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Old 02-17-2012, 10:07 PM
 
Location: North Oakland
9,150 posts, read 10,834,053 times
Reputation: 14503

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Quote:
Originally Posted by selltheburgh View Post
How much real estate investing does h Curtis actually do?
It is rumored he owns an entire borough somewhere north of the Allegheny River.
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Old 02-17-2012, 11:20 PM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,891,955 times
Reputation: 2910
Quote:
Originally Posted by selltheburgh View Post
How much real estate investing does h Curtis actually do?
Oh, a lot . . .

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Old 02-18-2012, 07:26 AM
gg
 
Location: Pittsburgh
26,137 posts, read 25,802,562 times
Reputation: 17378
Thanks for the kind words. I have been a realtor for over 20 years and flipped several homes and commercial properties. I have retracted quite a bit in my older age, but keep a very close eye on certain parts of the city and of course the Fox Chapel School District's area. I have no problem telling people I don't know the market very well in the South Hills, although I have always really liked Mt. Lebanon. I still keep up with Sewickley though, since I always liked that area as well, but I feel it is too far from the East End where I feel is something I like to be close to.

Hope that answers your questions. I am still a licensed agent, but don't sell anymore, unless I know someone is looking for a deal. I always enjoyed sniffing out deals for people.

Again, thanks for all the kind words. Even Brian was kind and I know he doesn't like my style much.
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Old 02-18-2012, 08:23 AM
 
Location: United States
12,390 posts, read 7,051,069 times
Reputation: 6134
curtis,





Quote:
Originally Posted by selltheburgh View Post
How much real estate investing does h Curtis actually do?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jay5835 View Post
It is rumored he owns an entire borough somewhere north of the Allegheny River.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH View Post
Oh, a lot . . .




Last edited by stburr91; 02-18-2012 at 08:32 AM..
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Old 02-18-2012, 08:32 AM
gg
 
Location: Pittsburgh
26,137 posts, read 25,802,562 times
Reputation: 17378
Quote:
Originally Posted by h_curtis View Post
Thanks for the kind words. I have been a realtor for over 20 years and flipped several homes and commercial properties. I have retracted quite a bit in my older age, but keep a very close eye on certain parts of the city and of course the Fox Chapel School District's area. I have no problem telling people I don't know the market very well in the South Hills, although I have always really liked Mt. Lebanon. I still keep up with Sewickley though, since I always liked that area as well, but I feel it is too far from the East End where I feel is something I like to be close to.

Hope that answers your questions. I am still a licensed agent, but don't sell anymore, unless I know someone is looking for a deal. I always enjoyed sniffing out deals for people.

Again, thanks for all the kind words. Even Brian was kind and I know he doesn't like my style much.
Again, thanks for all the kind words and I do have the experience to back it up. Sadly, there are some folks on here that give VERY poor advice from an investment standpoint. Some are in that for selfish reasons, to see areas get better. There might be a few people that will buy a home in a declining area and wonder why City Data didn't help them along with their home purchase. That is where I come in. I don't sugar coat areas like some do. Why live in crime areas if you don't have to?

Anyway, people can listen to who they please. I can sleep at night knowing when I say certain areas are more than a generation away from being cleaned up if they ever are, I am correct and not suckering someone into buying a home just so one more home gets fixed up.
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Old 02-20-2012, 11:59 AM
 
Location: Troy Hill, The Pitt
1,174 posts, read 1,580,616 times
Reputation: 1081
Quote:
Originally Posted by h_curtis View Post
Again, thanks for all the kind words and I do have the experience to back it up. Sadly, there are some folks on here that give VERY poor advice from an investment standpoint. Some are in that for selfish reasons, to see areas get better. There might be a few people that will buy a home in a declining area and wonder why City Data didn't help them along with their home purchase. That is where I come in. I don't sugar coat areas like some do. Why live in crime areas if you don't have to?

Anyway, people can listen to who they please. I can sleep at night knowing when I say certain areas are more than a generation away from being cleaned up if they ever are, I am correct and not suckering someone into buying a home just so one more home gets fixed up.
Do me the favor of not taking what I'm about to say as any personal insult towards yourself, but merely a point of view to counter your advice on here.

