All Forum Posts by: Chris Allen

Quote from @John Williams:

Howdy! 

Considering buying/renting in Clarksville. Lots of folks make the commute. Clarksville is more affordable and has better rent-to-price ratios. 

I am a property manager, broker, and investor here in Clarksville. Let me know if I can be of assistance!

I would be open to that If it was a little closer. Once I start clinical I will likely have to be at the hospital by 0500. So for sanity I am hoping to stay within a 30 min drive. 

Quote from @Theresa Harris:

I would try to keep it if possible.  I bought a condo while in grad school to live in and rented the other room out.  I then turned it into a rental as I went on to do my PhD in another country.  Best decision I made.  Rent paid for all of the expenses, so it cost me nothing and over the years (I kept it for ~20 years) price almost tripled by the time I sold it.

Not sure what grad program is 3 years (I'm used to 2 for masters, 4 for PhD), but if you do need to sell one, I'd look at each property and see which one has the most equity, highest interest rates, lowest return, major expenses in the near future (eg new roof) and you mentioned you'd lived in two for 2 of the last 5 years, so have capital gains exemptions.  If one is a duplex and the other a single family home...I'd bet the single family home is the better one to sell.  You may not have as much equity, but interest rates are probably higher and you wouldn't have to deal with have a vacancy while you sold it.  

Will you truly have zero income while in grad school or will your partner be working?  Good luck.  Grad school doesn't need to be stressful.

Thanks for the response! My program is a full time 36mo Nurse Anesthesia Doctoral program. 
Likely my partner will not work as she takes care of our 2 year old. She has talked about maybe getting a job, but we would prefer not to put our son in daycare if possible. 

And yeah, the only bad thing is the duplex is the older property with high possibility of pipes busting or two HVAC's going out. Also has a low interest rate and currently cash flows well as am AirBNB. 

Quote from @Account Closed:

Quote from @Chris Allen:

When Do you think the best time would be to sell off a small portfolio? 

long story short, I will be starting grad school next year and will not be able to work while in school for the next three years. I am wanting to sell off my 4 properties and use those proceeds to help fund the next 3 years of living expenses for my family and I. 

Question is, should I go ahead and sell off all the properties now while I am still have a job and sell will be reflected on 2024 Taxes, them 0 income next 3 years. Sell them all off next year when my earned income will be $0, or try sell Mayne 1 or 2 now, and then the other two next year? 

I would immagine from a tax perspective, next year i would be in a much lower tax bracket, but then i am not sure if i might be missing something in regards to student loans, etc...

 You likely still would owe capital gains tax on these. I would recommend doing everything possible not to sell and just hold for the future. You wont regret it! Even if you hold just one

Luckily two of the properties I have lived in 2 out of the last 5 years. My duplex I lived in until I bought my house now, and my house November will be 2 years.

Quote from @Michael Plaks:

Best time to sell is usually never. The next best time is when you decided you want/need to sell it for business reasons: current market is favorable, you have a better investment opportunity, you have an offer you can't refuse, and so on.

The worst time to sell is when you were waiting to sell due to tax considerations, and now you can't sell anymore. Tomorrow your current offer may not be on the table, and taxes won't matter then! Anything can happen: the market can shift, we can go into another extended lockout period, the property can be destroyed by a natural disaster or by vandalism, the list of contingencies is endless. Including your personal situation. Holding onto a property merely for tax considerations is a dangerous gamble.

But if you want to gamble - yes, selling in a year without a W2 job usually saves on taxes. Usually but not always. For example, you may have suspended losses or some other circumstances that change the game. The only way to tell is by a careful review of your current situation and your expectations of your future situation. And yes, non-tax considerations matter as well, such as your ability to borrow money or your student loans.

Great point. I definitely would love to hold onto them, but with the stress of school, I would rather not have to worry about the overhead of the properties while having no income. While I have some reserve and a HELOC on one of the properties, if something big happens while in school (busted pipes, fire, HVAC goes out, etc..) I don't know how much mental capacity I would have to handle it without it affecting my schooling.

When Do you think the best time would be to sell off a small portfolio? 

long story short, I will be starting grad school next year and will not be able to work while in school for the next three years. I am wanting to sell off my 4 properties and use those proceeds to help fund the next 3 years of living expenses for my family and I. 

Question is, should I go ahead and sell off all the properties now while I am still have a job and sell will be reflected on 2024 Taxes, them 0 income next 3 years. Sell them all off next year when my earned income will be $0, or try sell Mayne 1 or 2 now, and then the other two next year? 

I would immagine from a tax perspective, next year i would be in a much lower tax bracket, but then i am not sure if i might be missing something in regards to student loans, etc...

Quote from @Steve Sorensen:

@Michael Baum they said they were a traveling nurse but didn’t seem interested in the background check and lease, although they didn’t say explicitly no. In any case, I denied the request, agreed with all the other points everyone made…they requested it at my normal rates for the whole year which would be significantly above what I would get for a long term lease. But the more I thought about it the more I decided the risk was not worth the payoff, and I don’t have many issues getting the place rented at the same or similar rates anyway. It would have just been a way to reduce vacancy between guests and not have turnover but again, not worth the risk.

