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All Forum Posts by: Brendan Miller

Brendan Miller has started 3 posts and replied 208 times.

Post: Sell or rent current home ?

Brendan MillerPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 210
  • Votes 162

@Brandon Carrillo one thing to consider with the sell option is that the IRS allows for a capital gains exemption if you’ve lived in the home as your primary for at least 2 of the past 5 yrs. How long have you owned it?

Post: Retirement based on rentals in AZ

Brendan MillerPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 210
  • Votes 162

@David Weymouth I think the AZ market has a lot of info term potential, especially with the job growth and population growth. I think it depends on what your strategy is and what part of your retirement income comes from these rentals.

If your plan is to hold these rentals through retirement, then I think you’re OK since rentals should remain strong. If your strategy is to sell the rentals in 4 yrs and use the cash as retirement income then that might be more risky since who knows what the market looks like then. I personally just sold one of my rentals in Tempe due to where market prices are at, but that was because it wasn’t cash flowing well and I am using that money to trade up properties.

Post: Cash out refinance or leave as is

Brendan MillerPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 210
  • Votes 162

@Raymond Bachmann it really just depends what you're comfortable with, I personally wouldn't put myself in a position where it didn't cashflow anymore, unless I was expecting a large rent or price appreciation in the near future. Make sure you're not just covering your debt service with the rent, but also covering vacancy, maintenance, CapEx, etc.

Post: HELOC on Investment Properties

Brendan MillerPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 210
  • Votes 162

@Andrew Perkins PenFed, I just did one a couple months ago with them

Post: What are annual repair costs on a condo like?

Brendan MillerPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 210
  • Votes 162

@Alex Silang I just sold a condo rental of mine and it had very minor maintenance/ CapEx. Biggest items were plumbing related (toilets, faucets) or washer/dryer or AC unit related. It really depends on the HOA and what items they're responsible for.

Post: How often do you follow up on rejected offers?

Brendan MillerPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 210
  • Votes 162

I've submitted several full price offers in the past month on MFH properties via MLS that I haven't been successful on. I'm curious how often you (or your agent) follow up on offers with the listing agent prior to closing in case the accepted offer falls through? I know it happens, but does anyone do this as a standard practice, or do you just move on and focus on the next lead?

Post: Calculating property taxes

Brendan MillerPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 210
  • Votes 162

@Oleg Enik a lot of county websites offer a tax calculator tool where you can calculate and print a report to reflect the new tax amount based on the sale price, rather than manually trying to calculate it based on the tax Mill rate

Post: How are different-fourplex rents considered

Brendan MillerPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 210
  • Votes 162

@Julian Broyles there shouldn't be that big of a gap in rents strictly due to SFH or Apartment, it's likely due to a difference it SF, amenities, or condition of the home. For a 4-unit, I typically wouldn't look at comps for SFHs, I would look for other MFH rent comps or apartments, how apartments can skew the numbers due to amenities available versus 4-units

Post: Getting to Know the Process - New to Real Estate

Brendan MillerPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 210
  • Votes 162

@JD McGibney there are a lot of really good ones, I’d just start at the beginning and go from there. It’ll help you identify what type of investing interests you the most based on other investors experiences

Post: Is now the right time to buy? Philly or LA?

Brendan MillerPosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 210
  • Votes 162

Hi @Eric Samuels, I would say get started now if it's a primary residence and you have the down payment for it. It sounds like you need to figure out some logistics with your job between the LA vs Philly situation. I would assume you'll find a property much more affordable within the Philly market, but with $20K you could roughly get up to $400K property with 5% down using a conventional loan or higher if you went with an FHA 3.5% down. That is all dependent on what your W2 income is and what you'd qualify for though. As for whether to try to time the market, I don't think anyone on BP can accurately tell you that. I will say that rates are the lowest they've been historically and likely won't stay at these levels for long, so I'd lock in a low owner occupant rate now while you can. Let's take both scenarios:

Scenario #1 - buy now with low rates

$400k property @ 3% interest = ~$1,690/monthly payment; requires $20K @ 5% down 

Scenario #2 - wait for a hypothetical 20% market correction in 2 years (let's also assume rates increased 2% over this time)

$320K property @5% interest = ~$1,718/ monthly payment ($30/month difference); requires $16K @ 5% down

Over this 2 years, you'd also lose out on the benefits of owning real estate (loan paydown, cashflow from other unit rentals).