All Forum Posts by: Bradley Lemen

Doesn't this epidemic kinda make you think that paying off your property would be better to do rather than buying more? Ever since the Coronavirus and US shutdowns I've seen a lot of the "slumlords" come out of their holes.... I can't get over the fact that people are actually thinking that charging tenants full rents is acceptable when people are losing jobs and possibly their life... This topic is very huge but I don't understand how a lot of people can think it's humanly okay to keep charging people full rents when knowing their tenants lose income because of a virus and country shutdown THEY can't control 

I went under contract for a duplex and going the FHA 203k route, it has issues that I need to get fixed so that it's up to FHA standard. My budget is 100k my offer for 70k got accepted and I want to renovate and fix the problems with 30k. Would it be better to just get the FHA issues fixed with the 203k and save money for future renovations and pay out of pocket? Or would it be better to just get the full 30k and renovate everything in one go? Had someone at work give me a little tip "You can get the appliances, windows, and doors fixed but do you want to be paying on them for 30 years?" so it had me just had me thinking which would be better to do.

I always see people talking about throw some paint on top of everything clean the floors and update the kitchen. But what about wanting to make a rental more convenient for tenants? Maybe I'm just getting to much into it but things like kitchen setup is terrible for flow fridge is on one wall stove is on another sink and a little bit of counter space? No windows to let light in? Do landlords ever think of how would this benefit me if I had to live here? I understand not replacing $100 things with $2000 things but small things to make life a little easier for tenants is that a bad mindset to have for owning rentals?

I'm kinda in a pickle here.. So I'm currently looking to move out and get my own place and house hack a duplex. Well the duplex I'm interested in is very cheap so my savings so far I'm close to 20% of the purchase price a few more months and I would have that 20% I just don't know what would be a better choice do I keep saving for the 20% and buy it as a rental and then save a little more and get a FHA for another duplex? Or should I just use my FHA on this property and save up for the next year to help with getting my next property?

@Eric Johnson I was planning to do the LLC stuff when I plan to purchase a 2nd property just to be sure that this will be something I fully want to do as well or would that probably be a bad idea? And the bank accounts etc I have all planned up for once I get someone to accept my offer for a place

@Eric Johnson I think another issue I probably have is I'm always wanting to combine my personal savings from my job into the property as well because I know I can use that to cover things like repairs, vacancies, etc and also adding my girlfriends expenses to because she's in on the idea of rentals as well 

@Eric Johnson 5% of the full income or what's left after mortgage and utilities being paid? 

@Michael Ealy for my cash flow I did what most post say on here is what you profit so I will give an example of the place I was looking at and you let me know if I am doing it wrong because I thought I was doing it close enough.

Triplex
Unit 1 - $650
Unit 2 - $650
Unit 3 "My unit" - $800 2 roommates "plus I plan to put away into my personal savings account the mortgage payment"
Garages - $110

Total - $2210 and if you count my mortgage savings then the $929 would make it $3139

Mortgage with Taxes and PMI - $929
Water, Gas, Electric, Trash, etc - $195-200 monthly "The previous landlord has expenses from 2017-2018"
Insurance - $55-60
Estimated Repairs - $100-600+ monthly depending on what issues go wrong and what doesn't 

Cash flow $420-$1030 depending on monthly repairs and also not counting my savings for repairs as well? But also saving everything I profit until I have 10k put away for a security blanket on repairs.

Is that the right way to do it? Or missing more than I have listed? 

I have been pre-approved to get a home and I have seen a few places and also put an offer on 1 but it didn't go as planned. I have mainly been focusing on duplexs but my area doesn't have them on the market as often. So I have branched out into the bigger cities near me and found some triplexs and quadplexs! "Personally I don't want to invest in another state yet mainly because I'm learning and also have a life long goal on rebuilding my small town". After running the numbers and seeing the amount of cash flow I would make from a tri or quad it has made me not even want to look at duplexs anymore... Is it bad to only focus on a 4 unit or maybe a 3? I want to house hack for my first ever property and SFH doesn't even seem like a good idea for me and duplexs are covering my mortgage and maybe a small profit but triplexs and quads are seriously almost bringing close to what I make at my W2 job. I'm afraid I'm going to be waiting too long until I get myself a property to make some money from but I also want to have a good cash flow from my first property as well. This has kinda been stressing me out and I just feel asking here would help me figure out what would be best!

Do you guys think it's okay to wait for a tri or quadplex in my area? Or would it be smarter to try and get into something sooner rather than later? 

I'm putting in an offer for my first ever Duplex this month and I have been fully catching up on laws, fees, security deposits, etc but I can't seem to come around the correct article to help me make the correct choice in choosing between a personal checking account or a business one. And also how to benefit the best with collecting rent. So the duplex is both 3bed 1bath, one side is rented currently with the other vacant which I will move into, I will also have 2 roommates on my side to gain more income. I do not know where to keep the income I make from my roommates and tenants... I want to grow my portfolio and eventually get into apartment buildings and create a large portfolio so I want to start all of the baby steps now for that path. I do not want to keep the income I make in my own personal account I know that for sure but I also would like to put my own personal money into that rental account so that I can have more money to put towards future renovations and also a security blanket, is that even possible for me to do? And last for the security deposit account would I just create another chacking account and keep all of the deposits in there and not touch it at all? Or would I need to create a new account for every new property I own? I do plan on creating an LLC but personally would like to wait until I'm getting closer on getting a second property before creating one is that also a good idea or would it be better to create an LLC now for this property and future ones?