking for diversity; people will leave when they lose their jobs if the entire economy in an area is centered around one or two industries. Small businesses and any kind of services will either move away or fail if the biggest employers are not hiring. They mostly depend on people employed by those major industries spending their money locally. I would say, unless something drastic happens, most towns with a decent-sized tourism industry should be a bit safer, so long as they are not limited to seasonal tourism. Look into local job boards in comparison to population growth. Quick Wikipedia searches as well as Glassdoor, Indeed, ZipRecruiter etc. should provide you with precious data and a good feel for who is driving the economy. Texas happens to be one of the most diverse states, and there are plenty of markets with some good deals that may be resistant to recession. Good luck with your search!

Hello Brett, The Odessa / Midland market is a great place to invest. I have been living here since 2013. Getting ready to look for 2-4 plex myself. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help! Have a great day!

Hello Will! I hope you are able to find someone in the DFW area to help you out. Where in West Texas are your plots located? Are you thinking of acquiring some more later on? Best of luck with your search and your projects. Take care.

Good morning @Corey Jacques!

I went through your analysis report really quick, and I believe the reason your results look off is because you left the "Total Cash Invested" field at $0 in the refinance section of the analysis.

This would potentially cause the calculations for your CoC ROI and Annualized Return to have that $0 as a denominator, returning "infinite" as a result starting on the year you planned to refinance.

Hope this helped, let me know if you have any more issues.

Have a great day!

Hi @Rachel Rendall,

I joined the meetup group last week I believe. I'll try and be there, thanks for the tip!

Thanks @Michael S.!

@Account Closed, believe it or not, people ask me that type of question fairly often haha. Sweet tea and oil, I guess. Fun fact about waffles, the ones from Liege are made with dough and not batter.
The more you know.

Hello Thomas,

Good to see I'm not the only Belgian on here, I'm from Liège (Luik) myself. I'm currently living in Texas, looking to find a great deal in my market within the next 6 months. I really thought a bunch of strategies such as BRRRR would not be possible in Belgium, making it harder to keep purchasing properties in quick succession. Also the notary fees and closing costs are outrageous compared to what you pay out here. I'm also not sure property with delinquent taxes are easily accessible as they are here.

I guess this is mostly offset by the lower interest rates, I remember my family being completely shocked when I told them what mortgage rates are in the U.S.

Glad to see you still worked out numbers that would make it work for you in the homeland! I really hope you’ll be able to find one of these deals. What areas have you been looking at so far? Have you considered maybe acquiring a building with the potential of being turned into multiple “kot” student apartments in the big university towns? I hope you’ll find a great deal pretty soon, looking forward to seeing updates from you.

As for investing in the U.S., you can't really buy property without preparation. For example, you will need to apply for an ITIN number, which is a tax-processing number assigned to foreign nationals who are required to have a U.S. taxpayer identification number. I would advise you to do some research and potentially connect with people here, such as attorneys and/or seasoned investors, who have experience dealing with foreign investors. A good way to start your research would be to start looking into the legal side of it, and most likely to explore the terms of purchase of any State you're looking into. This Zillow Foreign Buyer's Guide would be a good start.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Hello BP,

My name is Robin, as mentioned in the title I grew up in Liege, Belgium and have been living in the U.S. for about ten years. I went through college in Kansas and Texas, and I have been married to an amazing woman for a couple of months now. We have both been interested in real estate investing for quite a while, it just seemed to be an obvious way to secure a better financial future. As a  young married couple with decent income, we seem to be in an ideal position to start out investing fairly early, it is only a matter of getting real estate education and making deals happen.

I have to confess, I have been a member of BP for about a year now. I have been "lurking" in the forums, trying to learn from every relevant thread I could see. However, a month or so ago, I discovered that BP also had two excellent podcasts. I spend hours on the road every day, so I literally devoured the entire money podcast, and I am still working my way through the colossal real estate podcast material. At 2X the speed, I get quite a few daily reminders to engage on the forums, and I am finally starting to notice some threads on which I could be of assistance.

As for my goals and niche, I have been hunting for a 2-4 units to start house hacking and learning how to be a landlord while working full time and establishing systems that would allow for easy management of our next units. I'm not certain where this path will take my wife and I, but we are shooting for $10k / month in passive income within ten years. 

Another personal but I guess less serious goal of mine is to become @Scott Trench's best friend, as I have at long last found another punny individual whose genius is widely misunderstood by his entourage. Also, I'd still be playing rugby if broken limbs weren't so costly.

I'm a pretty sociable person, and I'm eager to meet BP members with shared interests. I encourage everyone to ask me any questions, or schedule a Starbucks caffeinated meetup with me. Very few things get me as fired up as real estate does, and I hope I will be able to help the community and give back to BP at least as much as I got from it.


Y'all have a fantastic day!