All Forum Posts by: Annie R.

Wow - you must have some amazing properties, or tenants, or both. I'd say if it were truly that low-touch, then it makes sense to be more DIY. I feel like you're not in the majority, though, but rather on one end of the spectrum. Which, honestly, more power to you! Hope it stays that way.

@Justin Rea

Oooh house hacking is SO smart! Truly. Just not my thing anymore. I did it in college and grad school. Now I’m too old, and I like my space, and privacy. I know those sound like excuses to others, but quality of life is important to me. I’ve worked hard to get to this point and I always say “I don’t live to work, I work to live!”

Good luck to you, though. The city of Richmond does offer a LOT of house hacking potential with all the cute duplex/triplex options in the Fan.

@Mark S.

I fully agree with what you are saying. I don’t trust myself to do all of those very specialized tasks well enough. Good for you! A person’s peace of mind and a good night’s sleep, not to mention, being able to travel and vacation without feeling tied to RE problems blowing up, those are quality of life benefits that are individual value judgements.

@Daniel Han

Okay IRS tax nightmares sound awful. Which is now begging the question. Does your tax professional or CPA have to be local to your home state or can you work with any CPA across the country?

@Joseph Vu

Thanks for your insight on turnkey.

Do both REI nation and Rent to Retirement provide full turnkey service or just handover the keys to a turnkey home? Sorry if I'm being a pain asking for info that I can google easily but I like hearing first hand experience from a person.

@Neil Henderson

THANK YOU!

I love when there’s concrete tips on how to put the next foot forward, and a direct answer to the original question. You have obviously been through this ringer before. I am starting out and this seemed like an obvious question that I wasn’t finding a cross-analysis or sub forum of thoughts gathered neatly in one place. But again, I haven’t read the entirety of BP because time-poor.

I’m tempted to put your bullet points into a grid and hi/med/lo color code everything to see which option is greenest but I think I’ve already gathered where in that spectrum I want to be.

May I ask, where in the spectrum do you play currently?

@Scott Lundgren

Time is money, that’s true, but I imagine the DIYers doing it probably have critical mass. Meaning $50/mth for several SFRs - and maybe the numbers work out. I don’t know. I just don’t have the time or energy to do a good job at DIY-ing.

So tell me more about the Turnkey model. How is it truly differentiated from the SFR active investor model? Does it come all kit-and-kaboodle together - house, realtor, PM, contractor?

@Mark S.

Life is too short for property managing. Amen!

You sound like you dabble in a little of everything. How do you keep it all straight? Do you have a CPA who does your taxes?

@Lane Kawaoka

Were you not nervous doing remote rentals starting out, however turnkey? I’m assuming you had an in-market team. Everyone says the PM is key; well yes, how do you KNOW that the PM you interview via zoom is the one?

@Tushar P.

I love it when someone has the cajones to swim against the tide! I agree with your opinion: stocks have been gangbusters, EVEN with the pandemic. But it’s all hot air though, isn’t it? Very WeWork and Uber. Idk - I have a love hate relationship with retail stocks, probably because I get frustrated with all the Cramers.

Positioning one's REI as a cash preservation vehicle, not growth, is definitely a unique stance. I've at least never heard of it put that way. At some point, the stock market will correct itself - can't keep growing at current pace forever. It doesn't seem like the RE market goes through those wild up- or down- swings as often.