All Forum Posts by: Charlotte Edwards

Thanks for the advice. This isn't a charity case; she's got a job, she loves doing this (as I mentioned she's fixed up three houses successfully), she's good at doing most of the work herself and hires out what she cannot. My husband and I will own the house; I would never loan money to family, so being a lender is out of the question.  

I didn't know it could be illegal for her to manage this. I'll add that to my list of things to learn more about.

Thanks for your input; I agree that professionally she's none of those (she's a full-time HR manager) but has bought and renovated three properties.  Most recently a $20,000 place that was renting for $500/month but comparable to the ones going for $900/month. Since she's newly single, and working to build up a stronger financial foundation, she's living there for awhile til she's ready for another project. That's where helping me comes in; she loves finding houses and fixing them. She's got many friends/connections who she's received help from with her past homes and would hire for the work she can't/doesn't want to do.

It has nothing to do with her needing money; I'm confident in her decisions and trust her. I just don't know how to set up how to pay her fairly for her work. Per hour? For each project?

I'm going to be buying a rental but am not in the area nor do I know much about buying/fixing/selling houses. I have the money and will be keeping the property in my name.

My sister is the one who will, in all likelihood, help me with the selection of the property, fixing it up and being the property manager.

I see that it's standard for PMs to get first month's rent plus 8 to 10% monthly. But what about this leg work that she'll be doing? I've found a few properties online that look good; she looked over them herself and told me what might need repaired before renting out. Does an hourly rate make sense in this case; paying for her time in visiting sites and viewing listings? Or is this something my agent should be helping me with?

Some of the repairs she'll be able to do herself, other things she may contract out. She works full-time and is a recent single mom, so her free time is going to be a bit limited to when her child is at the dad's. She's already bought/fixed up three homes and loves doing this kind of stuff.

Since it's my sister, and I want to keep our relationship strong, I want to be super clear about everything and be fair to her.

I'd love to know what others think of this idea and how to structure our agreement.

buy first rental

We followed Dave Ramsey's plan mostly. Our first year of marriage hubby was insistent on paying off my student loans, so I took on extra tutoring and we lived on just his salary. We ate out a handful of times in that whole year. We didn't travel or do anything. But the last payment posted the day our son was born...five days after our anniversary.

In the last eight years we've saved and saved; still living off of one salary (since my job opportunities are limited and uncertain). Now we're ready to try REI, so I'd suggest paying off the CC and SL before investing in more real estate. You'll feel so free knowing that you don't have those payments looming over you each month.

Whatever you decide, just make a plan and follow through. I think that's a huge part of progress. This internal fight you have isn't helping (I have similar ones in my mind on health and wellness, so I can totally relate to what you're going through!).

I'm from the Rockford, IL area but have lived in mainland China (just south of Beijing...where pollution levels are off the charts at the moment) for over a decade. My husband (Chinese) and I are considering buying a rental property that we can use to provide income now and possibly a place to live when our kids go there for school (in about 4-5 years) and/or retirement.

We've been having this debate for years and for about the last year I've been listening to the BP podcasts, as well as a number of other real estate/financial podcasts. I'm a teacher/freelance writer and he's a doctor (Chinese doctors are NOT well paid like their American counterparts! :) ) so we don't have a lot of cash.  Ideally we'll find a cheaper place that needs a good deal of TLC that we can pay for outright. We'd pay cash because that's what Chinese do (we paid for our house here in cash) and it would be hard to get a loan since we don't make much when compared to American jobs of the same kind, nor do we want to deal with that extra paperwork of translating our work documents, etc.

My sister loves a good fixer upper and is willing to help us with repairs/landlord stuff. I know she'd be great, but I'm hesitant to work with family and risk something harming our relationship. So that's not top of mind right now, but something I'm interested in learning about; making a good contract with property managers.

We're still a bit hesitant; my husband knows we can get a guaranteed 4% gain on money saved here, but I am confident we can do better...perhaps not on the first deal, be we'll learn from our mistakes...over time. But I also think we need to be pushed out of our comfort zone and take a bit of risk. I want more "security" for the future. All my years of working here give me nothing towards government social security/pension (nor would I count on it anyway, as I won't with my own from the USA nor my husband's here), so I need to take control of the money and explore more than what I put in my Roth IRA or our savings accounts here.

I'd really love to connect with people in the greater Rockford/Loves Park/Beloit/Janesville area.

My other goals in the coming month, posted mostly for my own accountability: learning if I can buy without being present; what documents I need to do so (like getting a power of attorney); finding a house that fits our criteria; figuring out how to structure an agreement with my sister.