All Forum Posts by: Alyssa Paros

I think it depends a lot on where you’re at in your investing journey/what you’re looking for. With appreciation, you won’t be able to pull your money out for a few years at least even if you bet correctly on the market. With cash flow, you will have a smaller amount of money consistently now. So it all depends on the game you’re playing now. We wanted cash flow so we can snowball our earnings into more down payments quicker to make this our careers

For our triplex, it was all vacant. No statements were provided to us. We had to figure out the value ourselves. The BP calculators are a great resource as well as looking at comparable rents in your area. Aim conservatively and talk to other investors in your area about what their typical returns are. Keep analyzing and, eventually, you’ll know when it’s a good deal. This might not be the deal for you (or it might be!), but if you keep analyzing, you’ll be ready to jump when you find it

Welcome! House hacking is something I wish we had done just starting out! We’re in Johnstown, PA and own our first triplex. We ending up putting 25% down on a commercial loan with a local bank. And they’ll use our profits from this property as income to approve us for our next property rather than having to wait the typical 2 years for it to be considered income. It’s working well for us thus far!

After reading the E-Myth, I realized we need an organizational chart for our rental business. We’re in multi family, buy and hold. We plan to continue to grow our property management. We buy fixer uppers, so project management is also necessary. Anyone have a chart they’d like to share?

@Kyle J. right now, we're looking at a $40 application fee per applicant ($80 per couple). For our rental that's $525 a month, I agree that that seems bit high. I definitely want to have an application fee, but would feel more comfortable asking about $50 for a couple, $25 for an individual.

Is there a way to check a potential tenant's credit for free? The sites we're finding for tenant screening are more expensive than we're comfortable charging our potential tenants.

Thomas S. Actually, I like our pet policy. And while I understand pets are a risk, I also know I was a pet owner myself when I was a renter and needed a place to rent that welcomed my terrier. Ken McElroy has stated on numerous occasions that he has never had issues with pets, even if he’s had trouble with pet owners. We will continue to rent to pet owners. And I would ask that you remember that this is a professional forum and would ask that you conduct yourself in such a manner. Yes, we will continue to better our business practices daily, as that’s what a well run business should do, but don’t mistake my inquires as naivety or disfunction. I very much have it together. Thank you for your response.

@Nicholas Paros

We've just started showing our first unit. It's non smoking, minimum income of 3 times the rent, basically all stipulations listed in Brandon & Heather's management book.
We had a prospective tenant ask to bring her 10 week old German Shepard (it's pet friendly at owner's discretion), she admitted that someone in the household smokes but insists that it won't be an issue, and her income is barely over the rent...even AFTER I went over all our qualifications with her.

Am I still supposed to show the house to her? And offer an application? I'm confused between not wasting my time and Fair Housing Laws. And what's the point of the questionnaire, if not?

We own in a triplex where the rent is $500-600/mo. Should we stick the standard in The Book on Managing Rental Properties? What credit score do you use as the qualification threshold?