All Forum Posts by: Ronan Donnelly

Hi @Joseph Cameron, thanks for sharing your inspiring story. The south west suburbs of Chicago are a great place to start investing due to tons of inventory, Cashflow and lots of potential deals. Good luck!

Hi @Kai Van Leuven, I think that you have asked a very insightful question and you have highlighted a number of things to consider. 

To answer your question generally I would say that you should select areas where there is diverse employment and you can future proof things a bit by ensuring that some amount of the employment is in industries like technology and life sciences. Cities will always be popular because at our core we thrive by interacting with other people however technology will enable people to work in city jobs whilst in non city areas. Whilst incomes overall have been somewhat stagnant, so has inflation and there are always some sectors where significant increases in income offset decreases in other sectors. 

Hi @Dennis Nikolaev, short term rentals can be a great way to juice returns but be cautious of the potential impact of regulations that limit STR activities. I'd recommend underwriting with traditonal rental rates and if you can get higher with STR's then consider it a bonus

You could build a database of apartments in your area by searching on apartments.com. Once you have the address then you can search county auditor websites to get the owners contact details. Good luck

I use uDirect for my SD IRA investments. It is a small, privately owned company and they have a strong, personal customer focus I.e. you get quick responses and access to real people. The only negative is that they charge $10 for each check that they cash beyond 12 per year. Since I have multiple investments that pay monthly this can put a dent in returns. So overall I'd strongly recommend them but do compare fees with other providers

Hi @Joseph Richardson, congratulations on taking full advantage of the awesome platform that is BP and for your first post. There are so many great people on BP that you can get insight from so posting is a great way to go. As you likely already aware, there are a multitude of ways to make money in real estate and success can sometimes be a function of picking which one to focus on. 

If your ultimate goal is multifamily, on a commercial scale then I can tell you from experience that there is absolutely no reason why you can't start with that. There is really no need to ‘graduate' from single family homes to multifamily. I had a similar thought process to you but after scaling my single family portfolio I learned about some of the challenges of scaling with SFH's, namely poor economies of scale and a real management challenge. Multifamily management companies charge around 5% vs 10% for SFH's and the managers available for multifamily can be more institutional quality than some of the SFH management options. For these reasons alone I would recommend just going straight to multifamily. Good luck with whatever you decide, taking action is the most important thing.

@Scott V. What's the point of hard work if not to enjoy the fruits of your labor? Totally go for it!

Hi @Account Closed, one option would be to look up the local listings on Loopnet and then see which brokers are marketing them. Finding the broker is just the start, you need to present yourself as credible once you connect in order to get deals. You can do this by referencing a track record, being very specific about what you are looking for and by demonstrating your ability to close. Good luck!

Whatever your goals are, here are a few things to give up - https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/11782/88425-want-success-here-are-ten-things-you-must-give-up

@Danielle Clark - depends on your definition of better but the specific deal is likely more important than the strategy or asset class. Good luck!