All Forum Posts by: Chris Thomas

@Michael Lown wow really appreciate the advice! I really might take a few business classes because my degree is in videography and I’m self taught so I don’t see the importance of my degree if I can’t learn important things like investments and more about money. I plan on finishing this semester then taking a break. And I’ve noticed that it is really hard to find good multi family properties in the area. I was told by a woman earlier that buying a property and renting it out to medical or grad students would be great because they would be required to keep up on rent in order to get and keep residency. I definitely want to invest in one in Ankeny because the DSM metro area is home for me and I know everyone says location matters. I plan on making an investment when my lease term is up this summer. Hopefully something with great cashflow pops up either there or here. And I will definitely be reading and listening to more for sure. 

Same here tryin to get around like minded people who can give me accountability and talk goals and dreams and ideas with. I definitely agree with the WDM and Ankeny ideas you said I currently only have a close relationship with an agent down here but I’m looking for one there in the area and checking on zillow Plus the houses in both areas are crazy nice. So let me ask if you don’t mind, do you recommend a conventional loan or have you done that with any of your doors or do you go full 20% down 

@Michael Peters thanks alot! And yeah it’s all in mutual funds right now growing but I want to diversify. And I think this would be a great start to get an even more secure roi  over time. And what do you think about Ankeny? I grew up in dsm for a little while and remember when it was just a small farm town now it’s really blown up! I have noticed des moines is that way though as you said. So I’m focusing more so on the different suburbs you listed or maybe even West Des Moines. I thought about maybe splitting the cleaning up to tenants each week the same way I had to do when I was younger. Everyone takes a turn cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen areas or even just giving the tenants a certain time period for them to clean up after themselves and might outsource the lawn care to a company for sure

Agreed. I thought about adding a small kitchenette to the basement which I’d for sure charge a larger amount but now with all the insight I might wait until it’s a full rental to do that. Just needed to see if I was on the right path with it all. 

@Mitch Coluzzi some great insight really truly thankful for all the advice you guys are givin here. But yeah that would make alot more sense the one thing I don’t need is a bad tenant and havin to kick em out. So I assume your rate for rent was the same for every room? Or did you charge someone more if they got the larger space such as the basement? 

@Mitch Coluzzi

Thanks alot and yeah it’s been tough but I figured I might as well get this cash flow and pay it forward to other people. And that is great insight that’s the the more in depth info I was lookin for! Really appreciate it man. So after you house hacked did you decide to turn it into a full blown rental property? Sounds like you were pretty well seasoned even back then haha I’m still tryin to figure out the leasing idea like you said month to month or like in iowa city college kids have full 12 month leases and just post their room on facebook or something if they need to move out and sublease. I’m also thinking about the cleaning portion and as you said food pooling. Can i ask how did you divy up utilities? I know the utilities for homes can be thru the roof. So dividing that up so I have a good coverage on the mortgage and utilities is what I’m curious about as well. 

And @Austin Whitmore yeah there arent a lot for sale here in Iowa City or Des Moines at least from what my realtor has shown me. It’s all about location for me one thing I’ve learned is to never short that so there are some but they are in timbucktwo  from either campus or any restaurants or just job locations. It has definitely been in my mind for sure. But I think I wanna start small is one thing and second is I’d like a home that is mine when this technique helps me pay it all off in the next two-3 years is my goal 

Hey Lucas yeah I think I’m going to finish up one more semester then take a break to focus on this. Des Moines is very much home so I’m looking at the market up there trying to find a nice property that I truly want to live in but it is still very nice and appealing to my tenants. I just was wondering if you and or anyone else on this thread had experiences with it and what were the pros and cons? Did it help you to live free and put money into other properties!? And yeah I figured it would be a roomate situation.

Hey thanks alot man for the condolences! That actually sounds great 5% is way better than doing a full 20% down! So have you house hacked before? I think my biggest concern is just privacy for everyone when I do begin since single family homes aren’t separated units

Cory I’d absolutely love to learn more would you prefer phone or email? I know I have an advisor currently for the mutual funds but we are not in contact as much as I think we should be on how to scale these funds and in what ways. And I’ve been listening a-lot to the different men and women in these podcast of late and they all mention having a team is key to success. So I’m all for it 

Oh nice! Would love to take a look at some I’ve actually been looking in Ankeny as well