All Forum Posts by: Amy Kendall

@Tyler Heath I was worried about COVID and its impact on our market as well, but so far I haven't really seen it impact our market as far as my rent collections on my personal properties and for those I manage.  As far as the market crashing, people have been looking for that for the last few years and the truth is that no one really knows when or if that will happen.  I am personally moving forward and continuing to invest in our market, but I do understand your hesitations.  I think that if you plan on really investing in real estate, then now is a good time to get started.  Just make sure you have plenty of reserves in place, then if they market does drop in the next year or so, hopefully you will be in a good position to acquire your second property.

@Sarah Caldwell I live in Lehi, Utah and we have been renting out our basement apartment for a little over a year now.  We have quite a few long term rentals and I had always been interested in trying out the vacation rental market, but my husband never really liked the additional costs of furnishing the place with the variable income aspect and was always hesitant to give it a try.  We decided our basement gave us a good opportunity to give the vacation rental thing a go without much risk involved.  We hired a management company that did a good job and surprisingly, our basement was rented out with very little vacancy and we definitely made more than a traditional long term rental.  We did finish the basement with a lot of upgrades and it is a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom.  We also went through the city and paid the impact fees and had it registered as a legal accessory apartment, which was not difficult to do.  To give you numbers, after all management fees and cleaning fees were accounted for, we consistently made about $1500-1700/month.  Then, we got a tenant that wanted to stay longer and didn't want to go through the platform and just wanted to pay us directly, which worked great because we actually made more money that way and avoided the management and cleaning fees.  After that tenant left, we decided to offer the basement as a short furnished month to month rental because as a property manager, I see a lot of that need as well in our market that doesn't always get met.  We had no problem renting it out that way for $1650/month, and it was easier to manage.  I imagine that if our basement wasn't furnished and we offered it simply as a long term rental, we would maybe get somewhere in the $1200/month range.  Currently, we have been doing Air BnB again but managing it ourselves and it continues to be booked almost continuously.  One potential negative to consider and that bothered us the most was that we didn't get to screen any tenants when we did not manage it ourselves.  We don't smoke and we have our little children around, so we didn't like it when our guests came out to smoke.  Not that big of a deal, just something to be aware of that I hadn't considered.  Hope that is helpful for you.

I don't have any recommendations for general contractors because most of my projects are too extensive and I prefer using a handyman.  If your project is a lot of cosmetic work, you might consider just using sub contractors and arranging them yourself.  Or you could possibly even just use a good handyman that could tackle a lot of the project and maybe even save you some money over hiring a lot of different subs.  Best of luck!

@Max Pallatt I recently helped one of my buyer's find and close on a 56 unit property that we found for him using direct marketing in Provo.  I think the market still has a lot to offer depending on your strategy.  This particular property had a lot of potential to improve and reposition, which is exactly what they intend to do.  What size of property are you looking into?  

I can relate to the appeal of investing out of state if you are looking for better cash flow.  Within the last two years, I started some out of state investing for the same reasons.  I bought two new duplexes in Arizona and a new fourplex in Florida.  I found talking with property managers in those areas to be very helpful.  They can offer a lot of details about the area and have a good understanding of potential rents.  Plus, they usually offer their true opinions and are not connected to the deal as a bias.  Overall, they both have been positive experiences so far, and I do get a better cash flow than I am seeing here locally.  I'm not sure I will see the great appreciation that we have seen here, but there are trade offs in every decision.  I bought all the properties new, so that has cut down on the need for repairs, but I did find a good handyman for my Arizona properties that is willing to help out with little tasks that pop up.  

Exactly what @Neil Henderson said.  Check with your local community banks.  We have a bank here that will do investment properties with a 10% and a 15% loan but they charge a higher origination fee to do so.  Just check around to see if you can find the same out there.  Best of luck!

@Luke Ferrara Welcome to the forums!  I think either of those plans would work out.  I personally love having a primary home that is also a rental.  My husband and I cut in a basement entrance to our current house and finished it to use as a rental and it more than covers our mortgage.  So, perhaps you can do both.  Multi family properties often sell for a premium in our market, but perhaps you could find a single family with a basement apartment, or an unfinished basement and create your own!    Best of luck to you in whatever you decide.

@Destin Hinton Welcome to the forums!  I agree with the others in trying out your property as a rental.  The numbers seem decent and you would be hard pressed to take that equity and get a property that cash flows much better here in Utah.  

@Devin Bost I have also found that data from lists contains outdated and inaccurate information.  It gets even worse with multi-family units because you get a lot of property management companies mixed in there as well.  Unfortunately, I don't have the solution for you.  I have actually driven around in an area that I had investors interested in and compiled my own list based off of the county records.  Of course, that worked fairly well but did take a morning of driving and compiling the data and was limited in its scope.  But if you know the area you absolutely would like to invest in, then it really wasn't too bad.

Depending on how much cash you have and where you are at in your real estate investing, Mountain America Credit Union might be worth checking out.  They have a few loan options for investors to buy non-owner occupied homes without putting down the traditional 20-25% down payment.  I used their 10% down payment loan on one of my first investment properties, which really helped me because saving the down payments was my limiting factor in the beginning.  You do pay more in origination fees, so it might not be the best fit if you aren't limited in that regard.