Who works in real estate?

[Lou]

Who works in real estate? If so, what city and what do you do?

[Empire]

If it counts, I'm in mortgages on Long Island, New York.

[aiki14]

I own some rental properties. In Maryland, PA, FLA, and Hawaii. Are you looking for a particular piece of info?

[GOD]

I sell in Big Sky MT, mostly in the YC

[Lou]

I own some rental properties. In Maryland, PA, FLA, and Hawaii. Are you looking for a particular piece of info?


No, just checking who works in real estate and to see what people do. Its always good to make new contacts and hear some good success stories.

[aiki14]

No, just checking who works in real estate and to see what people do. Its always good to make new contacts and hear some good success stories.

I love vacation rental property, for me it's beach only but people have done it with ski places as well. I buy the place, hire or use a pre-existing management company, and they fill the rental schedule. I can write off two visits a year including transportation for each property. I am at one now.

[Lou]

That was one of my questions. How do you manage it. Have you run into issues with the management companies you use since your not in those states, except philly? How long have you been investing in rentals?

[aiki14]

The company I use in Hawaii is nothing short of amazing. Florida not quite as good but no real complaints and I can be there in a few hours by plane. If I were to do it all myself I could take a bigger piece, but I don't want to spare the time. I started with a place in Ft. Lauderdale in '88.

[bigzip]

aiki, which island in Hawaii?

[aiki14]

aiki, which island in Hawaii?

Maui. We have condo's in Napili and Kihei, and a house in Paia. We thought about a place on Kouai when we bought the Kihei place, but we prefer Maui as a place to visit so we went with that.

[bigzip]

Paia is an interesting town. I was just curious, I got married in Maui and we'll be heading back for our anniv. and I'll be looking for places before too long.

[concrete]

I have a mad max vision of the future when it comes to gas and oil and my real estate investments, as well as my stock picks reflect that view. When gas cost ten bucks a gallon, urban real estate where you can live, shop, work and eat makes good sense and so do small farms. If you're lucky you buy when it's class c warehouse and sell or develop when it's multiuse cultural district. The past ten years in Texas it wasn't that difficult to find that sort of property as it is now. Same is true with small farms.

[clavocat]

aiki what is your occupation or was your occupation and how have you acquired so much wealth as it seems...if you dont mind me asking, im 19 and I am sure that even though im in school i wont use my degree for what my job will be, id like to own businesses and create passive incomes while investing, i have a nice sum of money and really wanna start doing something with it so i can get my ass out of school and out of the landscaping business haha.

[aiki14]

aiki what is your occupation or was your occupation and how have you acquired so much wealth as it seems...if you dont mind me asking, im 19 and I am sure that even though im in school i wont use my degree for what my job will be, id like to own businesses and create passive incomes while investing, i have a nice sum of money and really wanna start doing something with it so i can get my ass out of school and out of the landscaping business haha.

I was a paramedic and my wife is a veterinarian. We both are savers which is key. Getting property is relatively easy if you have good credit, also a key. When I left EMS I was able to dedicate a lot of time to finding bargains and I was flipping places 1 or 2 times a year and either buying up or cashing out a few bucks and buying a property of equal price. When we found the beachfront places were great for retaining or increasing value and could generate a positive cash flow we began buying that type of property. We've been playing with house money for a while now and I have been more into trading stocks than properties.

My advice to a young person with an interset in this sort of thing
Save as much as you can
Pay your bills on time and establish good credit
Buy a home and get equity
Use the equity to finance an investment property. Start with one as close to your home as practical (but more than 50 miles away for tax reasons) and look for value to maximize your potential outcome. As soon as possible pay off any equity loans on your primary residence, the sooner that is not at risk the better.
Then when you can move up, buy a place in your favorite vacation spot, if you like staying there others probably do as well.
Build equity and repeat.

If you can get 20% equity in a place (either by paying in or the place increasing in value or both) you can cash it out and buy another place. That was really possible a few years ago and with the real estate market at or near a likely bottom I think you have a good shot in the 6 to 24 month time frame to make a killing. Especially in Fla, where it's really a buyers market now. Hawaii while not a buyers market has so much appeal and is a hedge against the problems in the US mainland real estate market (no matter how bad things are here there are gonna be people from all over looking for a vacation in paradise)
Location Location Location. Go for a smaller place on the beach over a bigger place 3 blocks away. Existing condo complexes with rental history and in place management over new projects or stand alone homes.

Hope this helps.

[aiki14]

Paia is an interesting town. I was just curious, I got married in Maui and we'll be heading back for our anniv. and I'll be looking for places before too long.

You looking to buy or for a 2nd honeymoon rental? And what time of year are you coming? Paia is great during the summer and it's the windsurfing capital of the world. Napili is great nov thru march when the whales are in town.
Let me know if you need recommendations. Heres a link to the Paia place
http://www.coconutcovemaui.com/Pages/surfside.html

A Surf/Windsurfer magazine takes the whole compound during july and aug.

[bigzip]

You looking to buy or for a 2nd honeymoon rental? And what time of year are you coming? Paia is great during the summer and it's the windsurfing capital of the world. Napili is great nov thru march when the whales are in town.
Let me know if you need recommendations. Heres a link to the Paia place
http://www.coconutcovemaui.com/Pages/surfside.html

A Surf/Windsurfer magazine takes the whole compound during july and aug.

Very nice place, Aiki. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position right now to do anything but rent in Hawaii! We ate at a pretty good rest. in Paia, Big Momma's if I remember correctly. Big waves on the north shore. We won't be going until Dec 07. I think we'll be looking to stay closer to Lahaina/Kaanapali. If you have recommendations on that side of the island, they'd be much appreciated.

