All Forum Posts by: Alex Johnson

Is there anything you are failing to mention in the listing that people find out when they get there and it turns them away? Maybe you don’t mention if there is or isn’t a garage? Laundry? Pets allowed? Follow up with a few people who viewed it and ask them why they didn’t want to apply. Ask new people viewing it what it would take to get them to sign a lease. If they say they would rent it for $25/mo cheaper, compare that to your vacancy cost. Some tenants don’t realize they do have some negotiating room and they’re too afraid to ask. Are you managing the unit yourself? I've personally found that tenants respond favorably when you tell them that you are the owner and manager and that you'll be handling maintenance calls, etc. They like to know they won't be passed off to someone who they don't think will address their needs once they move in.

Welcome Brandon! If you're looking at Colorado Springs, give Fountain a look too. We picked up a few dozen SFH down there last year at some decent discounts and those houses rent insanely fast. Even Colorado Springs is starting to become a pricey market so people are pushing south to Fountain to find more affordable housing. Plus you have a good renter pool with Fort Carson.

Oh gotcha, the original offer acceptance deadline passed. If the buyer and seller are both on the same page and want to move forward, I always find it cleaner to just refresh the offer and resubmit

Which contingency date did you just pass? You may be out of contract or you may have only missed your opportunity to object to something.

Good for you for wanting to get started early on. You'll be surprised how much of an impact starting early will have on your long term financial goals. Definitely be open to moving often to take advantage of owner-occupied financing. 

Is this 1-4 units? Excel should be more than enough. You can build your own to suit your needs to Google free templates and you'll find tons of them

Hey Naina, bummer you're having so many issues with your project. I just finished up a HomeStyle loan in October and it really is a great program. You mention the bank works with the contractor directly for the draws. Were you not the one submitting the draw? The bank should have only been accepting the draw requests from you, at least that was my understanding of how it's supposed to work

A "good" cap rate is a really broad measure as it is market specific as well as asset class specific. Certain parts of the country are used to 8-10 cap deals...here in Denver we get excited for a 6 cap. We buy SFR for a big company that will take a 5 cap.

Do you live close by? If so, drive by whenever you happen to be in the area for something else, just to make sure yards are being taken care of, there are no mattresses on the front porch, the place is still standing, etc. You're also going to be called for a maintenance issue sooner or later. If it's something simple, go over and take a look at it yourself even if you have no intention of being the one to fix it. And do a walk through with every lease renewal.

Limiting their risk as a lender. If they were to lend up to 50-90% DTI, a borrower is almost certainly going to default at some point.