All Forum Posts by: Brian Ellwood

That's tough to say. The play would be to get 3 bids from 3 different contractors and then compare them side by side and show us the bids here to see if you're getting ripped off or not, as well as to dial in the $ amount. Typical rent ready rehabs are $10/sf in a lot of the cheaper markets, but that doesn't include roof, electrical, windows, mold remediation, new sheetrock, and probably not siding either. It's more of a kitchen/bath/paint/floors/trim/fixtures kinda thing.

I wouldn't be surprised if you were looking at 30-40K on that one, but that's just a wild guess at this point. 

Hey Justin - is DC an affordable market for rental properties? I thought it was pretty expensive there. Any reason you want to choose that market over markets in, say, Tennessee or Ohio or Kentucky or somewhere a lot more affordable? 

As far as affording rent and a rental property - the rental property should be making you money, not costing you. 

Live where you want to live, where you'll have the most fun, and learn to invest long distance in markets that make sense for rentals. I live in CO and invest in TN and AL no problem. 

Thx for the plug Joshua! If you want to grab a beer sometime give me a shout

Sarah - only thoughts are that PM for a vacation rental is a lot more involved than for a traditional rental, of course. Tenant turnover every few days, cleaning crew communication, restocking toiletries, communication with tenants during their stay. It's a lot, definitely a job and not "passive income" by any means. It's up to you though, I just personally wouldn't like doing that to save the extra $.  

The BRRR route could have you with a free and clear property faster because you'll have a good bit more equity in the deal than turnkey, but if you ended up with a 30 yr loan it'd be 30 years of course in either scenario, unless you put cash toward principal.

Reaching out to prop mgmt companies as well as direct to seller marketing is the key. And it's not as overwhelming as it sounds. It actually takes LESS time to set up a simple system to have motivated sellers call YOU than it does to grind the phones "networking style" looking for deals. 

Also, those networking deals will be more expensive with more competition, whereas going direct to seller gets you the best price. 

What's up Jack? Good questions. I know the turnkey strategy is less threatening, but honestly, I don't think you're going to learn that much from doing it (in terms of inching closer to doing BRRR). You'll also pay market value and your cashflow will be pretty slim. And, you'll have to use your cash for down payments whereas, with BRRR, you end up leaving a lot less cash in each deal therefore you can stretch your 200K out a lot further.

200K is an amazing chunk to start with - but don't let it "make you lazy" if you know what I mean. Identify a great market, find off market deals, learn to rehab and manage long distance, and the sky is the limit. Do your first one and your mindset will be totally different around it! 

What's your long term goal with real estate? Decided on a strategy or looking for help on that? 

Can you still do an FHA if you already own a property, even if it's an investment property? I'm not sure on that one.

You'd probably get more cashflow in the low cost area because the rent/price ratio would be better - but since you're househacking, I'm assuming you'll be living there, so is that an area you want to live in?

The down payment shouldn't affect it if I'm understanding you right, in terms of comparing the two, it would just increase the cashflow of both scenarios. 

I see people do well with househacking, often BECAUSE of the FHA loan - it makes it so easy to get a good cash on cash return because you're only having to put 3% down.