All Forum Posts by: Christopher Reynolds

Originally posted by Ann Bellamy:

Welcome to BP, Christopher. I grew up in Framingham.

Nice, where in Framingham? We bought on Grant St, which is mostly multifamilies that were built as housing for the Dennison factory workers. It was built in 1905 as a two family, and expanded to a 3 family about 50 years later. It's working out great so far, and we love this area.

Concerning 5+ units, I'm trying to educate myself as much as I can before even thinking about looking at properties. Of course I'm "looking", but only as more education...to see what's out there, for now. I feel like I have a reasonable grasp (as much as someone could in the short while I've been studying) on the 1-4 family market, but 5+ is proving to be another animal altogether, very complex. So much to learn, it's great! Also, thank you for the podcast you participated in, I learned a lot.

Originally posted by Mike LaCava:

Welcome Christopher Reynolds to BP and you are correct it is a great place to get so much free education and Joshua Dorkin and Brandon Turner do and incredible job. Check Ann Bellamy Black Diamond event every month. It is a great place to network. I travel and hour+ every month to go. Ann offer great advice when it comes to money so be sure to listen up. Sounds like you have started on the right path so congrats and best of luck.

Thanks Mike! This is the best place to get lots of free education, and hopefully people will share what they have learned back with the community; paying it forward for the next group. If our schedules work with when Ann's meetups are, you'll surely see us there.

Originally posted by Brandon Turner:

Hey Christopher Reynolds welcome and thanks for introducing yourself! That's one of the nicest things I've heard about our Podcast, so thank you! It takes a lot of work to put together and do, but it makes it all worth it to hear that it is helping!

I am a huge fan of the strategy you are using. Small multifamily properties are great and it's awesome to see you using them to build your empire! I also think it's a good idea to start looking larger as you feel comfortable -but build with systems so your time commitment goes down, rather than up.

Glad to have you Chris!

Thanks Brandon! I really can't say enough about the podcast. Combined with BP and its forums, it can't be beat. I wish I could leave more than one 5-star review on iTunes!. Looking forward to everything BP has to offer, and looking forward to being able to contribute when I can.

Originally posted by Paul Sorgi:

Welcome to BP @Christopher Reynolds. You are on the right path and the I would listen closely to what Ann Bellamy Brandon Turner and Mike LaCava have to offer!

I agree Paul, I've been doing a lot of reading on the forums, and they really have a lot of insight. Also been reading a lot of great posts from Joel Owens, I think his name is. Really seems to know his stuff.

Originally posted by Al Williamson:

Christopher Reynolds I like your approach. Stay in a strong position and learn all you can. That is the Art of War for landlords.

Thank you so much Al. Your podcast episode was quite different than I expected, but really helped me realize WHY I love this so much. I do love the financial success we're having, and I hope that continues and grows. But we as landlords really enjoy helping people. We love the idea of not just offering a space for rent, we want to offer a home. So far we've only had a few different tenants, but we love it so far. Landlords don't always have the greatest reputation as a group, but we are doing our part to be part of the good ones. Thanks again for that great podcast.

I posted my original message yesterday, and within 12 hours, I had people welcoming me already, including two great podcast guests and the podcast host. This place is just awesome.

Thank you so much everyone for the replies! There have been so many helpful people here so far, I can't wait to gain more knowledge and be able to share what I know to those who are just starting out, like I am now.

Hi everyone! I just want to introduce myself here. I'm Christopher, and I'm a relatively new investor and landlord in Framingham, which is about 25 miles west of Boston. My girlfriend and I purchased a 3 family house just under 2 years ago, in which we also live. We are moving from unit to unit, improving it slowly, doing 100% of the work ourselves. We are quickly learning so much about being landlords, becoming home improvement wizards, and hopefully becoming wise real estate investors in the years to come.

We learned so much from several books I'm sure most of you have read, but we have learned the most from Bigger Pockets, and specifically the BP Podcast. It's seriously one of the greatest learning tools I've encountered. Thank you Brandon and Joshua, and all the podcast guests. The entire BP experience is a resource like no other.

We currently work 50 hours a week each, for an amazing company we both love. However, our schedules are quite demanding on weekends and holidays, and we find that we are missing out on spending quality time with our friends, families, and each other. We are having great financial success in our first real estate endeavor, and we have goals that will allow us to spend a lot more time enjoying life, and a lot less time "trading hours for dollars", which is a saying I learned on BP!

We may go a few different routes. We initially were seeking buy-and-hold rental properties, 2-4 units, for income. As the housing market seems to gain strength, we found our prospective income slowly dwindling as property prices increased, with rental rates not increasing at the same rate. We are still interested in the 2-4 multifamilies, but we are also looking at the small apartment buildings, likely 5-12 units. We like that the value of a building is directly tied to the rents the building is able to produce, not necessarily comps in the neighborhood. Although these properties are more expensive to acquire, it seems more stable than the 1-4 unit housing market, which can vary wildly at times.

Anyway, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading. See you on the forums!