All Forum Posts by: David C.

If you move somewhere that sucks home prices are a lot less =)

One tax saving option might be to do an exchange into a house/tree farm rent it for a year and then move in. I'd need a better breakdown on what you have where real estate wise to see if that's a good option

I don't know the answer to that question directly, but I can't imagine being a felon as being a protected class?

I myself have a list of criteria I follow. It's just a matter of credit and income. You have to have good credit and ample income to support the rent. I always check credit, I always require a recent paycheck stub to verify income, I always call the employer to verify current employment, I always require the 1st months rent and deposits in the form of a cashiers check. That said my properties are all A+ -B+ type properties, great neighbor hoods for the most part and mostly all remodeled and updated. I really take to heart the notion that the quality of the space determines the quality of the tenant. I have had over 20 people apply for a place and turned them all down letting it sit vacant for a month while I wait for the right people. I'd rather have no tenant then the wrong tenants. So far so good, long term tenants, I've always gotten my rent with little to no brain damage, I've also had very low turn over for the most part. 

Knock on wood!

I do have a duplex that I bought earlier this year that's very dated on the inside coming vacant Oct. 1st. It's my only non fully redone property. I plan on a facelift rehab. nothing major, so it'll still be dated etc. 

So we'll see how that goes re-renting it? 

It's my 1st duplex and my first not full gut and rehab

D

@Tara Ballenger 

Mine is single family, fully remodeled and landscaped single family home, 1 car garage in the back corner with a long drive along the side for lots of off street parking

1450ish sq ft 3 bed 1 bad (1 bath sucks and it's a 1910 home so a little wonky on the floor plan in regards to the stairs to get upstairs) As for the good tenants part, I had lots and lots of people apply, we waited for what appeared to be the right one's.

I'd rather have no tenants then bad one's

This was my first property with some speculation component in regards to the area improving

I made sure all the math worked for me regardless of the hope for a lot of appreciation

We'll see how all the new building plays out, in 5-10 years it should be a whole different area

The new copper penny was the linchpin to unlock a better future for that area, even with all the current construction if you look up what the pdc owns there's still a lot of land around already bought and waiting for development. The new development should build more and more confidence in the area. Money being invested in a large scale should draw more money in. There's a lot of houses bought and rehabbed and flipped in the last year in that area for example. Probably 4 or more on my street alone ( good signs =)

Time will tell, for me currently worst case is I have a cash flowing property with a decent cash/cash return, with a lot of potential upside

Sorry I type so crappy, thanks for struggling through =)

I bought a foreclosure January of 2016 in Lents on 88th about a half block off Woodstock, it took 4-5 months to rehab. and is now rented. Hasn't really been a problem any more then any other house so far.

Your friends will hate you because your beautiful =)

I'm more of a reader then a poster with my 12yr old writing style, but I've felt this dilemma myself.

The conclusion I came to is, there's no right or wrong as long as your following the laws in your location. That said it's your business and you get to make the choices that are right for you. I don't look at thinks like the other person has to loose for me to win. 

My examples , 

4-5 years ago I was out mowing my lawn, my neighbor of 8-10 years came out to b/s and let me know he was going to sell because he couldn't afford his house any longer. He was very upset about the whole thing. 

I ended up buying his house and renting it back to him cheap for 18 months. I got a lower purchase price he got cheap rent to save up for a new place to live. I went into that deal knowing I'd be burning negavite cash flow for at least 18 months, but the amount negative added to what I was paying still had me making a deal on the place, it was a great return on investment in the form or equity, outside of all the other advantages to rental property. This is a house that is vintage 1985 with a single old man living in it. Can you smell it? =)

The real value add is the remodel on this place, but I don't really need the value add until I sell. When I take the current mortgage and refi in the repairs to get it up to top of the market of course the payment goes up.

It ends up from a cash flow point of view I can rent it to him for probably  less then market and have about the same cash flow with the rehab/re-rent. So he pays a reduced rent he can afford that cash flows for me about the same and I don't have to spend the money on the rehab. It's really a win win at this point, he's been my neighbor for over a decade and I like the ole coot =)

I'm probably fooling myself a little on the cash flow difference, but like I said I like the ole coot. It's been a set it and forget it situation and not messing with it has allowed me to pursue other opportunities. I have a huge value add situation sitting there on my books, there's worse things =) 

Some would argue that it's a value loss deal for me by not kicking him out and remodeling it, I view it as a value add, during the time I would of needed to remodel it I was off buying a foreclose that was a full remodel that's done and re-rented, ti was a big value add. And instead of having one house in that time I actually have two with one still having a lot of upside just sitting there. That from overall standpoint was a way better deal for me.

2nd example

earlier this year I bought a duplex, nasty dirty kinda place but tons of good potential upside when rehabbed. One side the tenants had been in there for 12yrs with no rent increase, the other they'd been in there 20yrs.

My plan was to buy it, evict, rehab, re-rent at market. Then I started messing with the math. Turns out that If I don't do a full remodel, saving that expense and raise the rents to a certain point the cash flow is close to the same. (I'm trying to be shorter and less rambley) So we fix the parts of the place that were hurting itself (5k) and put the current tenants on a scheduled rent raise over 9 months, I had the funds on reserve if one of both moved out. I took some negative cash flow to start and now have positive cash flow. I ran the math to make sure it made sense, and it did. Today I have a duplex that runs to the positive side with long term tenants, I've left the value add in for another day. I don't really need the equity until I sell. I now have two really good value add plays that I already own for me to do in the future. When I really can't find another deal, I'll already have one on my books. Make sense?

3rd example

a few months ago I found a great deal on a duplex, a great value add through rehab. The numbers were looking good! But as we walked through the property and talked to the tenants the whole place was rented to one big poor family, I'm guessing like 4 generations, were talking about a lot of people in this place, from elderly great grand parents down to lots of little kids running around. The place was a total dump, I'm not afraid of dumps I've rehabbed several at this point. The return on investment was good leaving it how it is, and lots of value add kicking them out rehabbing and re-renting for market. It would of been a real good one.... But here's the rub, I don't want to own slum houses, old is ok but not slum with bunk beds in the living room and little kids living in filth. I grew up like that, I don't want to own places like that, not for me... And I don't want to be the one who kicks this huge multi generation poor family out, It's not something I want to be responsible for doing...

So what did I do? I walked away, I let that one go.

Opportunity is really never ending in my view, I figure I take the one's that are right for me and walk away from the rest.

As long as your following the law, In my view it's not a religious question, or a moral question. It's really a what do I want to do with my time? With real estate there's just so many ways to make money pick the one's that are right for you, leave the rest.

As you can see, typing spelling grammer etc. is my worst skill set

sorry if it hurt your eyes =)

D

Welcome to Washington County! :)

I'd suggest making friends with someone at a  title company, they can send you a trio when you need one. There's several online options that are pay per, or subscription based. property shark being one of them

Washington county sucks that way, is what it is

Looks like if you own four or less it doesn't count, am I reading that correctly? If so it seems you could hold your properties in individual llc's and none of it matters as long as the units are 4 units or less? So lets say I own 10 sf's all in there own llc, I'd effectively own none correct? The llc owns it.

Just my current thinking on the matter, 

if I'm reading the 4 or less part correctly, how are they going to know how many you own anyway? With the assumption were talking about 4 unit or less properties

I hate to use the word comical, but that's what comes to mind. Maybe I'll just switch to all week to week tenancy lol