All Forum Posts by: Adam L.

I moved to Valdosta a little over 2 years ago and the market has actually gone slightly down.  My house is worth just a little less now than when I bought it and I bought it for 15k less than asking price if that tells you anything.  Yet another reason I want to rent it out.

I used Exit In Touch to buy the house and I was satisfied with my experience so I was looking at them as well for renting it out.  I wanted to still get an idea of the other companies around the area as I have not really actually been in Valdosta much in that time.  So thank you again for the note!

 I will have to look into them.  How much do they charge and have you had any issues keeping the house rented out?  How was their process for getting on with them?  Thank you so much for the help!

First off I want to say I am far from an expert in this arena having only purchased one house and working on the second. However comma I have read a lot and learned a ton through this site, books, podcasts, etc, which is where I am getting most of my info from.

All that being said, you should never buy a property you are going to lose money on which usually means (and, yes, every market is different) you should never buy a property you do not get for less than the asking price.  However, sometimes you may buy property there isn't even an asking price on yet you just know you are offering less than it is work.  

If you have a good relationship with your agent they should understand you are buying for investment purposes and you are going to send out offers that are low.  However, if you are buying through an agent who isn't used to working with investors they may really struggle with the thought of you going in so low so that may not work out too well.  The agent should understand what you want out of the deal and help you get there... that is there job after all.

And to your last question... yes.  Yes it is.  Some more expensive markets make it very difficult or impossible to get great deals on.  You may need to expand outside of the Manhattan area to find deals that will produce cash flow.

I hope all this is helping!  Good luck!

So it is less about the negotiation tactics and more about finding the house which allows you the ability to get such a great deal.  Some places you will not be able to budge a price on and you know that just looking at it so you skip it.  Another may have been on the market for 90 days, it needs some work, and the owner is tired of it and needs to just get rid of it so you use those things to your advantage. Thus you get yourself a deal.  As "they" say, you may need to look at 100 houses, only be able to put in offers on ten of those, and only get 1 of them accepted.  That 1 is the deal the author is referring to.

I believe what the author is getting at is when it comes to buying investment properties you never WANT or SHOULD pay full price.  You always want the deal and always want to pay less than the house is worth.   The house the author refers to in the blog is listed at 200k and then is purchased for 150k hence not paying full price and getting a deal on the house! If you have to pay full price you are likely looking at a bad deal or a worse deal than you should be looking at.

@Ward Mcdaniel, that is pretty close to exactly what I was thinking and how I would like to see it work out.  

The house sold for 192k in '09 and the area is a good area close to the Air Force base.  That being said, I do not foresee the house losing too much money.  There was talk of the base losing the A-10 which caused some hiccups in the market I think; however, that isn't happening now so I am pretty sure things will start to come back up again.  But you never can tell I guess.

@Account Closed and @Account Closed, I thought about not using a PM; however, I will be in a different country and with how often people move I don't want to have to rely on the friends I have in the area.

Thank you for all of the replies, folks!  As expected there are is a vast amount of great advice here.  Even reading all of these responses I am still pretty torn (as it seems the group is as well).  

None of the houses on my block are available right now which is a good sign I guess.  I may be able to squeeze a bit more rent out of my house and the property management will likely be 8% rather than 10%.

One thing I forgot to mention is I have about 9 months before I move out so I guess I have some time to see how the market plays out and see where I am then.

I don't think any of that is a good enough reason to not protect yourself however true it may be. "I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6."

Hello BPers! I am looking for a little bit of advice here. I bought a house in Valdosta a couple years ago with a VA loan (no money down) and now it is time to move. My plan when I bought it was to rent it out when I left; however, that was before I knew too much on the whole RE business... Now I did some numbers and it doesn't look so good. Please help me out with some advice.

Purchase price: 177,000

Projected Rent Income: 1350

Mortgage: 819.71

Taxes: 158.50

Insurance: 76.70

Current overage on Loan (Bank applied): 27.65

Ppty Mgt: 135

Vacancy: 67.50

Repairs: 67.50

CapEx: 135 (Probably a little high as the house was built in '09 but better on the safe side)

Total Income: 1350

Operating Expenses: 509.35

P&I: 978.21

Total Expenses: 1487.56

Cash Flow: -137.56

That is not what one would call a good deal.  However, I have not built up enough equity to make it worth my while to sell it and the house has not appreciated since buying it either.  Holding on to it pretty much guarantees I am losing money other than the tax advantages and future appreciation/loan payoff.  

The way I see it, if I sell I lose about 10K (between the house probably selling a for a couple grand less than I paid, closing costs, and commission) which means I would have to own the house about 6 years before I reach the 10k mark.  So with that in mind I would rather rent it out and lose on a monthly basis and sell on an up market (likely to go up in a 6 year period I assume) than lose 10K now.

Am I looking at this properly?  If you guys were in my position would you take the monthly loss or just sell it and take the hit on the sale?

Thanks in advance, folks!

Hello BPers! I am looking for a little bit of advice here. I bought a house in Valdosta a couple years ago with a VA loan (no money down) and now it is time to move. My plan when I bought it was to rent it out when I left; however, that was before I knew too much on the whole RE business... Now I did some numbers and it doesn't look so good. Please help me out with some advice.

Purchase price: 177,000

Projected Rent Income: 1350

Mortgage: 819.71

Taxes: 158.50

Insurance: 76.70

Current overage on Loan (Bank applied): 27.65

Ppty Mgt: 135

Vacancy: 67.50

Repairs: 67.50

CapEx: 135 (Probably a little high as the house was built in '09 but better on the safe side)

Total Income: 1350

Operating Expenses: 509.35

P&I: 978.21

Total Expenses: 1487.56

Cash Flow: -137.56

That is not what one would call a good deal.  However, I have not built up enough equity to make it worth my while to sell it and the house has not appreciated since buying it either.  Holding on to it pretty much guarantees I am losing money other than the tax advantages and future appreciation/loan payoff.  

The way I see it, if I sell I lose about 10K (between the house probably selling a for a couple grand less than I paid, closing costs, and commission) which means I would have to own the house about 6 years before I reach the 10k mark.  So with that in mind I would rather rent it out and lose on a monthly basis and sell on an up market (likely to go up in a 6 year period I assume) than lose 10K now.

Am I looking at this properly?  If you guys were in my position would you take the monthly loss or just sell it and take the hit on the sale?

Thanks in advance, folks!