New Investor in TROUBLE - Carrying costs since April 2024

[Christian Pichardo]

Hey all, I am new to long-distance real estate investing and probably did everything wrong on my first investment property. 

I bought a 3 Bedroom SFH in Cahokia Heights, IL on April 2024 and it is STILL NOT RENTED TODAY.

I bought for $79k convinced by the Section 8 mentor Tom Cruz to buy from his team and to focus on cashflow vs. appreciation

I went through 3 contractors that all did a subpar job and just barely got it all together

I haven't been able to find an appropriate Property Management team to help on this side of IL

I have it listed for rent (Zillow, Turbotenant, Fb, Craigslist) for about 3-4 weeks now since repairs were done.

If anyone has any suggestions to get this rented ASAP I would greatly appreciate it and any Property Management connections that can help would be amazing as well.

Thank you all for your time and Happy Holidays & Happy New Year

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @Christian Pichardo:

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

taking guru advice not withstanding. keep in mind Dec is the worse month to rent a place.

things get better as you move into Jan feb.

U will need a section 8 inspection so hopefully the house will pass that.

Out of curiosity what was the draw to do a section 8 house as opposed to market rents??

Really appreciate your reply Jay!

That's right! and it definitely has felt that way haha, I've been posting it EVERYWHERE.

I was drawn to S8 for the slightly above/guaranteed rents and the very long term tenancy. I know I'll have to do major screening but seems to be very successful/passive

as someone who at one time had 200 section 8 SFR rentals.. there is a lot of miss information about the program.. ONe its not guaranteed your renters can and do get kicked off the system for violating the policies. And my experience was 18 months at best for term .. some went longer of course but many just went the first 12 months then moved and left a semi trashed house. But I understand the pitch and the appeal to those without any real experience of being a section 8 landlord. The happiest day of my investing career was when I transferred ownership to all those houses in one transaction and to never ever go there again with that asset class.
But thats me.. section 8 can work but its not as passive as folks claim. The tenant base is generally 95% single women with 2 to 5 kids and they flat destroy houses, Not on purpose  most of the time but if you have children all below 10 years old they are just brutual on houses even in the best of situations of which single parent with multiple baby daddys is not the best of circumstances.. full stop.