All Forum Posts by: Bill B.

Kinda sucks if good deals are “1 in 2000 available properties” and there are only 3600 available properties in Vegas. Once someone buys that one property they’ll all be gone. I know, those 3600 will turn over in a month or two, but that still means 1-2 good deals in the entire valley per month. Hope you’re not buying them. :-)

Ps. I don’t think many people really care about the price of electricity, but if they do. You accidentally put 8 cents for Nevada power. It did drop to 11cents (plus misc fees, effectively 12 cents) here in Vegas a few years ago but I don’t think it’s ever been 8. 

Thanks for the info. I Just wanted to help you make it more convincing for the guy/gal who’s still on the fence, you don’t need to convince me. 

Not being able to buy where you are going hurts my option 2. 

Option 1 gets hurt because you selling costs will probably eat up any gains possible in 2 years so you won’t have the option of selling or access to the cash you invested. Once you’ve decided that you’re ok with long distance landlording there are just a lot of options that might work out better than an expensive east coast condo. (You might be able to buy a 4plex in some markets for less than that condo?)

What’s your plan if a year or two from now, before you move out the condo association says no more rentals? They MIGHT grandfather in existing rentals but you’d be living there not renting at the time. Now you have a place you have to sell to move. If prices are down or interest rates are up, or both, or there’s a condo assessment you might not be able to move. 

It just sounds like you’re sinking money in to a deal to limit your future options. 

Ps. Take everything you read on the internet, even from me, with 2 grains of salt. It’s your life. Better you screw it up than some guy you don’t know. 

The odds of you buying, moving in 2 years and keeping that property as a rental successfully is higher than 0%, but not significantly. A SLIGHTLY, better plan would be to buy the vegas place today as a rental with the idea of moving in to it within a couple years if you’re above 65% chance you’ll move. 

Neither of these 2 options excite me, but I’m trying to work within the options you gave me. 

if you would consider a Vegas fourplex you could talk to @Terry Lao about his experience. He lives in Cali and bought here. I think he complains about their new “high prices” around $300k, so you could buy a couple in the same complex and spend less than $650. Unless you planned on house hacking and living in one, in which case please ignore me and carry on. Sorry for the interruption. 

@Susan Steele

Hey Susan,

The last time I see a Mobil notary the guy left me his card and a link to the national notary association.  Seemed like a good gig for someone with drive and time. It was an online class. You want to make sure you add on “signing agent’. 

Once you complete the class they provide your cell number to local titles companies that then offer closings to the next notary on their list. He said you can get 3-5 per day as long as you always say yes. He was making closer to $125-$150 for the 1.5-2 hour signings. 

Had to go back and add a ps...

This info is for Las Vegas, your mileage may vary significantly in California with extra laws, fees, etc....

Thanks for the info. My only current out of state is on lake Minnetonka. I grew up in Brooklyn Park and my best friend lives in Hudson. 

If I still lived in the cities I’d own a bunch of those brick fourplexes. The one I spent ages 1-3 years old almost 50 years ago looks the same or better than it did then. My friend in Saint Paul just got an unsolicited offer of $700k for his fourplex in the lamplighter area. He lives in a 4th of it and bought for $250k or I don’t know how it would work either. 

I wouldn’t mind getting some fourplexes where income wasn’t the main concern but rather a place to spend winters/summers/etc. (Florida, Hawaii, the USVI, something like that.)

Ps. The income to house price isn’t terrible yet. $60k to buy a $289k house isn’t Seattle where an average income of $80k is supposed to buy a median home of $819k. 

Pps. I give you a lot of credit for walking your talk. Soooo many people talk about the upcoming stock crash and yet remain fully invested. While I may think you sold too much and too early, I’ve been selling 1% per month for almost 2 years and have regretted almost all of it. With a gain of 20% just last year and almost 5% so far this year it’s going to have to crash hard and then I’m going to have to have the guts to sink it all back in or I should never have sold. 

Ppps. If you want to talk real estate over pizza/burgers or bbq ribs sometime let me know. In case you haven’t figured it out I love to talk real estate and Ryan to learn a little along the way. I’m up by Sante Fe casino but don’t mind driving. 

Yes. The median probably will be $320k by the the end of the year, same as it was 12 years ago. But that’s up 10% from today’s $290k. Vegas is probably one of the only markets that isn’t higher today than it was 12 years ago. 

Can I ask where are you investing now Brandon, and in what? (Sfr/mfr/syndication/etc) how did you pick the area?  Thanks. 

I’d love to make the next step up. But as they say. I don’t know what I don’t know. It would have to be an exchange though. I couldn’t afford to give up the income and write that kinda check to the irs. 

I thought we just had this discussion?

PLEASE STOP TELLING PEOPLE WHAT NOT TO DO IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO HELP THEM. 

Your post is no more helpful than a post that says REAL ESTATE IS STOOPID, YOUR STOOPID. 

They would both add just as much to the discussion. 

@Account Closed

It’s all good. I don’t want to tell you how close I came to buying a condo on the strip a dozen years ago for almost $800k. Luckily the realtor tried to show the $1200/mo Hoa as a benefit as I would have “full use of the casino amenities...” 

less than 5 years later I didn’t buy the equivalent condo for $200k. 

Ps. I lost more than 5 deals in the 08/09’s haggling over $5k. The bad ones are only up $150k. :-(

“I’m not paying you $112k with no appliances, I just bought your neighbor’s house for $105k with appliances. I don’t care if these houses are only 2 years old and cost you $300k” (and of course they are worth almost $300k again.) (Craig and jones behind the Lowes.)

3bed 3 bath “townhouse” (half a duplex) $130k bought March of 2017 built in 2006, 1500sf. 89032 zip code even though I prefer Vegas to north vegas. 

$1325 monthly rent rent $15,900/yr minus

Yearly expenses of $660/Hoa (gates community)  $819 taxes, $561 insurance $1272 property management. Mortgage is $463x12 = $5556 (3.75%, 25% down both bad for the time as I have 8 mortgages and don’t live there.) total yearly expenses $8,868. 

Cash flow is $1325 - $770 is $575. 

Income is $15,900 minus $8868 plus $1800 loan pay down = $8832. I took $4680 in depreciation and paid taxes on $4372. 

My $30,000 down made $8800 not a home run, but the place is worth an easy $150k now, that’s an extra $20k (15% in one year, good thing I didn’t listen to people last year saying I couldn’t invest in Vegas, or the next crash is/was coming), if I wasn’t lazy I could refi and get my money back out but houses here are really cheap and I usually only buy 1 a year. Houses here are extremely new compared to other markets, we don’t have bad weather events, property taxes are low, with 13 properties water heaters and appliances are biggest expenses and even that is rare, less than one per property per year. 

It’s not rocket science. What do you think these houses will be worth in 20 years? Double their current value? 4x? That’s just 4-8% per year. If it’s worth $300-$600k and I put down $30k and the tenant pays it off that’s pretty good. And then the cash flow explodes and guess what, people on the internet are telling you that you can’t make money in Vegas on real estate. Of course you’re reading that from the beach in the bahammas, or your preferred beach. 

Ps. All my deals are lazy off the MLS deals, imagine someone with the drive and ambition to actually hunt for deals.