All Forum Posts by: Tomer Shani

Just a small tip I use, I try to assume that my investments are ok at best. This way I never get overly confident (which may or may no happened to me in the past) When you know your investment is just ok you look at you money situation differently. Also, I'm not sure what is the rentability of a basement studio. Did you consider storage units in the basement? Low maintenance + steady Cashflow

Hi Marc Philly market is pretty competitive right now and it's becoming harder and harder to find a good cash flowing deal. I've been looking some at the 2-4 unit market. I think right now the best way to find a small multi that make sense is to find something where you can get some sweat equity after doing work on it. Definitely won't consider a property that doesn't cash flow at least 200 per unit. (I know you can find one because I was out bid for a triplex on W York) My SFHs are all cashflowing at least 200 per unit. You expenses numbers looks good. 11 for managing seems a bit high. Good luck!

John Becker I actually used Thumbtack. It works pretty well for most of the time whenever I was in need of a professional. I interviewed around 8 PM. I was not impressed with any of them. Non of them sounded confident in their job which I find really odd.. they all (kinda) prepared me to be disappointed of them. And then they gave me a huge price tag on top of that. In retrospect I'm glad they were honest. I'm closing on my next deal this year and then I'll devote my time to create a system to manage my properties. I gotta say, I'm a little surprised by the answer you're getting from him. It sounds like he doesn't really want to manage your portfolio. And even worst, it sounds like he's trying to intimidate you into managing your own houses. It would be really cool if you take your manager's offer up and manage your own properties, and then compete with him. Maybe there is a shortage of good PM. But still, I wouldn't give my business to someone who gives me hints that he's not that interested. So in other words, I would look for a PM company with drive, eager to preform, Goal oriented and most importantly customer service based. If that's how they treat you, just imagine how they would treat the tenants. You may find that it was not the tenant'a fault.

John Becker Although I manage my own properties, I do plan on hiring someone in the future. The philosophy that guide me is this: They do not manage my properties. They manage my business and my business have systems that they need to control. I think most investors will confirm that the clearer you are on what you want, it's more likely you'll get it. Yes. It does sound stupid to tell your prospective PM EXACTLY what you're expecting from them. But we as owners have to do that. Define what's a good tenant looks like. Define occupancy rates that are expected. And give them a budget to work with. No blank checks. Of course, in my opinion, it's up to you to build all these systems. And if your systems are really good, you can start your own PM company. Lord knows they charge an arm and leg and most of them are not great. Hope that helps. Best of luck!!

That's looks like a great idea to me. If there's a way to collect the fee and run Credit check / Background check, that would be a great tool for an investor who is not full time yet (such as myself). Especially with student housing. Does this cost you anything? Do you know anyone else who operates with it?

The article is great. Highly recommend watching the videos as well. However I feel like one MAJOR aspect is overlooked in his approach. Which is Leverage. Yes you do need to work on your RE property and RE based passive income is not really passive even at a high level (you still need to make phone calls to you PM company once in a while But I think the time and effort and sometime lower return overtime, is totally offset by the fact that you were able to leverage yourself into a future position. Of course everyone should do whatever make them feel good. If you absolutely love your job and industry and still want to be FI, sure. Go with this GDI stuff and build it up. But I think RE is a more emotional game for most people (even after mastering how to separate your emotions from the deal) So I think that's the big point that was missed. LEVERAGE. Sure, tax benefits. Absolutely debt pay down. And of course the undisputed king - positive Cashflow. (Probably) No bank will give you leverage to buy GDI or stocks. They will with Real Estate.

Perhaps I am short sided so forgive me for the question if it seems naive. But if I own a few properties and they all have tenants and they're all cash flowing, why should a rescission alarm me? (Also, I have %20 equity in all of them) The way I see it, if you don't play the speculation game and you're cashflowing positively, why worry? The only thing I can think of in changing my strategy is not to push the rents up in the end of a lease. If a rescission is upon us then I think it will be an opportunity to the people who did their homework. I guess if you developing something and didn't complete the project by the time the rescission hit you might be in trouble a little bit. Other than that, I don't think there's a reason to be worried (if you are financially educated that is...)

Hi @charles worth I currently live in NYC and slowly investing out of state (I'm investing in Philly) States have different rules and fees regarding their legal entities (for example, Philly has a Business Privilege Tax of $300 upon formation.) I tried to study every aspect of that and found that it takes too much of my time. I strongly recommend to get yourself an out of state CPA (who has experience in RE!), you can also have them be your register agent so you won't miss any mail that is directed to your business. Don't get an NYC CPA to work in a different state. That's backwards. I know I know... "hire a guy.." is a tired advice. But lest we forget that business is a team sport. And while it's good thing to have some idea about the laws in the state that you're investing in, I would cautious you not to try and figure it out on your own (or with the help of the BP community alone),Unless you want to become a lawyer/CPA with expertise in RE. Hope that helps!

By how much can the rents go up? I'm currently engaged in a %1 deal that is fully rented knowing that when the lease is up I'll be able to turn it into a %1.5 deal. If the deal makes enough sense at its current form (which I'll define as 150 net per unit for Chicago market), and you have the potential to bring it further up, it could be a pretty good deal. Especially if you don't have to do any work on it (turn key you said?). I find the %50 rule a bit hard in better markets. Still important, but not the deciding factor.

Don't know if you're allowed to curse on BP, but my initial reaction was *bleep* yeah! Really beautiful. Looks like a great layout and an awesome design