All Forum Posts by: Steven Ko

This question seems to be more about morals so let me help push you in the right direction. If she was paying more rent because she had a pet, and now she does not, you should lower the rent.

Have the people who are talking about damages ever owned a pet cat? Sure they’re running up and down my stairs right now but they’re hardly causing any damage. Sure, the cat might pee on the ground but then there’s probably a reason why it’s not using it’s litter box then. My cats did mess up the sub $10 blinds at my old apartment. You

You seem like a nice guy, only charging $20 in pet rent. I don’t think the tenant told you about the cat for your sympathy. She probably told you expecting to get rent adjusted accordingly. It’s up to you if you want to go over and check if the tenant is lying for $200. But if I told my landlord my pet died and I wanted a rent reduction, and then the landlord came and checks if my pet actually died, I’d be upset. Does the tenant seem like a good long term tenant? Is this a battle you want to fight for $240 a year or would you rather “do the right thing” and move on and look for your next deal that’ll bring you much more than $240 a year. Some people like to chase pennies.

@Keegan Darby tenants paying for a replacement window a/c seems outrageous. They might as well buy one for themselves and take it afterwards rather than buy one for you and leave it because one was “provided”. What if the tenant just moved in and the window a/c stops working a week later. You going to shrug and say sorry, you still need to buy a new window a/c, says here on your lease? It’s probably easier to just not provide one if you’re that worried about spending a few hundred dollars.

@Sarah Szuhay rather than define your strategy (which is good), you should define your market. Choosing brrrr in pgh area isn’t niche enough. If you are going to leverage family/friends to help, you don’t want them to have to drive over many Bridges and tunnels just to get to the place every time. I’ve meet a few people here and we all do some variation of brrrr but we all have our own submarket we invest in/near pgh. Pick a neighborhood or township. Once you define your market, you can concentrate your deal searching to that area. And once you find that deal, you’ll be ready to move on it because you’ve studied that area and know with more certainty it will be a base hit.

I myself recently moved from the SF Bay Area simply because I had no money. You only have 30k. You want to buy and hold “B class” rentals. You want 10k in cash flow. As someone else mentioned, what is your plan for the second place? You’ll probably end up using all 30k + have a mortgages so you can get into that B neighborhood. Will you be working and saving up more? How long will it take you to save up another ~30k for your next house?

I just went under contract for 2 houses in wilkinsburg for 65k. It’s a “D” neighborhood but imo, I believe it’s moving up a little to borderline C. I just moved here and all I hear are bad things about wilkinsburg. But for me, it checked my boxes, close by (<15 min) and cheap.

@Mindy Jensen I agree with peer review but heavily vetted. A toothbrush on amazon with 10k reviews and once you start reading the reviews, 90% of them seem fake. We recently had a post where someone asked about a program and then what felt like a bunch of spam bots came on.

@Corey Depuy you should hang around Mr. Turner during his webinar. He has an infectiously positive attitude and motivates the crap outta you. Even if you already know the subject he’s talking about, it’s worth listening to him.

@David Lee Hall, III just recently. The thing about being a perma-bull is I don’t think anything and everything will always just go up just because “it’s supposed to.” I think it’s more of a mindset. Obviously crashes happen but believing it will bounce back. And once again, not just any and every market. Investing does come with risks after all. But just cause there is a global pandemic, am I going to freak out and make a bp post about how I should liquidate my assets in 6 month? No. Do I think that the stock market is overvalued with everything that’s going on? Yes. Does that mean I’ll stop investing? No, but I have made adjustments.

I may not have been investing but my parents bought a house before 08 and it’s worth more now than it was. Take a look at the S&P500 chart. Up and to the right. Take almost any decade or more timeframe and your bound bound to see prices rise over that time.

Retail apocalypse, fast food apocalypse, and now people think commercial real estate will collapse. I’m just a little hesitant to think certain things will fall off the face of the earth long term.

If you ask me if I think the market will be up or down next year, I’m just going to shrug and say I think I’ll go up. Do I think I’ll be right? Absolutely not.

Also as a perma-bull, because I believe quality assets will continue to go up, I tend to strategize buy and hold with a long time horizon.

@Jourdain Francine have you heard the horror stories about bad contractors on the podcasts, forums, and from others in person? What was the total cost of the job. Was the work good? If yes, then be happy.

@Ryan Leckie have you seen some of the flips in Garfield? 5006 Dearborn is a great one. Sold for 385,000. The flipper who I bought my home from did 5206 Dearborn and sold a row home for 265k. He’s also doing 5210 which I imagine will sell for similar. I would agree Garfield has the best potential, I would love to be able to invest in Garfield but I’m limited by cash monies.

I have a strong belief that winners win. This is all based on the assumption that pgh can turn around its population declines and keep the graduates in Pgh. If Garfield goes up, I imagine lawrenceville and east liberty will continue to climb also. But let’s be honest, pgh as a whole is a winner so let’s all continue to win!!!!

Your response to your question would be nice too :)

First off, I’m a perma-bull. I alway think everything is going to go up. Stocks, Real estate, you name it, up.

Also, my first answer is bias because I just moved here, East Liberty. You got bakery square, which 3.0 is nearing completion with Philips as a tenant. A new Whole Foods with office space is being built. We got Duolingo (which recently released a children’s learning app). Also, two churches, one that’s a historic landmark are for sale that are super close to “the action”. You already got the luxury apartments near elpc. Lots of shops and restaurants. You also have the bus station here. So why do I think it’s going to continue to go up? I don’t think east liberty is done improving. With officeplexs being built so close, I think it’s going to change the commercial real estate values and I don’t think it will be economical for some stores to stay when the land that they’re on is gold. A quick drive down penn will show the old and new.

Next up, Garfield. Lots of shops and restaurants. Central location. I’ve never seen so many flips going on in a neighborhood. Lots of empty store fronts, some for sale but to me that means the opportunity for growth is there. Did I mention central location? You can get to lawrenceville and east liberty so easily. Downtown is easily accessible too.

Lastly, I like greenfield, close to the waterfront, and the new hazelwood green is going in. I think they already have Aptiv or some

Autonomous driving company who will lease the space. You already got the high school there. Near the parks.

So like I said, I’m a perma-bull. I get that pgh had population declines starting from the 60s. Luckily we have CMU/UPMC which I think will be a great feeder for all these jobs. What I love about pgh is all the infrastructure is there. New mixed use buildings are going up in almost every neighborhood. So many retail spaces still waiting to be developed. Lots of housing stock albeit very old but it’s still available. And to put a pretty little bow on top, it’s affordable!

So the weird thing is, everyone, literally everyone, thinks that the Pittsburgh market will be the same old thing it was. Going up, going down, holding steady. There are flips that are already sold that defy the residential real estate laws of pgh. Yet we’re holding steady? I don’t think things will pan out the way I hope in the next few years but 5+ years, probably 10. Then there is so much that’s going on outside of pgh.