All Forum Posts by: Steven Ko

If you’re a grad student with a full time job, I’d hand it off. What’s more important? School/work or managing your tenants?

No one cares more about your money than you!

ill take the other end of this. If I was retiring, I would want something as passive and hands off as possible. Sure a property manager might help but I’m sure you’ve heard horror stories with some property managers which in turn places more work for you while your retired. You’ll still have expenses you need to pay. And then how much cash flow are you expecting? Few hundred a month if nothing big happens (like a roof or furnace). You’ll still deal with vacancies. If you have one property and prop management’s buddy has 20 properties with them, whose property do you think they’ll try to fill first? If your okay with all this, then you can go for it. But don’t just think just because you have a property manager, it’s going to be easy.

Then you have the actual numbers to this. How much from annuities, pension, etc. Do you not have an individual/joint investment account with stocks/bonds? How much are you getting for the farm land? What kind of property do you want to buy? A/B class? C class?

Its possible you can get the best tenant who stays for 10 years and pays on time every month with minimal maintenance issues but: expect the worst but hope for the best.

Now I want to end with I’m not saying don’t do this. Obviously if this is something you don’t mind dealing with, then go for it.

Your basically asking if you should depend on yourself or others. Depend on yourself man!!!

No one and I mean No one can answer that question for you. It’s your personal finances so you gotta pick what’s best for you.

You listed the general pros and cons of the different class rentals. I think the more important question to ask is where does your budget put you. If you can grow a portfolio of B class rentals, I’d say do that over D, you’ll get less problems which I value over anything else. I chose to start in “D” class rentals because:

1. I don’t have a lot of money. I could get a place all in for under 50k and rents are between 700-900. Also, I think this covid situation tough is all how important it is to reserves.

2. I want to be a DIY landlord and do my own BRRRR starting off and it will take experience to get there. If I'm going to make a mistake, which I'm prone to making many, it's going to be on that 50k house and not a B class Property. Since I plan to DIY landlord and my skill set so far are close to non-existent, i know I won't be able to keep a B class tenant happy. Let's say something broke, a B class tenant is probably going to want it fixed right away while a D class

Tenant might be “okay” with waiting a few days while I figure out the right people to help.

Jay Hendricks talks a lot about appreciation so I heed that warning. There are many markets that cash flow but have 0 appreciation. I try to stay away from those. I live in Pittsburgh, PA and the “D” class I’m interested in are right outside of pgh. These properties are 10-15 minutes away from our google and Duolingo offices with many many, too many office space available for future companies (like a division of 3m is expanding near the google campus).

So don’t just go into an area just because it’s cheap. There are good tenants and bad tenants across all property types. Sure it might take more work with D than B but you get rewards for it accordingly.

i just read a post that turnkeys numbers [dont work for investors]. Now I’m reading a post about how Seattle doesn’t cash flow.

Do you listen to the podcasts? Do you reallly listen to them and not just in the background? David Greene literally recently just talked about this and he talks about this subject often. Seattle is a market for appreciation. If you buy for 1.4m and in 5 years it’s worth 1.8, was it a bad deal to house hack and end up paying $1000 a month to live in Seattle?

You want to live in Seattle, one of the most expensive markets, you want to cash flow, all the while you’re property should go up in value. Let me just say, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

@Casey Roman you need more Brandon Turner in your life. It seems like you have a lot of limiting beliefs.

I’ll bite. How many lenders have you talk too? Have you tried any smaller banks?

Jim mentioned a good point and it is the worst run municipal. They are running out of money. They barely have a police presence. I don't know what implications it has for RE or SFR but a thing to consider.

A rumor I heard was wilkinsburg is trying to become part of pgh. The guy said it was a bunch of political hold up. I know the city limits of pgh haven’t changed basically since it was formed so it’ll be interesting to see.

I can only imagine that a lot of people of color are getting displaced and if they still want to be close to pgh, I think homewood/wilkinsburg will grow. But *shrugs* who knows.

