All Forum Posts by: Bryce Jamison

Utilities, taxes (property, local vacation, & income), landscaping, furnishing / decorations / amenities, pest control, & supplies (soap, TP, etc) are the big ones on my STR calculator that you didn't mention.

I'd also recommend using the enemy method to determine expected income. My wife and I were thinking of getting our next STR in the same area, but after seeing so many properties for rent and what some of them were charging it would be extremely challenging for us to find one that cash flows positive, or even break even, with today's interest rate and 25% down.

When we got our first STR verifying the income projections was the hardest thing. We made the best guess with the data we had, reduced that a little, and ensured we beefed up our emergency fund in case we're wrong.

Have you checked out the BP book How to Wholesale Real Estate by Jamil Damji? I'd also recommend looking into "driving for dollars".

I love your mindset of not wanting to do it with "gimmicks". In my personal opinion, that's kind of the way wholesaling is able to work though. You have to find someone that is willing to sell to you for less than what they could on the open market. There are definitely situations where selling to a wholesaler is someone's bets option, but they're the exception, not the rule.

Finding available, reliable, trustworthy, reasonable priced contractors is always a challenge. Referrals are my ideal source, but sometimes people can be hesitant about sharing their best vendor with you for fear you'll steal their vendor's attention away from them. 

Typically I use Google to get quotes and vet the top 5-10 search results. If I have a good experience with a vendor I'll use them again, if not, I won't. I also try to keep in mind great vendors can sometimes become meh vendors as they get busier and raise prices.

There's an investor meetup at the Raleigh beer garden on Gleenwood every month. If you set your key word alerts up for the areas you invest in you'll see it (that's how I found your post).

There's usually tons of wholesalers at these meetups. In my experience most of the wholesalers I encounter are younger people tryin to break into the industry and I never hear from them again after telling them what I'm looking for, or I tell them what I'm looking for me and they send me stuff not in that buy box.

Have you considered driving for dollars?

When we got our first property we bought it in our own names and managed it ourselves. Since I vetted the tenants and regularly did property inspections we were okay with not having the extra protection of having it in an LLC. We also had an extra umbrella policy.

Now that a few years have gone by and we've obtained more assets, meaning we have more to loose, it's made since to start an LLC and start to move things under its protection.

Even if you get a good management company, which sounds hard to do, you'll still have to manage them and make sure they're staying on top of things. There's still a lot of work that goes into the "passive" route.

I've read that for a fee you can get "documentation" of animal certification from numerous websites / doctors / therapist / whatever. Are you taking all documentation at face value, or do you have a vetting process to determine it's authenticity?

One way I've seen to police it is by seeing if the animal is with them at all times. If they're leaving the animal in the property while they go to the beach or hit the town it's not a true service animal. I've read this is how hotels "catch" people lying.

I have cameras on the outside of the property, so I'll be able to see if someone leaves without the animal.

 Hi Scott, 

The biggest distinguisher I've seen is that they must accompany the person at all times. Meaning no leaving them in the unit while you go to the beach or out on the town. This is how hotels "catch" people lying about service animals. I don't put much merit in the vest because people can purchase these online and put them on any dog.

Since this will be for my STR I'll never see the tenants and their animals before they've accessed the property though.

 Hey Jon,

There are optional registrations that people can acquire, but I'm unclear if I'm legally able to request them. It also appears that there are numerous companies / doctors / therapist that will provide whatever documentation you want for a fee, so even If I did get this documentation I'd have to vet if it actually means anything.

The ADA says true service animals do not require registration, nor can I ask to see it even if they do have it. Does this mean anyone who says their animal is a service animal can get around my no pet policy?

I can ask if the animal is required due to a disability and what training the animal has had, but what's stopping someone from lying?