All Forum Posts by: Christos Philippou

@Mike Ventura like others have said, looking at different avenues may be more beneficial. If you would like to try out the whole "driving for dollars" and direct mail approach, try checking out List Source. You can put in the zips you're interested in, how much equity is in the home, what it's value is, etc. You can also put "owner not occupied" or something of the sort which more than likely means the owner is renting it out. It will give you an address of where the owner actually lives, and you can shoot them a letter to see if they want to sell. Worth a shot!

@Adam Openshaw I am in a similar spot right now.. really moving slowly now after I purchased my first investment property in November, second in April, and my primary residence last week... I am going to have to make a few phone calls with local smaller banks and do a ton more research on how to leverage the properties I have to buy #4.

@Cam Jimmy ... Like I've mentioned in most of the posts I throw up here on the forums, I am new. So my view point is quite different from a lot of other people on here. But, we are all big boys, all adults, so it's a good place to speak your mind.

Depending on how "unrealistic" or "low-ball" your offers are, I don't think/agree that you should be running in to so many problems. I've worked with 3 realtors over the past 2 years, ranging from mid/late 20s up to 50s in age. There is a HUGE difference in personalities. The most recent realtor I have been working with is an ab.so.lute. boss. He is incredibly aggressive, hungry, and wants to get paid. His view is even if he gets me a property on a low ball offer, he is going to make money. He knows me now, and knows I am going to buy a place, eventually once I find the right place.

Now low-ball/unrealistic might be a subjective term... but he has encouraged me and pushed me to submit low offers to see how the sellers react and want to play ball. IE: the first property we bought with him was listed for 65k.. He tells me "lets low ball em, see whats up." So i responded with, like what? 50k? "Oh no... like $30k, hows that sound?" I was shocked... low and behold, purchased for $45k in 20 hours. 

Idk... just an example from my experience as a newbie

@Antoinette Ethridge, just like everybody else has said, welcome and that's fantastic you're getting into it. Again, this forum has an insane amount of knowledge and friendly investors to help you out and guide you along the initial journey. 

That being said, numbers to me, are the most important thing. I try to analyze each deal, each house, each property as much as humanly possible. I inspect the condition, forecast possible repairs that will be needed, get multi estimates and quotes for projects from contractors, and crunch the numbers for hours. If it looks GREAT on paper, you're going to be fine. \

Absolutely no need to rush anything. If you find a place that you're not INCREDIBLY excited about, don't bother. Being your first property, you want to know it's the one. You might lose a few deals, you might fail on negotiations, but just keep at it and you'll find a gem.

PS, I learned from my very young, incredibly aggressive realtor (who I love now) that being aggressive is ok. It might not be your style, but he was submitting low balls like crazy for me which helped a ton. We went from a place asking 65k to 45k in 20 hours. Another place from $135k to $125k in a few days after offering $115. The more low balls you submit, the more opportunities you will lose. BUT, the better deal you will get in the end which makes more $$$.

Hey @Richard Huynh, congrats on getting into the game. I am 3 houses deep now and a year in. Looking to continue to grow. My area/goals are a little different from yours, as I am nowhere near those high purchase prices. The homes and rentals I am after are around $100k. Just for reference, my first property had a purchase price of $105,000 and rents for $2690 for 4 units. I purchased it on the lower side, mind you, from a family member moving out of the country, but that's that.

If I had to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars and have a huge mortgage of a few thousand, I would be incredibly weary of just a couple hundred dollars after the mortgage. That $200 needs to go into savings for repairs, things that break, things that go wrong, etc. $2,400 for the year kinda scares me, but again, I'm new.

Whenever I get my rent each month, personally, I pay my mortgage immediately, then put about 10% into a savings for repairs and 10% into a savings for taxes. Now I have NO idea if that is right, wrong, good or bad, but that's what I do to keep me on track. 

I think @Account Closed kinda beat a dead horse throughout the post, howeverrrrr, I think she nailed it. I am still just starting out and brand new, but I have a 4-plex. One tenant moved out because she found a better part of town to live in, which we were happy about. As she was moving out, another tenant took notice and asked if he could move upstairs to her unit, as it was a little bigger.

We said sure, that's not a problem, but your rent will be a little higher to keep on par with the previous tenant. He decided he was fine and comfortable where he was at, but I presume he appreciated the gesture of us allowing it.

He just renewed his lease for another year. 

Now, what I am going to post might be specific to my area, but I'll give it a whirl. I was shopping around and house hunting for deal #2 and in the same boat as you. I was debating trying to go for a multi-family property or a SFH.

When I was walking the houses, doing my research, etc., I noticed that the SFHs were the only thing in my price range that was in good condition and I could consider buying. I was looking anywhere between $75k-125. When I walked into a couple multi-family homes in that price range, they were in horrible shape. If I was going to purchase a multi-family, it was looking like I would have to fork over at least $150 to get a place in good shape.

But you're in a really good position it sounds, lots of good research which is by far the most important thing in this industry; having a really solid plan.

That's awesome @Rumen Mladenov ! I wish I wasn't working otherwise I would love to come and watch/spectate/learn (of course if anybody didn't mind).

Set up keywords for Wilmington and Delaware to start getting more involved.. Just closed on property number 3 last week in Wilmington. Always down to meet some new people in the area!

thanks everybody!!! You all make very good sense. 

I guess the most frustrating part about the whole situation is that I also work for the same company (the bank)... AND this is the third time they have done something like this to me. Also, my other 2 properties were paid in cash... No loans on them, so not like I am committing continuous fraud. 

I'm stubborn, I don't learn my lessons easily haha. But alas, I'm a home owner (: