All Forum Posts by: JT Spangler

 Clarksville and Dickson are both too far (geographically) to be bedroom communities in the next 30 years. You're talking about 40-50 miles away, with nothing but wide open spaces between Nashville and them. They both (to me) look like decent buy and hold markets on their own merits, though, provided you can find a good deal. 

Areas of Nashville appear to have peaked as far as single family prices go, but even if we see a mini-bubble it won't change that it's still a pretty cheap city to live in. It also won't change the rental pool, which is growing basically every day as people move here for various reasons.

We've also seen some tech companies moving in, so we'll see the effects of that as well.

 The duplex is in Ingleside.

There are several reasons I chose Muncie:

• Boots on the ground (my girlfriend went to college there and lives a half hour away, so she's an invaluable local resource)
• Cost per unit and CoC returns (it's insanely cheap compared to Nashville and other markets I've researched)
• Good construction and property management locally (I connected with a local property management company that also does rehabs and maintenance, recommended by another out of state investor on BP)
• Good market demographics and growth metrics (large university, large hospital, and a lot of new retail and restaurants, in addition to state grant money for urban revitalization)

Without any one of those 4 things I don't know that I would have considered investing there.

Not sure if this has been posted, but I stumbled on a piece of technology a few months ago that I thought might be an ideal solution for people who want to submeter without hassle.

It's the Neurio Home Energy Monitor. You install it in a panel, connect it to the property's wifi, and it reports real time usage from that panel to either a smartphone app or a web browser.

You can set the cost/kW-hr, and also the billing cycle. So, for me, one of my units isn't separately metered for electrical, but the basement unit does have its own subpanel (each unit should have this at a minimum, for legal reasons). I installed the neurio over there about three weeks ago and it's been faithfully reporting real time and historical usage whenever I look at the app.

It's $180 for the basic kit, and I installed it myself in about 15 minutes. Super simple, but you do need some level of electrical experience. And your tenant needs wifi.

I like it enough I'm gonna get a second one and install it in the garage workshop/studio at my primary residence so I can track that. I do love me some data.

Thanks, @Sandy Thomas! I purchased my 3 doors in Nashville with conventional financing, and the triplex in Muncie I bought all cash. I'd love to get some properties over by Ball State, but the prices there are a little beyond what I can do cash on right now. 

 My answer presupposed that the initial question was actually asking, "Why would a good investor buy something like this?" Since bad investors will do all sorts of crazy things. :)

I wasn't responding to you -- I was responding to the OP, who was asking about PV. 

Passive solar and solar thermal are indeed interesting options that can be much more cost effective.

The current ROI on solar, frankly, sucks. It sucks for the homeowner, and it double sucks for investors. The only exceptions are if you live in a SW state (loads of sunlight) that has significant tax credits to offset installation costs (they've mostly all expired as of 2016), and your local utility will let you install a net meter to sell back unused power to them (make sure they'll buy it at the same cost as they sell to you!). 

If you examine your property as if there were financing in place I think you'll find it's not a good investment. Your capital is unbelievably valuable, and right now you're not getting a great return on it.

Normally I think I'd vote for you selling and rolling that into 25% down on a nice apartment building, but with your experience level I worry that could be a tough transition.

But just remember before you go with a cash out refi or HELOC to calculate not just your return on cash, but also your Return on Equity. (shameless plug)

The only person that would buy that is someone who's developing it, or buying for appreciation.