All Forum Posts by: Alyssa Dyer

Hey there! Have you reached out to a small local bank? That's generally my preference and the appraisers are way easier. 

Cassie is correct, appraisals have been a train wreck. It's been really tough to get appraisers out to the property. We've had luck paying more for appraisals that are weird and/or need a rush. Even if you don't work with a local back I'd talk to the mortgage broker about the AMCs. They make a huge difference in the quality of appraiser you're working with. 

This randomly popped up on my feed and I went to reply but saw this was from 5 years ago, haha! Hope you got something together but if not let me know, I can send you my template.

@Joanna Valdez I’ve done both! My first house was a house with a garage apartment I rented out. It was fine, but because it was Multifamily in a nice part of town I paid full value for it and still had to do a lot of repairs. That was the main downside.

For the last year I’ve rented my extra room out on Airbnb and I love it. I’ve met super cool people and it’s been really easy. The main learning lesson for me was to think through my schedule and how realistic it was to turn over a room. When I first started I’d allow bookings pretty much back to back and it got stressful if I had meetings at work and a tight turnaround timeline. So now I require 1 or 2 days between bookings so I’m not scrambling.

Money wise, it's been about the same. I make a little more up front on Airbnb but the cleaning, amenities, etc cut into it and end up balancing out. But with STR the makeready cost is nonexistent (especially if you don't allow parties) so that's a bonus.

@Carlos Florez man, that’s awesome. I hope you guys find a place you love.

I started doing the STR thing because I had planned on spending 3 months in Paris and then moving to NYC. With everything with covid I figured I'd just do a STR until I things settled down and I was ready to move. Fast forward a year and a half and not much settling has happened and I kinda fell in love with STR 😂😂. Some of the best stuff in life just happens on accident I guess.

Looks like you've got a solid baseline of opinions. I've done a couple different things with tenants (them doing work, them paying me for work, them hiring contractors, etc). What I've seen to be most successful is to get a quote for the work that I want done that also meets the tenants goals. Bring that to the tenant and either explain how what they're wanting isn't as simple as they want so I am not willing (this keeps the relationship strong so they don't feel totally ignored) OR outline that I am willing to improve but I want to make sure the repair is done with licensed/warrantied/insured workers. If the improvements were $2,500 and they were paying for $1,000 I'd make sure that was paid before I began work. 

Paperwork wise make sure you cover these things:
- is rent discounted while work is complete? 
- is rent increasing or decreasing when work is complete? 
- I've heard some states will consider tenant improvements to be equitable interest... Oklahoma isn't that way so I can't really speak to it but I'd cover your bases on that 
- timeline, delays, etc. 
- tenant must be out of the way of contractors (we had a contractor who couldn't get the work done because her kids and dogs were constantly in his way)

If I think of anything else I'll add to the post!

I personally haven't done this. I house hack currently and lease my guest rooms out on Airbnb. I've met 3 or 4 people in the last 6 months who all came to OKC for the same reasons you're voicing. They were from Cali and Denver, but the same story. Anyway several of them told me they booked 2-4 week stays at Airbnbs in couple cities, met people, and "lived" there for a short time before pulling the trigger. I don't know your work or family situation, but I thought it was a pretty cool idea. 

The guy I who is a guest now has his investments and he just lives on the road. He door dashes and just drives to a new state when he is ready and stays in Airbnbs. That's pretty extreme but I thought it was fun to hear about!

Okay I think I follow most of this and have a couple thoughts. I am curious why refinance home, then pay down rental, then refinance rental? Or am I misunderstanding something there?

Are the moves to protect yourself/your wife or is it strictly financial? I.E. I know sometimes people want some assets totally paid off and not used for leverage... but that doesn't seem to be the case here. 

Do you have a solid spreadsheet/calculator? I imagine we're just getting the cliff note breakdown here, but if not I'd for sure get really granular on your numbers and walk through that for yourself and maybe with your family.

Looking forward to hearing back.

Dude, this is awesome. It's absolutely comprehensive and informative. Thanks for sharing all this. 

How is it going now? I'm sure as you've jumped in there have been some steps that were affirming and others that required a bit of a course correction, haha. 

Hey there! I wish I could help you out, but I don't know anyone building at this level right now. Most of the developments I've seen have been under 4 units or huge developments (couple hundred units+). I have seen lots of people rehabbing complexes that size, but make sure you do a ton of homework/due diligence if you go that route. I'm sure you would either way, but I've seen lots of projects get passed from broker to wholesaler, etc. trying to offload lots of issues. 

@Jonathan Greene thank you!!

Pardon my tardy response. We got super busy in the office and I was less active on BP for a couple weeks