All Forum Posts by: Tom Barrick

@Richard Dale-Mesaros just remember to pay close attention to the rules for O Zone investing. You need to significantly improve the property (spend as much on improvements as the amount allocated to the building on purchase) and you need to  have a capital gain to roll into the fund. If you are doing O Zone investing, make sure you have a good CPA and tax attorney who both have a lot of experience with real estate and O Zone funds. Otherwise, you may end up with a tough building in a tough area without the tax benefits.

If you are familiar with the South Coast, check out Fall River or New Bedford.  At least you are familiar with and know the area, and there's a large renting population there.  Properties in these areas certainly come with risks, but can cash flow well also.

If you are speaking west of Boston, I would look in Worcester before any of those areas.

@Logan Heydt it would help if you could specify in which direction (north, south or west) since you actually would likely be speaking about southern NH (north of Boston), northern RI (south of Boston) or the Worcester to Springfield area (west of Boston).

Unfortunately, I would not meet that criteria as this would be my first purchase.  Good information for the future, however.

@Philip Ganz thanks for your response.  Unfortunately, I do not intend to occupy the property so a 203k loan won't work for me.  Very good product for those looking to owner occupy though.

@Spencer Grassie thanks for the input, much appreciated!

@Anthony Thompson thanks for your prompt response.  I noticed that you are very active in PVD discussions, much appreciated.  I tend to agree with what you are saying, it just seems like there's a lot more competition looking for 3-units because many have the ability to finance them with very little upfront if they are going to owner occupy.  In either case, I'm likely going to have to use a conventional mortgage so I'm budgeting for a 25% down payment regardless.  Although, I do tend to agree with you that for re-sale a 3-unit makes a lot more sense (for the same exact reasons I previously mentioned).

Hello everyone - new to BP and first time posting.  I am a CPA located in the Greater Boston area who specializes in working with real estate investors and developers.  After working with them for a number of years, I'm quite familiar with the calclations necessary to make a deal work as well as realistic expense ratios, etc.  Living in Southern MA, I'm interested in the Providence, RI area because I would like to start a hub in a reasonably priced location not too far from home.  I intend to make this a passive venture via the use of a local property manager, and have built out most of my "team" (finance and attorney are good and working on broker and property manager with a few irons in the fire).  

At the end of 2020, I think I'll have the finances ready to make my first purchase and am interested in the following areas: Elmhurst, Smith Hill, North Providence, Federal Hill and Pawtucket (also really love the East Side, but seems to be too expensive and more geared to an owner operator who is trying to have someone pay half their mortgage versus someone looking to cash flow).  I'm willing to stick to these areas as quality of tenant seem to be better than the headaches in places like Silver Lake, Olneyville, etc. (especially for a first-time investor).  

Ideally, I would like something with 3 to 6 units (duplexes don't seem to cash flow in PVD and there's too much competition from owner operators who only need to put down 3% to qualify) that needs minimal to no work as I'm not looking to bite off more than I can chew with my first purchase.  Additionally, it seems that three bedroom units would be ideal as they create less turnover (more families, less transient folks).  That being said, I understand it's easier to find three bedroom units in 3-family versus something 4+, so I'm open to many ideas.

If anyone has any advice or would like to connect, I'd be happy to discuss.  Also, if you think anything I've said above is way off base, please feel free to tell me that too!  These are just my observations at this point in time, and I'm trying to "stress test" my idea(s).

Thanks in advance!