I owned a rental here in Mich for about 5 years, but the time investment was just too much for me as a do-it-yourselfer, and paying a management co. not an option. We sold the place right before the market here tanked. Loved the tax benefits also. I would like to get back in to real estate when my kids get a little older. Thanks for the tips on your personal moves with properties. Obviously they've worked out.

[clavocat]

aiki what did you vacation homes cost? like that one in hawaii, and can you make a living doing rental property and how did you learn about it??

[aiki14]

aiki what did you vacation homes cost? like that one in hawaii, and can you make a living doing rental property and how did you learn about it??

The cost is not a matter I am comfortable discussing on the forum, but it's easy enough to find comps.
www.realtor.com
Just plug in the zip code and screen for beachfront.

You can make a living off of it, but I needed to do it on the side for years before I could get by on it. And the type of market we've had has beat up a lot of real estate investors, folks who are leveraged or need to move a property are in desperate straits in many places now. That should tell you one thing, BUY BUY BUY, deals are a plenty and we're at or near a bottom IMO. I am however sitting on a property in MD that won't sell and if I needed the money I'd be hurting. (not too unbiased am I)
I learned by doing and reading. And I don't mind putting in sweat equity either.

[aiki14]

Very nice place, Aiki. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position right now to do anything but rent in Hawaii! We ate at a pretty good rest. in Paia, Big Momma's if I remember correctly. Big waves on the north shore. We won't be going until Dec 07. I think we'll be looking to stay closer to Lahaina/Kaanapali. If you have recommendations on that side of the island, they'd be much appreciated.
.

I like the Napili bay area on that side but you pay a bit of a premium and you have to put up with traffic around Lahaina. Kihei has great places as does Waimea and less traffic going to and from the marina if you're diving or sailing. The beachfront hotels have walkways that connect for a couple miles so you can choose from several beaches and outdoor refreshment stands.
If you really want a lot of recommendations for activities and dining let me know. That time of year you can paddle a surfboard out far enough into the Maui channel (between Maui and Molokai) to pet the whales. Or you can go on any of 10 charters that do it.

Bahroor did his Honeymoon there this year and Pierre is a native (oahu) they might also have a few suggestions.

The place you ate at is Momma's Fish House, 5 minutes out of paia on the hana highway.

[bahroor]

Jim,

If I may say, that is a really nice house you have there in Paia. And to me, its very well priced. I would expect to pay more for a 2300 sq ft, 3 bdm, beachfront house, but I really don't know anything about Paia.

Bigzip,

We stayed in a beachfront condo in Kiehi and spent one night in Hana. Both were very nice, you'll find some very nice deals in Kiehi. We plan on going again sometime also and plan on staying near Napili this time. Best snorkling ive done was there and Molokini ofcourse. I'd like to explore more islands though next time.
Coming back to the mainland kind of depresses you a bit. :mad:

[InvestingMoron]

I own a house in southeast Georgia, near a military base. Currently it is being rented out to an older gentleman, a handyman, who takes very good care of my property. The rent is nearly twice as much as the mortgage, and that mortgage is disappearing alot faster than anticipated.

[clavocat]

after this discussion i looked at aikis post and in buffalo, NY there is some decent houses for 40k between me and my bro we could prolly accumulate 5 of these houses with a co-signer...that would be a 200k investment, and figure all a duplex it would accomodate 10 families, if you could get 700 per family that would be 7000 a month times 12 equals 84k as passive income, now that 200k invesment would be paid off in easy 3 years which would make everything after that pure profit and at ages 19 and 25 we would own 5 houses...i know its not that easy but working a part-full time job and doing this on the side you could make some good cash, we could get ahold of decently cheap good labor from my dads landscaping business to help us fix what needs fixing. If i were to do this what precautions can you guys give me, and what books could help me do this and just any tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. its just a thought, i constantly get new ideas such buying a franchise which i would need 200k unborrowed capital which i couldnt get. Thanks, Chris

[clavocat]

let me change that i looked up what the people are renting for and its about 3-500 a family but some hold 3-4 families.

[Empire]

This is why I love this forum. If anyone needs any help with a mortgage I work for a very strong company (http://www.eastcoastcap.com/) and I haven't seen much we can't get done, so I'd love to help. Actually a couple of the higher ups at my office are currently working on a $33 million loan for Evander Holyfield, haha. It seems he has had some trouble keeping his credit in tact.

[Imperator]

I work at a small rental business. 8 quads, 3 commercial, 7 houses.


wichita.

[Lou]

This is why I love this forum. If anyone needs any help with a mortgage I work for a very strong company (http://www.eastcoastcap.com/) and I haven't seen much we can't get done, so I'd love to help. Actually a couple of the higher ups at my office are currently working on a $33 million loan for Evander Holyfield, haha. It seems he has had some trouble keeping his credit in tact.


Who do you use as title company? Do you lend all over the US or just New York

[bigzip]

That time of year you can paddle a surfboard out far enough into the Maui channel (between Maui and Molokai) to pet the whales. Or you can go on any of 10 charters that do it.


I don't have the stones to paddle anywhere near a whale. We did a charter last time we were there and saw some spectacular breaches. I envision myself being launched as one of those guys is coming out of the water.:eek:

Thanks for the info.

[Empire]

Who do you use as title company? Do you lend all over the US or just New York
We’re licensed in twenty-two states and counting, including Ohio, but we do loans all over co-brokering with friendly firms for states we’re not licensed in yet. The title company we use varies with the property’s region; what’s your area of interest?

[Lou]

Im just checking. I've worked in a mgmt position for a national title company for almost five years now. We're licensed in 44 states. I've personally worked any type of deal you can think of, leaseholds, 1031, commericial, condo conversions, bk stuff, anything and everything. Companies been around since early 1990's.