All Forum Posts by: Steve K.

Hey @Reid Laliberte,

That's a heck of a deal and I'm sure you have a good amount of equity in it now. I've seen small multi-families (2-4 units) appreciate very nicely in the Lewiston/Auburn area. There are a lot of people that are wanting to owner occupy, which has driven greater demand for these properties. 

I am helping other investors as a realtor now, so if you are ever interested in listing it or just want some comps, let me know. 

Hope to see you at the meetup Wednesday!

Hey all, I wanted to post that we are having a meetup for the Lewiston and Auburn Maine market on January 29th. These are informal meetups, free to attend, and a great chance to meet other investors in the area. Hope to see you there!

I appreciate that @David Lecko! It's been a great tool so far. I did some cold calling with it last year and got some solid leads. I'm planning to send some mailers this year using the Ballpoint Marketing integration, so really glad to see you guys have added that!

I think there can be some great deals out there in the winter months. If the deal makes sense I think the pros will outweigh the cons. The property may not have any vacancies, but if it does, just make sure you have enough reserves to cover that. 

I like to post on Facebook marketplace and include a link to my Zillow application where they can apply there. You get lots of questions from Marketplace, but you can just copy/paste a response like "Thanks for reaching out. To apply please visit this link on Zillow." You can also share your post to local pages on Facebook. I've had good luck with getting extra applicants that way. But like others have said, it's a tough time of year to fill vacancies. One thing I'd like to do going forward is optimize my leasing so they don't expire between the months of November-March.

Hey BP,

I know this question has been asked often, but I've been struggling trying to find an investor-friendly insurance company. I am located in Maine and have 2 six unit buildings, 2 four units, and a 5 unit. 

What are some companies that others are using to insure multi-families of this size?

Thanks in advance,
Steve

My suggestion would be to watch/listen to as much of the free content out there on real estate investing (there is a ton of it). I also encourage new investors to attend local meetups. You may meet someone there that is looking for a helper, there are often old timers there too that are willing to share their knowledge. 

While becoming a real estate agent isn't required to invest in real estate, I do think it can beneficial. Are you willing to put in the extra time to get your license? If so, I think that can be a great gateway into real estate for you. 

Hey Elizabeth,

The biggest question I have is if you are willing to live in one of the units. As others have said, this is the best way to get started because you can get much better financing when the property is owner occupied. A lot of the owner occupy loans require you to live there for at least a year, so it's not forever. 

If you choose not to owner occupy you'll need to put more money down (like 25% vs 3.5%), so just keep that in mind. 

It also sounds like you may be stuck in analysis paralysis, or you are just looking for that perfect property. I've found that there is no such thing as a perfect property. There is always going to be something that you don't like. 

My advice would be to find a mentor (the right investor-focused agent can be great at this), continue analyzing deals, run them by your mentor, and then make offers when a deal meets your buy criteria. Local investor meetups are also a great place to find a mentor and just talk to other investors in your market.

It can be pretty scary buying your first deal, but at some point you need to pull the trigger if investing is truly what you want to do. It took me over a year of learning and analyzing deals before I got my first multi-family, but I eventually did it and I'm very glad I did. The next deals came much easier as my confidence grew. 

Best of luck!

Hey Drue,

While I'm not in LA, I'd highly recommend attending real estate investor meetups in your area. If you look under Forum Categories -> Real Estate Classifieds -> Real Estate Events & Meetups and search for Los Angeles you'll find several different meetups. When I was new to real estate I started going to meetups and met a lot of great people there that I am still friends with today, so if you are looking for a mentor they are a great spot for that. 

Hey Lorenzo,

I'm up in Maine, so not too far from Boston. I went through the same dilemma when I started investing a few years ago. I'd look at properties in Portland, Maine, which is also a mature and expensive market like Boston, and wondered why people would buy at such a low cap rate. I started looking in surrounding areas and found that the markets less established or still rebuilding had much higher cap rates. On paper some of these buildings had amazing metrics, excellent cash on cash returns, cap rates, etc, but when I looked at the buildings I found the neighborhoods were rough, there was poor management in place, there was lots of deferred maintenance to address. It would take a lot of work to get them up to par. While these buildings had great cash flow, there was more risk that went along with them. That's when it clicked for me - that cap rates are more just a measure of risk. The higher the cap rate, the more risk involved in the building. 

Another important thing to keep in mind is that markets with strong cashflow won't typically have as much appreciation. And markets with strong appreciation typically won't have much cashflow. A property in Boston will appreciate well, but with minimal cashflow. I've found that there are markets that have a balance of decent cashflow and decent appreciation and that's the type of market I eventually decided to invest in.

I'm not too familiar with the different markets down there but I'd highly recommend looking into Candor Realty. They are a group of investors and investor focused agents and put on several meetups a month. I'd personally recommend @Andrew Freed.

I think this will all start making more sense once you start analyzing deals and working with an agent that can provide some insight. 

Best of luck!