All Forum Posts by: Troy Whitney

Well David, nice of you to provide a community dumpster. LOL. Congrats - that was one heck of a project. When I'm done with my two current rehabs in Philly, might be fun to try to find someone to do something like this with in Philly. I suppose with the LLC setup you used, there's no reason you couldn't bring a few investors into the mix.

Great thanks Nancy - I definitely will.  Would love to get to know as many people who are in the mix there as I can.  You have an incredible property market there honestly.  The opportunities are unbelievable. 

David you bet.  Would love to hear if you end up pursuing any deals there.

 Hi John - I really just used Zillow, Google Maps, Google Street View and lots of help from people on the ground there.   The broker I use specializes in helping people find good value.  He seems to get new listings every few days by the handful.  I think he's the number one Re-Max broker in Philly so he obviously knows lots of people that deal with all aspects of the business there. Now I know some people would call me crazy for doing things this way, but so far things look good.  I think in some ways if I walk through a house that needs repairs I might almost get overwhelmed looking at it, but if I see pictures and then send in a couple of contractors and they tell me they can make it rent-ready for say $10-20k - then I can just run numbers and see if it makes sense.  Several deals looked good, but when the estimates came back the numbers just didn't make sense to me.   Now I'm not buying shells (there are a lot of those) just properties on decent blocks that can be ready to go in a couple of weeks.  All that said - I'm in the middle of two of these right now and we'll see how they go. One of them I'm a little nervous about but I got it on the cheap and I think it will make a good Section 8 rental.    I also have a large zip code map of Philly that I ordered on Amazon.  I went through those neighborhoods that surround the downtown core on Zillow and wrote down recent sales prices and listing prices in those zip codes, which gave me a pretty good perspective on which areas were  changing.  I've also had at least 2 people check out these properties for me.  So anyways, I'm rambling but I think you get the picture.    I almost feel like if I were there seeing busted up cabinets and smelling nasty carpet that I would get in my own way.  If I have professionals do that for me it takes a lot of that out of the equation.    Again - ask me in a month and I'll let you know how these go.  Property #1 was easy - it was in great shape and I found a good tenant within a month.  Ifind advertising the property in addition to what the management company did was better - I just used the pictures from the sales listing and reposted them back on the Postlets.  I had a dozen responses within the first 2 days.   Property # 2 should be ready to rent in a week or two.  #3 will probably take at least a month.   

 Hey David - well honestly, I was looking through Zillow listings in this area and was frustrated with the low cap rates - so I started to branch out and somehow stumbled on Philly.  I mean - in Seattle you might pay $150-$200+k for something that rents for say $1,000-$1,400/month.  In Philly you could pay $40-$50k for something that rents for $700-$1,400/month.  And Philly has big demand for rentals, especially in the right neighborhood.  Obviously it has much worse neighborhoods than Seattle, but if you pick the right ones, you can find great value.  What's amazing in Philly is you can literally have a $50k house one block over from a $150k house.  You can also find cheaper carpenters, etc. in Philly.  I have a good property management team if you're interested by the way, and a great broker too.  He does tons of volume on the cheap little houses in Philly.  

 that amazes me honestly - if I were a realtor and I could make a quick $3-5k in a week, or even a month, for not really that much work, I'd do it - maybe I should get my license lol - hard to imagine turning down a listing when it walks in your door

Troy - yeah everyone seems to be talking about Brewerytown.   My broker told me Marvin Harrison owns a rental on the same block that I bought my little 2 bedroom on in that area. Great to hear all the feedback from you guys - nice to know there's some love for Philly in here - and yeah word to your mother on that name of yours lol :) 

 Steve - yes it does look like there's actually quite a bit of investment going into some areas up North, but yes - from one block to another things can change a lot. 

Jerry - will do for sure thanks!!

Chuck - I'll be happy to send you their info.