Long Distance Opportunity - Need advice for Newbie

[Michael Kotas]

Hi all,

I'm a newbie and have been lurking on the boards for a several years but now have a real opportunity that I'm in need of some advice.

Here is the situation:

My mother recently passed and has willed her 2 bd/2 ba house to my sister and I. Neither of us live in the market. My sister wants to sell while I'm contemplating keeping it and renting it out. The house is in good condition, ~ 20 years old, and but in a quiet suburb (20 minutes away from some major attractions).

Here are the questions:

- I can afford to buy my sister's portion but can I / should I put a mortgage down on her side? (will a bank even allow it? would I need to set up holding company?)

- Due to the long distance and the HOA covenants, I'd have about ~19k in annual operating costs when I include both mgmt service fees and burden my ROI with the opportunity cost of not investing the stocks. I'd like to purchase more units the future and ultimately move back in the next 5-10 but felt this might be a good starter rental home We think we'd get ~5% ROI (similar to stocks). Does this make sense?

- We'd like to potentially spend some time in this market during the course of the year which lends us to using AiRBNB however we'd probably make better ROI on a long term rental. Any opinions on one way or the other?

I'll keep re-searching away on the boards but wanted to get some details out for discussion since I'm not 100% sure where to start.

Thanks,
Mike