All Forum Posts by: Syed H.

 People should have to post annual income, net worth, and age when they say college isn't worth it. 

Something people forget to mention is that college (& especially grad school) allows you to mitigate downside risk. People fail in business all the time. People fail in RE all the time. It is nice knowing you have a backup plan. There is peace of mind to that. It also allows you to take risks. Sure you can drop out of HS and start your own businesses, but what do you do when your business fails during a pandemic or the GFC. Where do you go from there? I know plenty of RE agents who left the business from 2008-2011. 

Also, you don't need to go to college and get into massive debt. You can go to trade schools or state/city colleges that are more than adequate. Unless you get into a Ivy League or some top regional schools, your better off going to a public school and saving money. My undergrad education cost $25k-ish.

Allentown is great if you are self-managing and know what you are doing in terms of construction. But for hands off owners it’s tough IMO. These buildings are old and tenant base isn’t great. 

Bethlehem is a solid area. I like it better than Easton. Easton town is a pain in the ***. Rents are not much higher than Bethlehem and Allentown for the price per unit. 

You can make money buying in any of these cities. Just make sure you pay a reasonable number.
Too many people buy deals for high numbers because according to their excel sheet their making $XXX/month/unit. You can make whatever you want in an excel sheet. Reality is very different. 

Cash flow predictions are just as much of a fools errand as appreciation predictions. Invest long term, in areas you believe in. 

Cash flow vs appreciation usually becomes a pro-cash flow argument on this forum because most people can't afford the appreciation game. The appreciation game is for primary & expensive markets ($5m+ net worth at least). Most people can't afford to let an asset sit and make them wealthy. 

Most of the experienced REIs do both. Cash flow & Appreciation. 

sit and wait, or find a drivable market I believe in. I would not go to another state unless it is within 2-3 hours drive. People never talk bout how many people fail investing OOS. I've seen it too many times. 

No credit doesn't matter, different (& worse) than bad credit. Check eviction records and background check. 

I've had some amazing tenants with no credit & no job. Just get an extra deposit & check how they will pay the rent (savings, income; etc).

Percentages are wildly inaccurate unless they are built from experience in your own market. They are also horrible for very low rent markets. 5% for maintenance on $600 rent doesn’t cover much on a 75 year old building. 

Speak to local owners.

Vacancy- make sure you take economic vacancy into account.

Consider adding turnover expense.

Maintenance- comes from experience. Speak to owners that manage like you. Don’t speak to someone who self manage (if your not), Bc I bet he spends less.

PM- find out what they charge in your market.

Capex- this is building specific. See what the remaining life expectancy is on the big ticket items and build out a per month cost to this.

I see nothing wrong with making offers. Even if their not ready to sell.

Once you do this long enough, you realize people you made offers to years ago, might actually call you eventually. I’ve had it happen multiple times. Just got an offer accepted on a property I bid on in August of 2019.

Being super active will always produce results. In any profession, in any industry. 

If being poor is so amazing, please join them. Why are you working?

Most places in competitive markets, that are listed for decent price, has 20 buyers that aren't asking for that stuff. Many of them are going to walk the property and inspect the big ticket items themselves. 

I usually get something under contract almost every month. Experienced people don't ask for a sellers disclosure. We go walk the property and put in an offer after that. Some of us (me) put in no inspection contingency to make our offers look even more aggressive, while others include the inspection contingency to cover their ***. 

If I was doing long distance investing, I would pay someone in the market to go take pictures and do a walkthrough for every property you want to place an offer. 

I won't say OP isn't cash flowing what she said she is, I don't know her market, but I will say it is rare for anyone to cash flow $500/month with a proper analysis. Usually those are people who are very hopeful in their "projections". 

My best deal of the year, I cash flow $386/month after a 100% cashout. I would be around $500/month if I had 20% in the deal. BUT, this was not an MLS, not through any wholesalers, not turnkey, required me to do a full Reno, direct to seller and was rare as hell. I stole the building basically for way under market. This is not the norm.

Most "good" deals cash flow between $175-$225/unit with 20% down.