All Forum Posts by: Shane W. Chapin

Hello Bill. Welcome to BP! I am in the Rochester area and have been actively seeking my first property. I am looking more for buy and hold investments with value add opportunity but am also open to a flip if it makes sense. Here is what I have done up to this point that may help guide you starting off:

List out your investment goals and life goals. You have to know WHY you are investing in real estate and what you are trying to achieve.

Read/listen to as many books and BP podcasts as you can. I am still amazed at the amount of information that is out there and how helpful other investors have been.

Know your skills that you can bring to the table, know your target market, how much capital you are working with and how much time you can spend on REI. This will identify who you may need to add to your team in order to succeed.

Speaking of team; look for REI meetups in your area and network. Find people who are doing what you want to do and try to learn from them. Find a way to provide some value to the relationship. Construction skills, capital, time, deals..etc.

Get the Pro account here on BP. The deal calculators are amazing and will help you identify a good deal rather quickly. Search properties and analyze as many deals each day that you can. Get involved in the forums and learn from other doing exactly what you want to do.

Last, take action! I'm sure by now you have heard of "analysis paralysis", which is easy to get caught up in, believe me! You will never feel like you know everything you "need' to know going in to a deal. Just do your best to educate yourself in order to mitigate the risks that are involved, run your numbers, and make offers!

Feel free to contact me as even without my first deal under my belt yet, I am willing to share what I have learned up to this point. Good Luck!

As a new investor working on my first deal as we speak, I just would like to congratulate you on taking action! Keep the big picture in mind and make sure you stay focused on your goals. Everything else is just noise!

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*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

Happy Tuesday BP!! Im still working on my first property and have come across this 4 plex with potential to turn the store front in to 5th unit. The cash needed up front may be an issue but I wanted to get some opinions on the deal itself. I have built in some assumptions due to the current low rent level ($625 for the 3 bd 1bth) and I am assuming I can rent the garages for about $250 per month. I have not had a GC walk through yet so I am not sure what the cost would be for building the 5th unit but I like the value add potential in the property.. Thank you in advance and don't be shy!

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*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

Happy Friday BP! I looked at this house yesterday and here is the deal I came up with. Here are 2 assumptions I have made at this point; (1) I can get the house for $75K..not the $85K asking price and (2) that I can raise rents a minimum of $100 per unit. It seems like her rents are low as she is charging $550 for the 1/1 and $650 for the 2/2. Both units are occupied and I do not know the status of their current lease yet but either way, raising the rents seems like a quick way for me to get the numbers working in my favor. Can I just raise rents after taking possession or would I have to wait out their current lease?

@Stephanie Barton In my humble newbie opinion, of course I think $200 CF is possible. I am a bit of an optimist though. If the math doesn't work on this property, then it doesn't and like you said, you let it go. However, it doesn't seems like you're that far away from the $200. If you could manage the property yourself, you gain $80 right there. Just my 2 cents :)

@Scott Long Great point about the closing cost's, thank you! I'm not sure exactly how I am going to finance my first deal but I do believe that once I find the right deal, it will not be that hard to find the money for it.There are a few areas within the city of Rochester that I would invest in but I am trying to stay in the b-c class neighborhoods that I know.  I have really just been trying to analyze as many "deals" as I can as to train myself to be able to quickly identify a "good deal" when I come across it. I was a bit disappointed thinking that I wouldn't be able to make this work without being forced to buy in areas I don't want to invest in (or put 50% cash down) but I don't think that is the case as long as I am using accurate information.

You had mentioned that you were looking at Rochester for an investment. If there is any way I can assist you as far as "boots on the ground" here in Rochester, please don't hesitate to reach out as I want to get as much real world experience as I can. Thank you again for your input!

@Michael Randle That did it! Thank you you for the insight! Once I re-ran the numbers with the higher rent, I now show a nice cash flow.

@Mark W. Good call! Thank you! Hopefully we can connect and maybe work on a few deals in the future.

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*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

I am a new investor aggressively looking to purchase my first multifamily property. I have been analyzing deals from a few properties in my area of Rochester, NY and surrounding towns. It seems like any property over $100K is generating negative cash flow from day 1. For example, on this deal I have posted, I moved the down payment up to 40% (which I don't have) just to see how it would change and it is still negative. I assume I am doing some part of this calculation wrong. If not, how can one generate cash flow without having at least 50% down? The obvious answer to me is to stop looking at properties in this price range but that doesn't seem like that can be the solution. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Happy Friday BP community! I have a direct mailing out right now and am looking for a title company to assist with the purchase and closing (once I find the multi family property). Anyone here in Rochester, NY have someone they have used in the past and would recommend? Thanks in advance!!

@Brandon Daughtrey Full disclosure here Brandon, I am a new investor myself and have not purchased my first property yet. With that being said, I am excited to say that I did just buy my first direct mail list yesterday through Listsource.com I was able to come up with a list of just over 2000 potential properties that I can mail to and it cost me about $300. If you have trouble with the list, you can call them and they will help you build it to exactly the property types you are targeting.

My plan is to use 5x7 post cards with my general message and contact info on the front. You can get 2500 custom post cards on Vista Print for about $188. My wife and I are going to split the list and try to get out 300 post cards per week over the next 7 weeks. By breaking up the list, I am hoping to control the number of calls that need to be taken and be able to analyze any deals that come our way.

Of course you can set up a template letter and copy and paste in to the letter accordingly to save some handwriting but that is why I am going with the post card (doesn't have to be opened to receive the message).

We may try to identify our "top" 300 properties and send a handwritten letter to them but that may be easier said than done.

Whatever you do, I hope it works out. Good Luck!