All Forum Posts by: Charlotte Edwards

Do you have a trusted family member or friend in the area that can walk the property with the agent and take photos/video/do a video call?  For mine, I've done a combination of my sister going with the agent. At some point, I get my PM involved to "okay" it, as in, does he feel it will be easy to rent out, etc.  Then I get call the inspector to go through with my sister. After closing, my sister does any work that she can/wants to before handing it off to the PM.

I've never been in three of my six properties. Well, I may have been in my newest one when I was a baby/toddler...it was my uncle's house-turned-rental. I got it from him since he's starting to sell his properties so he can retire. So for that one, it was my uncle, not my sister, working with me and the PM. 

We have invested cash-only and while it's not the best ROI as compared to using OPM, it's worked for us. Being overseas, getting a mortgage is very hard and complicated with one non-US citizen spouse, so we've just saved and saved. We did buy in the 58-72k range, and now have five, plus a residence for when we return. That was more, but it's rented out for now.

We started in Jan 2017 and now have six SFR, all paid for in cash. Now, we did start with a bunch of savings since we were flip-flopping on investing for a while. We're great at saving, though. So the first year we bought two, then one each every year since. Last year's house is actually going to be ours when we move back to the US, but for now, we have it rented for six months, minimum.

It's been great because after we got some extra cash reserves in the CapX fund, we don't really stress when something breaks or a tenant doesn't pay. That didn't happen til late last year, the guy with a FT job, not affected by covid, has the lowest rent which hasn't been raised in three years...he has paid once in five months. But my PM deals with him and we might be able to recoup that money from the county. During these months I took the tax/insurance money from the "vacancy" account and went on. No mortgage to worry about. 

So I really like the all-cash method. It's slow yes, and sometimes I do think maybe we'll finance if we can get a mortgage when we are in the States. Might make things go faster. But if we do, I can't see doing more than two at a time until the mortgages are paid off. 

Try Tom Howard at Superior Realtors & Rental Properties, Inc.  815-742-1829 . 

I have a potential house the seller is asking $54,000 and currently gets $810 in Section 8 rent. He's had the house for 43 years; rented out since 1981. The current tenant (mom and two kids) is a smoker; first smoking tenant.  THey are willing to negotiate, but it's a family member, so want to be careful. Rent can be raised. I know people in the same street, same style house, that get $900-950. 

Looks like the only "urgent" thing, if we let tenant go, is to get rid of the smoke odor. I use a PM so not sure what he'll say about this. Curious on the cost/time involved of cleaning such houses to get rid of the smoke smell. It's 3/1 cape cod style with a basement. 1700 sq feet. 

Appreciate any advice on this. It's our fifth SFH; but I"m abroad and will be relying on the seller and my PM. Thanks!

I'd try to ask questions to see why the credit score is that low. I have a number of friends who've lived abroad for years and most of them have very low credit scores because they rarely use credit cards and mostly have just student loan debt. When they move back, some with foreign husbands, it's hard to get a place to live because of this. They have the money and either jobs or a sponsor who is legally on the hook for their expenses (immigration is expensive!). I know some have had success paying a year up front or agreeing to pay a bit higher rent for the first few months. 

Also, they could be following the Dave Ramsey plan and aiming for a zero credit score. 

We live overseas and don't have the necessary paperwork to get a mortgage, so cash is necessary. But it's worked well for us: we've bought 5 SFR in four years. Maybe in a few years when we're back we'll scale up and use mortgages, but for now, this works for us. We feel in control and have low risk right now.

There's a run-down mobile home park about a mile west of where Amazon is building; I'm not sure on the ownership of it, but might be an opportunity.  Houses nearby are lots of college profs; a few larger ones near the college would make rentals for the students. As a kid my siblings and I had paper routes in that areas. There were a number of houses that had 2-4 separate doors that we had to deliver (or not deliver) to. I've always thought that would be something nice to get into.

I use Tom Howard of Superior Rentals. Interviewed a few; had similar feelings about him and another one. Ended up going with my gut feeling and have been happy so far. I'm a bit of a control freak, so not being in control of things has been hard, but being long distance, I have to rely on others.

What's your career field? Any possibility for you to earn more than 28,000/year? That seems low. (obviously I know very little, this isn't a dig at you, just that if it's full-time work you might consider changing jobs.) You've not mentioned kids, so you could work crazy hours to add to your income ala Dave Ramsey...take on a few side jobs for the next few years.

Also, an idea from DR, could she get scholarships from companies that she'd partner with in the future? Or find a company to work for that will pay some of her tuition in exchange for her committing to work there for X number of years in the future? 

I wouldn't sign up for this if my husband wanted to do this. We'd need to find an alternative that didn't put our financial future at such risk.