All Forum Posts by: Lisa Phillips

Hey all, i've started to see that a lot of good pickings are getting swept up. I usually tell people now a days to be a bit discreet about letting everyone know where the markets are at (loose lips). Anyone seen an uptick of their inventory in the more popular spots being swept up? I know we have. 

That's the thing - people will sit there to your face and say it makes sense to spend 40,000 on a wedding, but in the next sentence say a cash flowing rental is mistake! People will also tell you to invest in A/B neighborhood (that depending on where you live, can cost you easily 250k+ and only bring in a few hundred a month in cash flow), and that THAT makes sense since its more "desirable." I think you're leveraged a quarter of a million dollars with only $200-$300 dollars a month, you might as well get a part time job at Lowes without that overhead on your credit. Common REI advice only fits a small part of the market sometimes. Can't always listen to "common" advice, or you end up with common (and to me a bit lack luster that's not worth the effort) results!

Good luck to you!

@Tiffany Campbell Those deals are absolutely possible! My NY client just purchased a 30k duplex and earns 600 per unit, that's $1200. It only took him a couple of weeks to find it. The real secret is the find the right market - if people are talking about the market on BP, its already tapped out (at this point, I advise people to keep those markets they find close to the chest). But, yes, absolutely possible! It just may not be in your backyard, and you have to travel a little. My clients are able to find deals in that price range every week, but you have to learn the skills for identifying markets no one else has discovered. It doesn't take long, you just need to know what you're looking for. Good luck!

@Daniel Cruz Im sure Engelo appreciates such an indepth and thoughtful review! I wish everyone could sum up their successes in this much detail. Congratulations, and I love the back rent :-) $1350 a month, hello! Nicely done!

A lot of interest is generated. Let's see if there is any inventory left in St. Louis, MO in a few months :-) with all the investors converging on it. This market is okay, its not my top choice but it can be decent enough. Just be careful you and anyone else treat the people and properties respectfully - the tenants will pick it up if you only care about money, and will react accordingly.  I know a lot of people are against Sub30k and call them PIGS (which is valid from their viewpoint), but nice to know people are joining in. Let us know how it goes. 

Good luck!

Thanks, I am glad it has helped you!

First, I want to say , if there is a site that may have good properties and its only $1...pay the dollar and use it for a month. It's a dollar. However, I usually teach methods on how to find these without national MLS, but you wont always find them where you live.

Secondly, finding the right market it the most important aspect of this. This is the first thing that I teach my clients. Upstate New York has nice properties, high taxes, low rents - bad idea. Buy a great home for 26k, and pay $400 in taxes and rent it for $300 a month? No thank you. Everyone I work with in NY go outside of that (and I don't share those markets publicly anymore since investors have a bad habit of attacking them as soon as I do now that I have a platform). If you're on my newsletter and reach out to me for a strategy session, I can dig a little more into your unique situation and see what we can find for you on a one on one basis.

Good luck, hope to see you in the Sub30k mastermind group to answer more questions! My clients are finding excellent markets consistently across the country (I work with people in CA, NY, DC - people who can't find affordable investments in their own markets and thus I help them invest out of state/town for their first). 

Lisa

@Joshua Eastman Hi Joshua! Great question. Really, when investing out of state (because some markets are NOT affordable), this is really the only option for many people to finally get their first rental. I do work with clients, mostly from NY and CA, because of this issue. The process is the exact same. There are a quite a few different systems in put in place in 1.) Finding a market that can support it 2.) Systems in place to get a great team and accountability and 3.) Systems in place to manage all month to month financial and legal transactions (in case of monthly rent and in case of lack of payment). But, there are no more issues than in state - its all in how you structure, and who you contract with, and how you set those contracts up before hand.  

@Jay Hinrichs Well said Jay. Its funny, but I have free videos (started on youtube then BP), I created instruction DVDs, Training Courses, and now 1-on-1 mentoring, and it ranges from free - $400 for the course, more for the one on one service. Now, people who find me and pay for my courses have seen my videos, and decided they want more instruction from me, because they like the way I communicate, teach, and give them the information in a clear, simple, concise manner. BP crowd is quick to say - "You can find that information for free on BP, don't pay for anything!" But, they should also put - "you will be piecing together a lot of information over hours, some of the information wont help since it wont be applicable to your location, strategy, and/or your unique situation, and sometimes when you have the most questions - there may or may not be an answer that has already been answered on BP in the nick of time. And, by the way - there is so much info on BP, it can be overwhelming, not for everyone, but for a significant majority of people." That would be more honest to new investors than saying "you can get everything for free on BP!" Because, maybe your time isnt free (how much do you really have in the evenings), maybe uncertainty isnt free (stressful when you just cant get a specific answer) - you pay in different ways, and that $200 course can give you back a lot of that time and lessen that stres. When they come to my site after being on BP, the reason they listen to my 50 or so free videos is because of that. They pay for someone to curate and translate the info in a way they can understand or resonates with them. After 50 videos - you either like what I have to say, or you dont - the internet gives us so many more choices now.

@Cody Sperber Thank you for putting work into helping educate people, in apparently a way that has been really helpful to many. Even if you charge more - if its good, and has value, people who value your time and effort are happy to support you, and if they dont value your efforts, you gave them free articles (just as I did) for them to piece together. But, an honest statement in real estate investing, is that you always pay in some way.

To those of us who hold low income rentals: I would find any of us hardpressed where we would call what we do a ton of energy or full of headaches. Its not any more work than a rental in a 100k price range - I would say the only extra energy is learning a new skill set, just like there would be energy involved in learning wholesaling or notes. But, MORE of a headache? Not if you have the skills to enter this market (which anyone can learn). The difference is when I learned real estate investing, I did it SPECIFICALLY in this range, and became competent at that. There is no difference to my approach in a rental property if I wanted to purchase a property at a higher price range (other than the fact that I am leveraged twice as much for 25% to 50% of the returns). 

@Corwin Hernandez @Matt Cramer

If you're going to go in this price range, get mentored or educated by people who so this specifically and have shown great returns. Asking the general BP public, who wouldnt go in this price range or have failed to make it profitable, isn't going to get you the answers you're looking for. There are a few on this thread who mentioned they've been able to handle this successfully. That's your source of accurate info for this specific investment strategy, not the general public who's either never invested in these neighborhoods or cities, or have invested and lost it all. Search for sub30k mastermind or sub30k group threads. I've starting to build a community of successful sub30k brain trust that you can learn from - you can look at my profile has the details.  That way, when you ask a low income question, you can get it from people actively investing in that price range.