I just moved to East Liberty back in the middle of January. So my knowledge of the area is very limited. I’m one step ahead of an oos investor :)

I agree and think regant sq is super under valued rn. Bksq is being developed and they have plans for more. Then there’s the Lexington business park that is also being fixed up. Super nice neighborhood and fairly affordable. I would be as willing to go up the the mlk busway overpass (the McDonald’s) just a little bit passed east end st.

Now Homewood is your better bet over wilkinsburg. Drive down Bennett St and your see newly developed houses and freshly paved road. If you drive around, you’ll find a few blocks and streets that are newly paved. Funny thing is one block away on Frankstown Ave and you got the people hanging out in the streets (near Hooks Fish and Chicken). I really like the area 5+ blocks north of Frankstown ave where it’s quieter.

Now to answer your question. I am a doordash food delivery guy so I’ve done my fair share of deliveries in the area. I don’t mind the the area but that’s with my limited knowledge. Every time I mention wilkinsburg to local investors, I generally hear the same core concept: “**** Wilkinsburg.” As a doordash delivery guy, I not only get to see the person picking up, I get a little peek inside and some places are exceptionally clean. Not all. I went too look at a few houses in wilk and I did not think it was a bad area at all. Few empty houses and I’m sure some streets are worse but not as bad as I thought what the “ghetto” is.

My latest find in wilk is an area that is right next to blackridge (on google maps) that’s in churchhill. The houses are not as nice as regent sq but that neighborhood gave similar vibes. So I like the houses in wilk that are close to “north” side.

I am very open to investing in wilk but I am also very limited by my cash. If I had a bit more, I’d feel much much better investing in Swissvale, Edgewood

@Terry Louwerse too expensive. Not worth the cost. It’s a wonderful place but is it worth $2100 for a 700 sqft apartment in San Mateo? No way. My friend was paying $4000 for a luxury apartment + parking next to civic center in sf.

But let me tell you a little about myself. I drive for Doordash. I make more money here than I do “back home”. But that’s my income source. Not much.. So I’m limited in what I can invest in. It pretty much leaves the bottom of the barrel. Which is good because I am a goof and if I gon’ goof up on a project, it’s going to be on a sub 50k property. Then eventually I want to move up to C class.

Just the throw some numbers at you:

“My” 400k Rental in Sac makes 1.5k/month in rents (1.8k market).

Here, you could flat out buy a property for 250k in a A/B neighborhood and easily rent for 1.5k.

Now, I’m trying to buy a house for somewhere around 25k. Fix up what I can (learn) myself. And rent it out for 1.5k in a D, borderline C neighborhood.

You can get into C neighborhoods for a little more but I’m limited for now by my income. It’s not the glitz and glamor of bp re podcast but a lot of people around me are making good money doing similar things. There’s a lot of opportunities here but I still think it is early in the growth phase and things have a risk of still fizzling out. I think going forward we’re depending on people staying after graduating from CMU and more young people moving in like myself and possible yourself. Pollution is a slight political problem so we’ll see where that goes going forward. Overall can’t go wrong investing in pgh.

@Terry Louwerse hey, I’m was in a similar boat: From SF but I actually decided to move to pgh. I don’t know how long you lived in the Bay Area but the first thing I had to do was unlearn everything I thought I knew about real estate. Pricing, size, age, tenant class. Since the housing stock is so old here, quality plays a much bigger role than just picking a a nice looking house on the outside. I am still learning the rehab and management side of things.

I guess the few things I’ve picked up on:

Upper Saint Clair and Fox Chapel got the good school district.

The city prosper of Pittsburgh and the rest of the greater Pittsburgh area are very different.

I’m just going to say it, Pittsburgh is rapidly gentrifying.

There are many ways to invest here: 50-100k houses half an hour away from downtown. 100k-150k houses half an hour away from downtown. 150k-400k houses half an hour away from downtown. Take your pick!!