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Updated over 9 years ago,
Very simple flip or rent it, get an equity loan and buy 2 more rentals?
A little about my situation is that I live in a depressed area of the United States and have been investing in just buying rental properties and managing them myself. I only have 2 right now and so far have avoided all the nightmare scenarios experienced by some of you. My renters have been clean with the property and have been on time with their rents, even if they will be a day late they will text me. Because of the area I have a rule of about $25,000 that I will spend on a rental property, that is including any rehab work. Living in the rust belt there is more of a demand of people looking to rent so it is fairly easy to find people, but I am a little bit more thorough with background checks so I may sit on a property for a month and wait for decent prospects.
That being said my scenario (A): I just bought a house that was up to sell quick because the previous owner is elderly with dementia without any kin. I spent $23,000 cash for it. The house is in very good condition, it was well maintained and is in a decent neighborhood. I can sell the house quick for $50,000 (appraised for $60,000 on auditors site) with maybe investing $2,000 so I would have a 100% return on investment, (there are 2 people I now that are interested in buying right now). I can just sell it quick with great profit and would be able to buy 2 more rental properties without financing @ about $25k. Reason I wouldn't ask for the appraisal price is the competition of other houses on that street are all around that price and I am just undercutting and selling to a friend to make a guaranteed quick profit.
scenario (B): Now the other option I was considering was keeping the house and renting it. I would get $650/mon for it and I would take a HELOC on it for $50,000 @ about 6.50% ARM and buy 2 more rental properties from the HELOC and say get approximately $550/mon per house. I would take the rent from the original rent and put it toward payment on the HELOC and still have about a $500/mon profit, expecting payment around $150/mon, give or take a few since my minimum payment would only have to be on the interest until the ARM is up but then I just refi anyways to keep the payment low. My concern is however that I am not sure I would be able to sit on the house while renting through the years and be able to make the same amount of equity on the house down the road as to what I am offered now. The city I am in has little chance for bouncing back and for property values to rise again. There is a better chance for the values to drop some more then remain stagnant.
My gut is telling me to go with scenario (B) for the long term rents, but I keep thinking about how easy it would be to make the quick flip now. Any advice or experiences like this encountered?