All Forum Posts by: Brian Briscoe

@Mike Morawski

Great point -- and honestly a big part of my decision making process on where to concentrate was this question: "Where do I go anyway?"   My wife grew up in SC and has a lot of family there -- we go there frequently.  Economy and population are growing there, so it makes perfect sense to look for real estate...  Almost every business trip I take to SC begins or ends with a visit with family.

You like golfing in Dallas... 

@Terry Zannella likes Phoenix for similar reasons...

@Kendra Camp you must be a nurse...

I'm on the fence. Lots of good points of view given.  

I definitely appreciate posts from @Terrell Garren, @Tucker Cummings, @Jessie Walls, @Lesley Resnick.   I also have to note to @Randy Bloch and @Jim Glover that I can't imagine any job sucking the life out of you as much as working in the Pentagon... I look to follow in Terrell's footsteps and do REI full time when I retire next year.

Regarding the topic of this string... it's a growth v. security question.  At one point in my life, I think future me will want a lot of paid off properties.  I'm not a buy-and-hold guy anymore, so 

There were a few posts on refinances... I'll throw two cents in on that part: Younger me bought a few investment properties when rates were >6% for single family (2007-ish). I refinanced each property a handful of times as rates went down and ended up with a 2.75% APR on both. I thought it was a smart move at the time and it definitely increased my cash flow. When I sold the properties, I realized that I only paid off small percentage of the original debt because I had rolled the closing costs back in to the loan with each refi. Can't go back and undo it, but sitting here with 20/20 hindsight, I wish I were less trigger-happy on the refinances. I literally went from 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 on one property and I probably paid for my mortgage broker's kid to go to college...

I'm in my 40s now, so any refinance I do on my primary residence is going to have to shorten the timeline...

On our apartments, we're going to keep maximum of 80% LTV. We'll refinance if it allows us to return a significant amount of capital, and sell around the 5-year mark. Rinse, repeate.

@Gary L Wallman - impressive... 100 properties without mortgages and buying cash.  I assume you did a heavy debt-paydown strategy up front?  I think most people would love to get there, but few have the discipline to actually do it....

I agree with @Todd Dexheimer - those may be top of that one list, but those markets get to be highly competitive.  I do so love the Carolinas...  Change the evaluation criteria slightly and all the sudden Raleigh-Durham, Triad, and Charlotte are 3 of the top-10 areas.  Though I'm a bit more in line wiith @Ryan Daigle -- I like upstate SC.  It's on the I-85 corridor between Charlotte and Atlanta, and the factors that are fueling growth in those two cities are also driving economic growth in Greenville, Spartanburg, Asheville, Anderson, Clemson, etc., without the competition you see in Charlotte or Atlanta.  Charleston is growing fast, but I don't like dealing with hurricanes...  Columbia metro is also seeing significant growth - especially in Lexington County (my wife's hometown), so of course we like that market.

I'll take any Carolina of those Carolina cities right now over that top 5.

That's a lot of requests for a single month for 120 doors. I can't give you our numbers, because it's not on our KPI list and we don't track number of requests.  We do track monthly maintenance expenses.  We have a similar number of units as you do and there's no way we're getting 30/month.

Anecdotally, I've had some tenants that call every month asking for something to get fixed.  In this case, the property manager had a $300 ceiling before calling us, and they'd also dispatch the maintenance guy for things that were not really that important.  We were getting billed for about $200/month in maintenance...  After about 6 months, we talked with the PM about it an asked that they NOT approve trivial maintenance requests on that property...  On the other extreme, I had one tenant live in our condo for 10 years with only one maintenance request (amazingly, the place was still in excellent condition when she moved out).  

@Samantha P.

One more note -- I did have a tenant that didn't take care of the yard very well.  I lived across the country and had a PM (that didn't visit the property often).  One of my relatives who lived in the neighborhood mentioned to me that the yard looked terrible...  Since yard maintenance was clearly in the lease as the tenant responsibility, the PM contacted the tenants and gave them a short period of time to mow the grass, trim the hedges, and weed the flower beds.  They did not comply, so we sent a landscaper out and billed the tenant.  When they moved out, we ended up applying most of their security deposit to getting the yard back into good shape, but that easily could have turned out as an extra expense for us.

So, there are definitely things to consider before putting the tenant in control (as @John Warren also noted).  I've found that MOST tenants will at least do minimal upkeep on the yard. 

@Rebekah Nation

You're correct -- not one-size-fits-all.  I do like your approach - it's creative and takes advantage of the fact that you want to visit the property once per month. It's not assuming too much as a landlord either...

Younger me, if living close to a SFR, would also have mowed the lawn to check-in and keep the property nice. 40-ish me now pays for lawns to be mowed so I can focus on stuff that brings in more money than I'm paying for the lawn to be mowed. And besides, I've mowed so many lawns in my life that I just don't like to do it.

@Danny Haddad - have you lived there long enough to escape capital gains taxes?  If can sell tax-free, you could invest the lump sum into a syndication or something that will bring you the long-term income you're looking for.  Even if you can't sell tax-free, there are still options to escape taxes and have an investment that produces steady returns.

For many reasons, I don't think FSBO and owner financing will get you the highest price. It may even get you a lower price than by using an agent and paying their commission.

@Lorenzo Dudley  

Experience helps... but you want to avoid painful experience.

Before renovating, I'd suggest you look at the market comparables.  If everything in your area has laminate countertops, linoleum floors, and white appliances, then granite, hardwood, and stainless steel would be over-renovating.  Every market is different, but usually, making it nicer-than-average-but-not-too-nice is where you want to aim.

Look at sales and rental prices of homes in the area and focus on the ones that have renovations similar to what you're planning.  That should give you an idea of what the potential upside will be after you renovate.  If you're planning on selling the property soon, it'll be easy to get a realtor to advise you on what renovations attract buyers and which renovations bring higher sale prices.  Once you have a good idea of what features bring in higher rents and higher offers, then you can start pricing those particular renovations and determine whether the investment is worth the cost.

@Resa D. In my experience, those who accuse others of not being Christian are typically trying to manipulate, which by itslef is not very Christ-like...

You're right - shelves and hooks are easy fixes.  She complains, but that's not necessarily a "bad tenant" - paying on time and keeping the place in good condition are higher on my list...  In this situation, since you're renting out rooms, I would worry about her in the shared-kitchen scenario.  If she's abrasive with you, she's likely acting like that with the other tenants - maybe complaining about a dish left in the sink or the kitchen not being swept properly...  It may affect your ability to find new tenants (i.e. word gets out at that hospital that she's not a good roommate) or keep good tenants (i.e. she's such a pain in the a** that nobody wants to stay there).

Probably the best course of action is to get her out quietly.  Cash for keys usually works - basically, you offer to pay her to leave. I moved from CA and sold my San Diego rental property a few years back, so I'm not up to date on the new landlord laws...  Not sure if that's allowable.