All Forum Posts by: William Collins

Are these 1 BR units.  Looks solid so far from what I see in the numbers.  Remember that house renting is not house flipping.  So the upgrades you make should be focused on what the tenant would value/ updating to bombproof. LVP as a flooring, solid plywood cabinets, resilient counters, as this looks to be a side by side- maybe privacy fencing the back yard.  

Define struggling?  

Dave Foster has some great advice about how to leverage a rental/1031 exchange into your dream home.  There are some other paths to consider. 

1) Do you want to be a landlord?  You said: "We've gone back and forth between wanting to keep the rental and sell it. We have steady tenants, no real issues but at some point we will need to replace AC unit and make repairs as the years go on"
2) What is your goal: passive cashflow, a paid off primary residence, saving for a future investment/expense such as a child attending college?

These are the things missing from your question- which I think we need to know to help you frame your mindset.  

If you want to pay off your primary residence faster- taking the money from the cashflow alone would help drop the time by 8 years and 9 months. But at the same time your rental will be gaining equity by paydown of that mortgage.  So in the future you could refinance the rental to take out tax free money to pay down your primary residence to accelerate this even more, or sell the rental to capture the equity in it to pay down the primary residence.

Regardless of your choice- refinancing would probably be in your best interest on one or both of the properties. 

@Aneury Evangelista congratulations on the property. Do you have a tent break down? What bank did you use?

Putnam is not a core market for Connecticut. It is not a high employment area, but it is a decent rural town. So don't expect top line rental values for the state. BRRR is currently very hard in CT, if you asked me 2 years ago more markets in the state where you could do that. Comps are not high in that portion of the state.

My first of three sales has a signed contract.  The next step in the process is to sell off a triplex ready for an owner occupant in New Britain, Connecticut.  171 Basset Street should be on the market within two weeks with @Michael Noto.  This triplex was my first investment property and therefore has a lot of my equity tied up in it. For those of you looking for a house hack- it would be a good property to look at. 

Whats your question @Moshe Weiss?

@Xela Batchelder as a owner who has had this happen, My policy is to direct the inquiry back to the property manager. Typically it's a case where they're trying to avoid the property manager because they're trying to get to a different answer. It's like going to Mom and Dad to try to get the answer they want. Remember your partnership with the owners and as owners with your property manager means that you should discuss these tenants and their concerns. And perhaps mark them as folks who if they're going to complain / not appreciate what is provided perhaps it is better to let them leave.

@Kris Laku Start where you are comfortable. I find there is a decision tree:

@Angelina Frascarelli and @Thomas J Mele  this may be helpful as well.

First- do you own where you live, live with parents/family, or are you renting?

If the answer is you own where you live, can you house hack? Is it a multi family?

If you live with your parents, use the time to sock away money to get to the next step: buy a house hack.

If you are renting: time to start socking away money to buy a house hack.

Sense a theme here? You need to free up your finances so that you can maximize like @Scott Trench says in Set for Life. House hacking in a small multi lets you try out several things: 1) It maximizes your return on money as it saves you spending for housing with after-tax money from your current day job. 2) It lets you get an understanding of housing as an asset. You get to landlord on a small scale- get a taste of whether buy and hold is what you want to do long term. Set policies, screen tenants etc. 3) It then becomes an asset from which you show your abilities to potential partners and lenders long term. Your own home can be shown as an investment with all the returns you need to get/ where you can optimize.

Networking can be several different ways. @Brandon Rush and @Stephanie Cabral have been hosting meet-ups. Reach out to the people you see on Biggerpockets and see if you could set up a time to talk.

Creative finance as a topic is super broad- so focus your topic more to find out who you need to talk with.

Cheers,

Bill 

Currently owning 14 small rentals in Central CT

I would also say- tile the bathroom. Kitchen's LVP is fine!