All Forum Posts by: Shawn Ackerman

@Jeremy Beland Well said!!!! I've built my entire rental portfolio off of going direct to seller and starting the cycle of 1. sourcing my own deals 2. assigning 3. using assignment fees to build capital to buy more real estate and more marketing.  The mindset of sourcing and buying internally has helped sustain us through the lean times.  This is the real estate cheat code in my opinion.  And you have just laid it out there for the world to see.  I hope this post gets 100K votes!!!!

Thanks man for taking the time to put this post together!

@Josh Feit Hi Josh, have you considered renting on a lease option? I find this strategy to work well in these sort of situations.  upside is you can open up your tenant pool to people who have resources for their own home but may be missing some of the traditional bank qualifications. Also you get a down payment(Option fee), monthly payment(rent) and a lump sum in the future 3,5,7 years.  And you can mark up the price based on what you think the market will do in the future.  Lastly, all of the housing maintenance and responsibility for utilities will be the responsibility of the tenant buyer so you will dramatically reduce your expenses. 

just a thought. All the best. seems like a problem property but may actually be a blessing

Hello @Erik Bayersdorfer welcome to BP. Good luck on your journey!!!

@Peter Vercellin Congrats on getting started.  Focus on deal analyzing so that you know what constitutes a "Deal" to you.  Additionally, develop some real estate metrics so that you may measure markets evenly and objectively. 

As a NY'er what was important to me was 1. cost of market entry 2. price to rent ratio 3.  availability of multi-family 4. ability to write my own contracts(Go off market) 5. landlord tenant laws etc......and some others.

If you plan to hold long term, think of what would be most important to this type of investing i.e 

All the best!

@Srini Rajamani welcome to BP!!! better late than never.  congrats on getting started on your journey!  just know that this i a marathon not a sprint.  all the best!

@Duane A. Snow Milwaukee is a great market to invest in. There is a great selection of SFR's and MFR's. I'd say consider split testing the SFR and LTR approach. You can try this with a duplex. Location will matter oncourse so be mindful of that. Is your strategy more monthly income focused or appreciation?

@Zoe Brennan I started with $3K cash and $8K in credit cards. I invested it into marketing direct to seller in the Milwaukee WI. My home market is NY. It has been a grind for sure. I am not going to sugar coat it, going direct to seller is a FULLTIME MECHANICAL "JOB" but I was able to build a rental portfolio from doing this day in and day out. Now I have VA's that do the cold calling/cold texting but that is how I'd suggest starting with $25K. I'm not sure what market you are in but for me MKE was a cash flow market which is the type of RE I was most interested in as replacing my 9-5 income was top priority.

You will need to have the time, understand how to underwrite a real estate deal, understand how to market to buyers and sellers and have the ability to build a team on the ground in the market you choose.  All the best on your journey!!

Hi @Aidan Jones congrats on getting things moving with your investing career.  I'm a Ny'er and own a wholesaling business in the Milwaukee Market.  I never could get a foothold into the NY wholesaling community because of the Atty involvement in contracts.  Do you write your own assignable contracts or you have an Atty do it? In WI we write our own so things are much easier.  

We also buy the rentals we lock up and offload some too so I'd suggest doing your marketing in the market where you want to build your portfolio.  It just makes things so much easier because you will have the infrastructure already built.  All the best!

@Robert Ok I think it would be advisable to start your REI journey with a "Deal". And a deal in my opinion is one that will 1. pay for itself(All property expenses) and 2. pay the debt service(if necessary) and 3. put money into my pocket each month.

I began with a single family however I would have started with a 2 or 3 family if the deal penciled out and I had the capital.

Hi @Todd M.We use the Eufy Floodlight cameras and they work over WIFI/Record 24/7 and comes with an app to view on our phone.  We have a 10-Unit apartment building in Milwaukee.  I'm not sure what you are referring to with the access panel but the camera's work just fine.  We pay $55 per month for Wife and each cam was $220x4-There is also cloud recording(up to 10 cams) for $9 per month. 

Best of luck!