 I agree with all of the above statements, and while I have not had a year lease, I have had multiple 3-4 month stays. My got to if booked through AirBNB is I have my cleaner go in at least once a month to do a spot clean and change linens so it gives me eyes on the property. I would also say that if they turn out to be a great guest, you could consider booking off platform after a shorter lease period. 

Also, I did travel nursing, and it is not common for travel nurses to get an immediate 12 month contract, usually 13 weeks at a time. If I were in your position, I would either 

- Ask for the nurses contract or recruiter contact to verify employment and use this as the background and credit check (most travel assignments require you to get a background check prior to going to a hospital, and the contract would prove employment and term) 

- Offer the nurse a month to month rental with options to extend but require my cleaner to go in every month to clean and assess"

Hey BP community, I will be starting a Nurse Anesthesia (CRNA) program at Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia in the Nashville area. I will be moving from Texas with my family (wife, son and dog) come December.

- while in school, I will not be able to work, so no income and my wife is a stay at home mom. 

- I am considering selling a few if not all (just 4) of my properties here in TX (I would hope to walk away with about $150k+). 

- I will be in school full time for 3 years along with clinicals in and around Nashville. 

Would love any thoughts from you all about areas to try and buy or rent in. Buying would be difficult as I will not have any income while in school, but could try and figure something out. Would also love to connect with anyone in the area!

Would love to connect with anyone actively investing in the Nashville area. I might be starting grad school in Maddison and would be moving later this year. From the little I have seen in Maddison, it does not look like an area that I would want to move my family to. But I saw there are some "reasonably" priced new build townhomes and other properties in that location. 

Quote from @Brady Tome:

Quote from @Chris Allen:

Quote from @Brady Tome:

Quote from @Chris Allen:

Quote from @Brady Tome:

Greetings all,

I am new to REI and actively searching for my first multi-family investment property, whether that would be a duplex or quadplex. I am open to either. I currently live outside of Austin, Texas in Georgetown, and would like to purchase something within a 1-2 hour radius of me. Is there a way to analyze the market of growing areas? I've begun to look at Killeen, Kyle, and Taylor areas. But am unsure how to know which would be the best to prioritize my search based on market analysis.

 What price point are you looking at? And what class of property are you looking for? 

 550k & under. I'm not to familiar with the "class of property" care to shed some light on this?

 So with a $550k budget, you have a pretty decent option (at least in my area in Killeen/Temple). 

"Class" is basically "how nice" the property and/or neighborhood is. No hard fast lines, but think C class is more Section 8/low income housing and A is more New, luxury type housing. B is somewhere in the middle. 

$550k can get you a lot in Temple and Killeen, there are several really nice new build duplexes in Temple/Belton, and plenty of duplexes and 4-plexes in Killeen. Hard thing is having them cash flow as LTR's. Killeen you have to be careful and would recommend checking out the area before you buy.

 From the quadplexes I've seen most already have Long-term tenants in them & are cash-flowing. What do you mean by "have to be careful" what should be on the radar for that area?

How much do you plan to put down? What I've seen is borderline cash flow to negative cash flow. Or just a poor ROI. 
4 unit listed at $405k looks okay. All 3:2, similar property is listed for rent down the street for $950. If you put down 20%, after taxes and everything, you might be cashflowing a few hundred dollars, but that's only before expenses and repairs. 

What I mean by careful is that the closer you get to Downtown and/or base, the rougher the neighborhoods get. South Killeen and closer to Heights is pretty nice. We could jump on a call I'd you want sometime.

Quote from @Brady Tome:

Quote from @Chris Allen:

Quote from @Brady Tome:

Greetings all,

I am new to REI and actively searching for my first multi-family investment property, whether that would be a duplex or quadplex. I am open to either. I currently live outside of Austin, Texas in Georgetown, and would like to purchase something within a 1-2 hour radius of me. Is there a way to analyze the market of growing areas? I've begun to look at Killeen, Kyle, and Taylor areas. But am unsure how to know which would be the best to prioritize my search based on market analysis.

 What price point are you looking at? And what class of property are you looking for? 

 550k & under. I'm not to familiar with the "class of property" care to shed some light on this?

 So with a $550k budget, you have a pretty decent option (at least in my area in Killeen/Temple). 

"Class" is basically "how nice" the property and/or neighborhood is. No hard fast lines, but think C class is more Section 8/low income housing and A is more New, luxury type housing. B is somewhere in the middle. 

$550k can get you a lot in Temple and Killeen, there are several really nice new build duplexes in Temple/Belton, and plenty of duplexes and 4-plexes in Killeen. Hard thing is having them cash flow as LTR's. Killeen you have to be careful and would recommend checking out the area before you buy.