All Forum Posts by: Alecia Loveless

@Eric Gomez I was able to negotiate $100,000off a $300,000 property for repairs needing to be done in a hot market 3 months ago. Can’t hurt to ask.

@Joshua Bowers As the saying goes yesterday was the best time to buy and the next best time is today.

That being said I’d start building your team and discuss with your wife about where her schooling is likely to take her. Perhaps the best plan is to pay down your debts for now and invest in a property where her school will be. Then you could potentially place it with a property manager after she is done living there and you’d have her housing taken care of and a rental afterwards.

In the meantime if that idea does of doesn't work for you maybe you can locate an investor friendly realtor as you build your team and once you've narrowed your property criteria if you want to invest locally to where you're living now have them set up a search for stuff on the MLS that fits your needs. It won't take up much of the Realtors time but will let you start to get a feel for the local market.

@Victor Menezes The agent I work with brings me deals that are in house at his agency if he thinks I might be interested as soon as they arrive. He knows what markets I’m primarily interested in in our region and understands many of the things that attract me to a deal.

If I haven’t been in touch with him in a two week period he sends me a text to check up on me and see what I’m up to. Now I’ve known him for about 23 years as both a Realtor and a friend but we’ve also closed 4 deals in 24 months. He’s sent more than that but my workmen are stretched thin and it doesn’t make sense to me to keep buying more properties when I’ve already got things under rehab now.

So I’d say once you’ve found a Realtor to work with begin to develop a relationship with them. I’d personally build up at least a few properties in one location before moving to another town/region/state. Having a good team of a realtor, contractors, plumbers, electricians is hard to develop sometimes so staying in one area just makes sense sometimes.

@Naoko Potts I have a few tenants who pay check by mail but I have let them know that as soon as one check comes back for insufficient funds this will no longer be an option and we will have to find another payment method. So far I haven’t had a problem. My tenant that house hacks my duplex with me was in banking for 20 years and brings me a certified bank check each month. The rest of my tenants use electronic deposit. I live in a very rural area and it’s about a 50/50 split.

@Phillip Christie Hi Phillip. Congratulations on wanting to expand your portfolio. How many units is this multi family? It’s a little different if it’s a 6 unit and you want to self-manage or a 30 unit and you also want to self manage.

In the case that it’s a smaller multi family, like under 10 units, I’d simply say look for a new lender and learn as you go. If it’s a larger multi family I’d try to either bring on a more experienced partner or a property manager to help with some of the new bank’s requirements for experience.

Best of luck and keep pursuing your dreams!

@Shanice Waller If it’s possible I at least provide a hookup for W/D. Not so much if the property is on a septic system.

I do have a clause in my leases that states they are there solely as a convenience and will not be repaired or replaced. Then depending on which property it is I can make that decision on an individual basis.

Obviously I will repair/replace my coin-op machines. In those buildings there is no way to include hookups given the layout of the units.

When I do buy a W/D I get a basic work horse model that has the least amount of electrical components to it, simple dial knobs for controls and hopefully a push button to start. This way if they do need repairs it is easy and not an electrical problem to try to figure out.

@Eden Mendel I’m from further north in New Hampshire than the lakes region and you can easily get at least $800-$900 for 2/1 properties seasonally monthly in the winter no problem. I’d find it hard to believe if there’s anything nearby restaurants, snow mobile trails, ice fishing, restaurants you wouldn’t be able to get weekend rentals for $300 from the Boston/Portsmouth/Southern New Hampshire areas for two to three nights and just find a cleaning service and throw it up on AirBnB with a 2-3 night option and a monthly option.

@Brock Barr I've read a lot of books but the best move I ever made was to just start following the MLS in my desired area, I picked a small location so it wasn't hundreds of new listings daily, and paid attention to property I was interested in. I then spotted one particular property that I felt was over priced but that I liked because it was a duplex and got my realtor, who I had developed a rapport with and built up to be on my team, to help me get the down low on this property. He helped me follow it through three series of offers on it and kept me informed about its progress while I continued to monitor the MLS daily. Eventually my realtor said that every offer had fallen through and was able to even provide me with one of the inspection reports. By using contacts I had developed I was able to analyze this deal and get it for $85,000 under the original asking price.

I'd suggest you build up your team, connect with an investor friendly realtor, see if he/she can recommend contractors, property managers if you want them, start following the MLS for your desired property in your desired areas and then when the time comes that you locate a property get the information, analyze it using the BiggerPockets calculator and then go view it and if you like it pull the trigger! And yes continue to read at night in your spare time but get started!!

@Stephanie Mccolaugh Personally I prefer separate accounts for my separate properties.

I personally own and live in 1/2 of a duplex but have only one account for that building. I do keep track of the expenses separately however. When I was renovating the rental side I kept all the receipts and accounted for them as business and keep all of my residential expenses as personal. For tax purposes the depreciate differently and different things can be written off for each side of the building.

The same would go for both of your houses while you live in one and then once they are both rentals they will both expense and depreciate the same way although there might be some carry-over tax benefits from when you were in it personally, ask your accountant.

@Brittany Baker I have been providing the down payment then financing the rest through equity in the property and the cash value in the leases added to my income. These I have been self managing in my local market.

I’m at the point now that I’m ready to go bigger and am going to start bringing in partners to scale up from small buildings, 2-10 units to larger buildings, 20-50 units with property management in place most likely out of state.