All Forum Posts by: Adam Lang

Why not try talking to the neighbor to see if he has an issue and see if there is any way you can help him to make things right. Or you could always try to schedule showings when the neighbor isn't home. 

@Robert Delaney This looks like a very bad deal to me. It looks like you would be losing almost $700 every month. To make this a better option you could do a loan over 30 years to lower the monthly payment and I would also negotiate a lower purchase price to make it a better deal. In addition, I am not sure where this is located but the property taxes look a little high to me so you may want to verify that number. 

False, you can get loans for the purchase and repairs and than once everything is completed you can refinance to a lower interest rate. Using 100% cash may save you some interest or lending fees on the initial loan but it may also tie up you cash for a few months until you can refinance. If you can keep more cash on hand you can do multiple deals at once and speed up the process. You will have to run the numbers on a specific deal to see what makes more sense. 

@Wyatt Postal The economy has been pretty good the last view years so the 7% appreciation doesn't really surprise me but I wouldn't expect it to continue like that forever. If you want to stay local with your investing than maybe try to find a local investor to show you how to find deals in your market. Otherwise your 7% down payment on $315,000 would go a long way in some cheaper markets, maybe you want to invest in other areas of the country. 

If the numbers make sense on a property it can be a good investment. Check out the bigger pockets rental calculator to see if a property makes sense.

@Wyatt Postal This does not sound like a very good deal to me as an investment. Even if the unit rented for 2500 you are not accounting for vacancy, repairs, property taxes and homeowners insurance in your cost. If you rented this out you would have a negative cash flow. 

At a minimum you should try and find deals with a minimum rent of 1% of the purchase price. Some investors even like to say 2% to make sure its a really good deal. For this to be a good deal the rent each month should be well over 3000. 

Try using the bigger pockets calculators if you haven't used them yet. They are great for analyzing deals.

@Nick M. Don't trust your tenants to do the inspection, they will never care as much as you. Give them proper notice and then you or a property manager should go in and inspect each unit. In addition to the toilets you can look for water damage on the walls, floors, ceilings, etc. in case there is a broken/leaking pipe somewhere.  

I think you have good criteria selected so far. Maybe add in references to check, past landlords can tell you if you are going to have a good tenant or not. Also, I know some people have lower credit score requirements because there are people out there working hard to raise their score and 700 is a fairly high number. But if you get enough applicants to fill the place with a 700 credit score than by all means you can keep it. 

The long term rental business and the motel/tourism business are completely different business models and I don't recommend trying both right away. First, figure out what your long term goals are for you and your family and then look at which business model would achieve those goals the best. Look at the numbers for each industry and determine which is better. 

Also, try talking with people in your area who are doing what you are doing and ask them what is working and what isn't. If you can, find someone that you can model who is having success and just copy them. The key is to focus on one idea and do everything you can to make it happen. 

Perhaps you should first do an inspection of the units to make sure there are no leaks anywhere. If everything checks out maybe issue a letter to all of the tenants saying that water bills have been unusually high and if it continues you may have to raise rent prices across the board.