All Forum Posts by: Adriana Jimenez

@Chad Clanton Good to know. Thank you for breaking that down. I will definitely be looking into Simplisafe, especially if I can move it from property to property. 

@Chad Clanton Thank you for the advice! I read your post and it did open up my eyes a bit more. I know you have to be vigilant in this business, but you made some really good points on things that most of us would take for granted starting out. Like I said before, we need to find a contractor to get the ball rolling. Have you had any luck with the bigger contracting companies? Or do they turn out to be more expensive? I have found some that have good reviews from both consumers and investors, but I assumed that it would be better financially and time-wise to hire a smaller business that could focus on my project.  

Good Morning,

My husband and I are looking to do our first flip in the next month or so. We have our eyes on an abandoned house in the neighborhood we grew up. The house has been abandoned for at least 10 years or so. I have already found the owner through property tax records and we have financing figured out, the only thing missing from the equation is a good contractor. I want to have all our ducks in a row before making an offer on the house. Can anyone recommend an efficient contractor that works in San Antonio? 

Wow that is extremely impressive! Congratulations to your son. His story of putting what he learned into action at such a young age is very encouraging. I'm sure everyone who reads this will take something from it. 

@Erich Beyer My husband and I will do more research regarding the price. Of course we want to get the most out of our investment, but we are also losing money waiting for someone to take it off the market at the current list price. In the end cash flow is cash flow and we need to make the best of it at the moment. Thanks for your input!

@Rick Pozos Once I fire my current PM I am definitely going to take your advice and post pictures of my property on Facebook. I never even thought of that. What a great way to get great references! Would it be a good idea to hold an open house for the property? I'm not sure if that is something that is done for rental properties.

@George Smith I definitely feel that taking over the management is the best way to get in control of the situation. I don't think the time frame would bother me as long as I knew what was going on each step of the way. Currently I feel like I am being left in the dark and that scares me because we want to get our REI careers rolling (which our PM is aware of), and the first step is to get a good tenant. It's nice to now that someone else has been in a similar situation and had success. I feel a little more optimistic towards the situation. Thank you!

@Tim Macy I agree there is no better way to learn that to do it yourself. My husband and I always planned to manage our own properties once we became more experienced, but I guess there is no time like the present. Thank you for your feedback!

Thank you to everyone who has responded! I am taken back by the amount of support and advice that I have received in such a small time frame. Looking through the comments, I am becoming more confident in the idea of managing the property myself. No one is going to have the best interest for my property in mind like I will. 

Although it will not have the best cash flow, I think keeping the property with have the best return of investment in the long run. If anything it will be good experience as we learn more about buying and holding properties. 

@Simcha Davidman Thank you for the tip! Now to my next question what do votes mean on BP? 

@Simcha Davidman We live about 30 min away from the property. Not too far, I pass it every day on my way to work. Managing the property ourselves was what we initially wanted to do. After looking into it a little more, we worried that we were not educated enough in the legal side of things to manage it ourselves. My plan was to use a property manager for the first lease and in that time learn everything there is to know about property managing, that way I'm not going in blind. Seeing how things are going, I might just do it myself and learn as I go.

I agree that selling the property might not be the best option at the moment considering all the fees. I do not think we have enough equity on the house to make a sale beneficial at the moment. Maybe this will change in the next couple of years. Thank you for your input!

@John Walker We have done research ourselves the property is priced about $50- $100 higher in the same neighborhood. Our PM was confident we could rent for that much, so we went for it. She was referred by a friend, so we weren't just putting our trust in just any stranger off the street, but it looks like most of the properties she manages are on the South side of San Antonio, which is on the other side of town. We are willing to bring the price down to get a tenant. I just want to make sure we get some return of investment and we're not just breaking even. 

My husband and I have great credit, so if we sell the property I know we would be able to get another loan under our belts. I just worry about how much money we will lose going to fees associated with selling the property. Buying a multi unit property is a good idea. I'm not sure how easy it would be to find one, but we will look into it. Thank you!

@John Walker We have done research ourselves the property is priced about $50- $100 higher in the same neighborhood. Our PM was confident we could rent for that much, so we went for it. She was referred by a friend, so we weren't just putting our trust in just any stranger off the street, but it looks like most of the properties she manages are on the South side of San Antonio, which is on the other side of town. We are willing to bring the price down to get a tenant. I just want to make sure we get some return of investment and we're not just breaking even. 

My husband and I have great credit, so if we sell the property I know we would be able to get another loan under our belts. I just worry about how much money we will loose going to fees associated with selling the property. Buying a multi unit property is a good idea. I'm not sure how easy it would be to find one, but we will look into it. Thank you!

My husband and I recently started our real estate investing journey back in July of this year. We currently have one property, that up until recently was our primary residence. In July we decided to move back to my parent's house in order to save money and seriously begin our investing careers. Our first instinct was to rent the property after moving out to create some passive income. Seeing as we just now started looking into real estate investing, we did not have an investor state of mind when buying the property. We have owned the property for almost 2 years now and are financing through an FHA loan. We purchased the home for $120,000 with a 3.5% down payment. The home was valued right at $120,000 at the time, so we did not buy into any equity. The mortgage payment is about $990/month and we have listed the house on the market for $1350/month(washer, dryer, & refrigerator included). This is the monthly rent that the property manager that we hired came up with after doing a market analysis. The property has been on the market for 2 months now and we still do not a have a tenant. Our property manager has maybe contacted us about 4 times throughout these 2 long months to give us updates and it seems like the same story every time... We had someone loves the property but they are a bad applicant. Now because we do not have much experience I have trusted her judgement for the most part, but as the time passes I am becoming more and more skeptical. I have initiated most of the contact with her and every update is very vague. I called her for an update on Monday because she told me that there was a couple interested in renting the property the week before. She had not had a chance to look into to it yet, so she said she would call me back. Wednesday rolled around and I still had not received a call, so I emailed her and still no reply. At first I thought maybe she is busy with other properties that she is managing, but if that is the case it is not fair that she is not giving my property the proper attention. My property is located NW San Antonio near UTSA and Six Flags Fiesta Texas, which is a popular area so I did not think we would have a problem finding a tenant. My husband and I are seriously thinking about looking for another property manager. If anyone has a good recommendation we would really appreciate it. Now considering that my husband and I have had time to reflect on the situation, we wonder if it is even worth holding the property. The market value on the property has gone up to $135k-$140k and we owe about $114k on the loan. Maybe selling the property would give us a better return on the investment and give us some more money to start fresh. Like I said we are rookies in the game, so we are grateful for any piece of advice given. Thank you in advance!