All Forum Posts by: Alecia Loveless

@Robert Williams I owned two separate bed and breakfasts and lived the good life. Two full months of vacation, great hours, awesome lifestyle, you name it!

I fell into the rat race when our health insurance became too expensive.

Now, 10 years later I’m on BiggerPockets and still in the rat race desperately trying to generate enough monthly income to get both myself and my partner to financial freedom!

I’ve got a 5 year plan and am working hard toward it. I’ve even picked up a second job part time to try to add some extra cash to help finance extra deals! Currently I average 95-100 hours biweekly at my full time job and some periods another 45 at my side gig.

My advice is to sit down and think about your goals for real estate. Pick a starting point. Single family house, duplex with a house hack where you live in one side, 4-plex where you live in 1 unit and rent 3, once you figure out what you want then work on your plan for how to get there.

BiggerPockets has a great selection of books in their bookstore on how to get started in real estate from rentals to flipping to out of state investing to using other peoples money there’s tons of great topics to get you started.

Thanks for the info @Nathan G. I appreciate it. I looked online last night and found two books on the subject, unfortunately when I downloaded the second one it was scanned in sideways and I could not read it. But I will keep on researching my market and see if I can learn some more. 

@Jeff Modjeska I’m contemplating a major rehab right now. The building itself is down to the studs and it needs to have a new foundation poured.

However when it is done it can either be refinanced and cash flow a little to buy something else or I will have a cash flowing cow.

We’ve factored in the costs and have the capital to put into it without having to finance it.

I’ve got some other properties that need to season a bit before I can get another mortgage from a bank. I could use creative financing if something great comes along in the meantime but I’m happy with this rehab for now even with the costs.

While I know its not housing, there's a shortage of self storage in my area. I've found a potentially great piece of land and was wondering if anyone is doing this, and if so, pointers and companies to buy buildings from. Thanks!

@Austin Shulman While it’s not the best paying job or the most glamorous I work as a Direct Support Professional or a Residential Counselor on the overnight shift at a group home facility. I know it’s not the best job for connecting with other people but it provides a stable salary that with time will allow you to get mortgages and most full time positions come with full benefits including insurances and some type of retirement account with many employers offering a matching benefit.

I work 4 days a week and on one of those days I do a double shift. There’s almost always overtime at time and a half.

Then I can stay up when I get home and scour the MLS or tend to my real estate or go to sleep immediately and have the second part of my day for my real estate or other things. Plus the three days off are great for scheduling inspections, showings, walk throughs, bank appointments, etc. On your days off you could be a part time agent or focus on driving for dollars or just about anything.

The only catch is that you have to be able to stay awake overnight unless you find a sleeping position which also exists.

Just a thought.

@Angelina Ng On the threads here many people say the Midwest still has lots of opportunities for good returns and strong cash flow and I believe some towns are Cleveland and Columbus,OH.

Personally, I have been doing fairly well investing in my own back yard, New England, while I am building my portfolio and learning the ropes. I do my own property management and have bought “nice” property that doesn’t require a lot of “headache” maintenance such as leaky toilets or dripping faucets that I get calls for in the middle of the night.

I am buying a building that is going to require some structural repairs to be done fairly quickly which will be interesting but it is all part of learning the business and I absolutely love it so far. If I was earning enough money from my real estate already I would quit my W-2 job and just do real estate.

@Auryana Faramarzi All good advice. I’m a bit biased because I grew up in the region but Denton is hopping and growing exponentially. It is a two university town with a great arts and music district. Plenty of excellent schools and many superb neighborhoods.

I have a family member who has 17 rental units in Denton that is purchasing more. This person is seeing a solid stream of tenants, great appreciation, and a good resale market right now as they are making improvements and increasing their portfolio.

Just my thoughts. I’m sure there’s many great opportunities.

@Jeremy Torres While you always want to get the biggest cash flow possible sometimes you have to be creative or buy for reasons other than monthly cash flow. While I like to try to get at least $250 per unit it’s not always possible in my market.

I bought one that cash flows less, around $125 per unit but it’s the nicest building I’ve ever seen in my geographic area, will have very little maintenance, and given its location and great condition will have low turnover. In fact one tenant has been there 6 years and one tenant 20 years.

A SFH I bought was going to cash flow about $300 but we realized it would flip to the tune of a $100,000 profit. So I'm flipping it.

So it just depends on the property you find and the deal you are able to put together for it. I’m not always able to put everything together in a neat little box of $250 per unit cash flow per unit. My opinion is always think outside the box to get the best profit for your needs.

@Kristine Norris I think some of the answer boils down to taking a good hard look at yourself and your expectations and your goals for the future.

How much time do you have to devote to management? Do you want to own 2 units or 50 units? Are you organized? Are you a people person? How do you handle conflict? Do you handle conflict well? Do you have a team in place? Are you willing to put a team in place?

Is earning an extra 10% worth spending a little more of your time on your real estate each month?

Bigger Pockets has great books on property management and rentals in general. If you get your forms organized and your team in place this significantly reduces the actual amount of time you have to spend on your properties each month.

I currently have 3 properties with 7 doors, soon to be 4 properties with 10 doors. (Maybe 5 for 12). Right now I spend about an hour each month on banking, for the past 4 months I’ve spent about 3 hours apiece on a flipper that’s almost done, and now that it’s summer and the grass is growing I’ll have about 4 hours a month of landscaping for 2 properties. The 3rd one I pay the snow removal and my neighbor mows the lawn, we share the driveway. So a total of 7 hours a month.

So without property management I make $1850 a month cash flow for 7 hours of time but my flip will go on the market in 2 weeks and profit $80,000 for a holding period of 1 year after all costs.

I don’t have a lot of maintenance calls because I do full rehabs on my buildings at initial turnover

But occasionally there’s something that I deal with. However my time is less expensive than a PM.

@Chris Barnes I’ve always renovated when my units have been empty. However, I’m currently purchasing a Tri-plex that has 2 tenants and Is in need of some upgrades and repairs. Some work has to be done quickly and some can wait a while.

I’m planning on raising rents as the two leases renew and while doing the construction work I have considered giving a nominal discount of maybe $200 off each month we are working, for at least one of the units that I believe the work will take the most significant amount of time to complete, even though it is in the basement that they do not use.

I believe both tenants are good tenants as the current owner is from out of state and has had no problems with them. They have also been quite helpful with the inspection process. The units are mostly clean and neat and I don’t see any red flags yet.

The third unit is under construction and not in play at the moment.