One problem with your experience that I have noticed is that it may not necessarily apply to most other people. Your wisdom is extremely helpful to those looking for an investment, but there are people like myself or others who weren't looking to flip a house in 5-10 years and upgrade. Some of us were just looking for a place to live and a reasonable mortgage payment...resale value be d@mned.

We had a number of agents who didn't feel like dealing with us because they didn't feel as if it was worth their time. Fair enough, but what was worse were the few people who did actually make the effort to show up, but who weren't interested in really showing the home in effect wasting our time and jading us to the process.

I'm thankful that the agent that we eventually found didn't have that same attitude or we may never have found our place. Prior to us, she had helped friends of ours with finding their $250,000 home, but gladly jumped at the opportunity to find our place at $50k. She made one initial mention of the resale value to get a measure of what we were looking for, and then never brought it up again. We ended up with the fixer upper (maybe a little more fixer than upper than we perhaps expected) with a $400 a month mortgage at 3.2%. She got a minimal payout, but also got return business as we have recommended her to everyone we know.

Your perspective on the crime in many of these neighborhoods is also misleading. The crime in the neighborhoods around here isn't like living in a war zone, and usually doesn't even affect the majority of the people living there. Its typically drug or gang related (by that if you're in a gang or dealing drugs you have to worry). Random crime is bad for business you see. Brings the police in, brings attention to enterprises that don't flourish with added publicity. Home invasions or muggings are the real concern, and those seem to be happening mostly out in the burbs these days if the news is to be believed. Your outlook on many of these neighborhoods is also a self fulfilling prophecy, as are those of the people who are attempting to draw new residents in. If people continue to be swayed strictly by resale value, or the inaccurate perception of the amount of crime that occurs then it may very well take 30 or 40 years for these places to turn around.
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Old 02-21-2012, 09:16 AM
 
Location: East End of Pittsburgh
747 posts, read 1,226,487 times
Reputation: 521
Quote:
Originally Posted by Q-tip motha View Post
Do me the favor of not taking what I'm about to say as any personal insult towards yourself, but merely a point of view to counter your advice on here.

One problem with your experience that I have noticed is that it may not necessarily apply to most other people. Your wisdom is extremely helpful to those looking for an investment, but there are people like myself or others who weren't looking to flip a house in 5-10 years and upgrade. Some of us were just looking for a place to live and a reasonable mortgage payment...resale value be d@mned.

We had a number of agents who didn't feel like dealing with us because they didn't feel as if it was worth their time. Fair enough, but what was worse were the few people who did actually make the effort to show up, but who weren't interested in really showing the home in effect wasting our time and jading us to the process.

I'm thankful that the agent that we eventually found didn't have that same attitude or we may never have found our place. Prior to us, she had helped friends of ours with finding their $250,000 home, but gladly jumped at the opportunity to find our place at $50k. She made one initial mention of the resale value to get a measure of what we were looking for, and then never brought it up again. We ended up with the fixer upper (maybe a little more fixer than upper than we perhaps expected) with a $400 a month mortgage at 3.2%. She got a minimal payout, but also got return business as we have recommended her to everyone we know.

Your perspective on the crime in many of these neighborhoods is also misleading. The crime in the neighborhoods around here isn't like living in a war zone, and usually doesn't even affect the majority of the people living there. Its typically drug or gang related (by that if you're in a gang or dealing drugs you have to worry). Random crime is bad for business you see. Brings the police in, brings attention to enterprises that don't flourish with added publicity. Home invasions or muggings are the real concern, and those seem to be happening mostly out in the burbs these days if the news is to be believed. Your outlook on many of these neighborhoods is also a self fulfilling prophecy, as are those of the people who are attempting to draw new residents in. If people continue to be swayed strictly by resale value, or the inaccurate perception of the amount of crime that occurs then it may very well take 30 or 40 years for these places to turn around.

Good post! I agree 100%!
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