All Forum Posts by: Brian C.

Just remember with condos there's typically large HOAs that can eat into cash flow. I looked at many condos thinking it was a great deal, then realized the HOA fee would eat up almost all of the cash flow. There's a BP podcast (don't recall which one) but condo is in the title that talks about the pros and cons. The HOA was always the downside when I was looking.

@Account Closed Not sure why I'm saying this as it's already been said over and over again again.. You're basically telling investors to adjust their pricing strategy so you (the lender) are less likely to make a mistake.  It's like the cashier at Burger King getting mad because someone wanted no onions on their burger, which just increased the likelihood the order will be wrong because it's not "standard."   An "oddball" offer is more likely to be accepted.  Therefore, by making it "non-oddball"  you are less likely to get an offer accepted and therefore close a deal. Let's say, hypothetically, that one should actually have to worry about this... a delayed deal is better than no deal. 

I've personally never had an issue with pets and have always let them.  Technically, I've made out better with them because I collect a $350 non-refundable pet deposit and I don't believe I've ever had to fix or replace any pet related damage (~7 of 10 tenants I've had).  I've also begun to put in more pet/kid friendly flooring (vinyl, tile) to make it even less of a concern. As @Nathan Gesner stated, you're also greatly reducing your candidate pool. My personal experience I've had more applicants with pets than without.  I'd take a tenant with a high credit score and a dog over a non-pet owner and an average credit score any day.  Not a perfect analysis, but it seems like responsible owners tend to have better behaved pets.

As far as smoking, I've walked into enough smoker's homes and suffered through the smell and the yellowed molding enough to never want that in a property I own,.  Especially knowing it can still linger when trying to get a new tenant in there. At the very least I'd put in the lease they can't smoke inside with a good way to enforce it.

 If I had money to invest and I was told if you put 300 dollars a month into a fund for 5 years (18,000) and at the end it would net 60,000, I don't think that's such a bad return on investment.  If you then told me if I did it for 10 (or however many years is left on the loan) and it would return $1000+ in today's dollars a month for life, I think that's a pretty good return too...

I think it depends on your goals. If your goal is to invest in other properties, it might not be a bad idea if you can get the money out to fund a positive cash flow property. Keep in mind 20k in equity doesn’t equate to 20k in your pocket if you go through a realtor, however.  

I’m currently losing a small amount of money every month ($200 a month to start, about $100 now) counting expenses on my first home.  It was originally my primary residence I bought at the top of the market and was around 60k underwater; I didn’t have much but to rent. I didn’t mind either… I saw it as me paying $100 bucks a month that put many times that more in equity month and would be paid off well before retirement. When I started investing in real estate with the goal of passive income my views changed.

That was about 6 years ago. I now have about 30k in equity. When my current lease is up I plan to rent-to-own it, that way I can structure the deal to minimize (or hopefully eliminate) any expenses during the lease term, get the loan paid down some more (extra 30k in equity, assuming 2 year lease) and avoid sales commissions. Then I can sell it and put the money towards a cash flowing property or two. 

I think either decision will eventually pan out if you have a good property in a good neighborhood. 

Let me clarify, by no closing costs I mean they would be credited by the lender, resulting in no closing costs for me.  This isn't uncommon for a conventional loan with a 20%+ down payment; my last two purchases included no closing costs without rolling any in.  As far as the financing contingency, that wouldn't have worked for me as how it was written, I would have to have been denied financing, which I wasn't.  

I knew I was loosing my leverage by closing, but with the risk of losing 5k earnest money anyways and the possiblity of losing the property, I did.

I closed on a property a couple days ago... It was supposed to be a good day, but turned out to be quite frustrating, and a bit more expensive than it was supposed to be.  

I was working with a lender who promised to cover all closing costs.  I had options on rates, each of which had different associated lender credits and we agreed on the rate that resulted in 0 out of pocket costs.  After we had a ratified contract on a property, on April 7th we signed all the loan documents including a rate lock agreement that showed $0 in discount points and associated costs.  It had an expiration date of May 25th.  Other documents from the broker showed $0 in out of pocket closing costs.  Fast forward, 4 days before closing I receive the Closing Disclosure document that shows no lender credits and me paying over 7k in closing costs, in addition to the down payment.  I immediately email the broker who tells me don't worry, that's not the final one, you definitely have lender credits.   

Two hours before closing, after confirming the amount my cashier check needs to be at closing, the broker tells me that the costs of a rate extension on April 17th (news to me at this point) ending up costing all the lender credits and I had to either pay the additional 7k or increase the rate.  This makes no sense to me as the rate lock agreement wasn't supposed to expire until May 25th.  After hours on the phone trying to figure out what's going on and fix it, I reluctantly close and pay the money. If I didn't I would likely loose almost as much in earnest money anyways and lose the investment property.  

Do I have any recourse?  Please don't just say "you'd have to consult a lawyer."  I know that would be what I would have to do if I pursue that route and there are many other documents, etc. involved, but I'm just looking for anyone who's encountered anything similar.  Thanks.

I only used a real estate agent and listed on the MLS the first time I started with a rental. At the time, I only had one rental and didn't like losing my first months rent so decided to do it myself going forward. I'm using all proceeds to re-invest into additional properties so trying to save every penny up-front, including doing my own property management.

I've had no problems managing 2 properties for the last 4 to 5 years. I'm now finding tenants for my 3rd and 4th property.  We'll see how this goes.  I'll soon probably be ok with being a little less frugal  and paying for some convenience; we'll see how this goes.  

I use Cozy.co to manage my properties, including collecting rent and processing applications with background and rent check.  I think it's great, especially considering it's free.  However, it doesn't allow me to easily point a tenant to a link, fill in some basic info (credit, move in date, etc.) information and request a showing time.  I sometimes find myself answering 20+ emails a day when a new property gets listed (good problem to have, btw) from various sources and try to coordinate information gathering and setting up a showing. 

I work full time and don't use a property manager yet.  Therefore, I typically set up a block of time on Saturday and/or Sunday.  It makes my time more efficient and creates a bit of competition as some of the tenants show up a little early or want to stay a little bit late and they see each other.  

It be nice if I could present each property with  the block of times not taken yet and let them pick.  I was going to build a website, but was wondering if there is already something that does this well?  Anybody know?

 Not a bad idea.  Maybe the wife and I can go driving around looking for potential.  We already do that with new houses being built because we enjoy it; this is just on the other end of the spectrum.