All Forum Posts by: Brandon Williamson

Utilities are very expensive on islands.   Make sure you have a realistic budget for those if not included with your dues.  I have looked online at condos there and the prices are great...there are other high costs of ownership to consider though.   A/C units, appliances, furniture, all that is much more expensive.  If your property gets outdated and you want/need to remodel, be ready to pay through the nose.   This may be less of an issue depending on the setup of the condo, but definitely is a consideration. 

If you love the island and want to be able to visit regularly and write off your "maintenance" trips go for it.   If you are not going to be able to enjoy it much yourself its probably a high stress low reward deal for you.   I always look at those places and then remember how much the plane tickets are and how long it takes to get to them, buying one even at a low price might not be worth messing with if I cant enjoy it.  

These need to be state specific.  Each state has specific laws that govern vacation rentals.    On VRBO/HomeAway you can add the agreement .pdf to your listing and the renter is signing it electronically when they book.   You may win the dispute if the terms are clearly on the website and the renter admitted they made the res themselves and decided to cancel.  This is why it is important that all communication on VRBO/HA go through the sites messaging system.  They can use that info for dispute resolution.  

I am not sure how AirBNB does this but I think they have uniform cancellation policies that are clearly disclosed on the site.   

Credit card charge-backs are definitely a risk management thing to watch out for on vacation rentals.  Good luck on this one I will be interested to see how it goes.  

So what % of the rent is she short and how far behind?  I would personally feel awful putting someone out who was undergoing cancer treatment.  Having that said I would need to make my house payment as well, and anyone who has a rental property understands that once a tenant gets too far behind you rarely ever see the money.  

If she is going to be out of work for a while and has no savings she will need money for basic living expenses like food, gas, utilities, and yes housing. Hopefully there is an option for some government or employer benefits, church, or family help for her.  If she can start preparing for that and finding a solution she will rest easier at night and so will you.  

No

I am a full time agent who also deals with my own rentals and remodels so take what I am about to say with that being disclosed.   

If you want a real estate agent that is knowledgeable, well trained, experienced, and skilled they will likely not be found on solo pro.

I second the Go School.  Smaller class sizes and nicer classrooms.  

I would ONLY do the 15 if you are getting a lower interest rate.   You may decide for the reasons others have stated that you want to get it paid off faster and the 15 is for you.   Here are a couple of negatives to doing it that way though.    1)  Something will go wrong at some point.  (vacancy, emergency repairs, tenant takes months to evict, rents could drop in your area slightly)  If any of that stuff happens and you have been taking the small amount of cash flow you are more likely going in the hole on your investment at least for that period of time.    2) If you plan to buy more properties and take financing on them the lender is going to qualify you based on how much you HAVE to pay in payments every month.   Nothing is stopping you from paying extra on the 30 year loan, you can even automate this with your bank, however you can not just go back later and reduce your payment to a 30 year qualify for another property.   Refinancing is expensive and the rates could be higher in the future.  You are tying up a substantial amount of buying power on the 15 year loan so if you want to keep acquiring properties keep your monthly debt load as low as possible using the 30.     

If you have plenty of money to play with (and to cover your butt with) and plan to use the cash flow to live on when the loan is paid off you might want to tough it out with the 15 but if you are going to be working and investing for a while the 30 will give you more flexibility.