All Forum Posts by: Christian Wathne

another reason to move to a service like cozy.co for rent collection; both sides can see/print/etc rental payment history

Otherwise, like others noted, it should take under 3 minutes to type/sign/send via email a receipt. 

Originally posted by @Joe Villeneuve:

Originally posted by @Christian Wathne:

Originally posted by @Thomas S.:

It is always less expensive to rent than own, A personal home is a life style choice not a investment.

Determine your priorities in life. Invest or own, your choice. You must choose one to begin. It comes down to what your goals are in life. Is home owner ship or financial security of prime importance.

I would prefer to invest till I reach the point where I have cash to throw away then buy a personal home.  

 "always less expensive to rent than own"..... thats not true at all. If that were true then by your logic it would mean that nobody on BP has a cash flowing rental because it costs more to own the home than it rents for.

 Not the same thing.  Buying your own home isn't the same as buying a rental.  If you had two identical properties, with identical values, bills, mortgage, DP, repairs. etc...  The rental is an investment where the tenant pays for everything, thus the "outgoes" are all "expenses".  You pay for everything when you buy your own home, so all the "outgoes" are "costs".

You can't look at an investment property the same way as your own home.

 I generally agree with some of your thoughts, but if your one and only property is one that you rent out, you must now go and throw money each month into a home that you yourself are renting and some other landlord is making money off you. 

Lets say example A is living in your own primary for $2500/mo that would cost $3k as a rental

Example B, you pay $3k/mo in rent (to get the same type of home), while owning a home that costs $2500/mo that you're renting to a stranger for $3k/mo. 

With a portfolio of either zero or one home, I see near zero difference between the A and B example other than the fact that you have to deal with a tenant and landlord in example B. You could say that in example B you get to write off expenses associated with the home, but I would counter that by saying you also add $ to your gross income and are likely paying higher tax overall. 

Rental property investing is the way to go, but unless a person strongly values mobility then owning the home you live in makes perfect sense. 

Make sure your listing specifies your rental requirements. Yes, you can absolutely deny them for bad credit if you choose. 

Originally posted by @Thomas S.:

It is always less expensive to rent than own, A personal home is a life style choice not a investment.

Determine your priorities in life. Invest or own, your choice. You must choose one to begin. It comes down to what your goals are in life. Is home owner ship or financial security of prime importance.

I would prefer to invest till I reach the point where I have cash to throw away then buy a personal home.  

 "always less expensive to rent than own"..... thats not true at all. If that were true then by your logic it would mean that nobody on BP has a cash flowing rental because it costs more to own the home than it rents for. The right answer is that it's sometimes more expensive to own than rent....but sometimes it's alot cheaper to own than rent, especially in the longer term. 

Personally if I were starting over I'd still buy my first home for myself before buying an investment property, especially one that's out of state. Its an easier way to get in to the real estate game with less risk. My primary home has been my best investment do date due to it being in a more prime area and having higher appreciation. 

Originally posted by @Michael Gutierrez:

I live in Washington state and the market has been on fire. Due to all the activity it has trickled over to manufactured homes. One has opened up close the Seattle area for $70k up from $50k in 2011 and it's a 3/2 1800sqft built in 1991 I've done the research and from what I've seen it's around what most are selling in the area. The rent for this is typically $1500 a month. My question to the community is what should I look for in terms of common problems. Should I even dable I'm manufactured homes?

 Michael, a recent bp podcast discussed mobile homes in depth. My takeaways were that they're generally depreciating assets and not good for much. If its a market you're interested in the right place to be is the owner of the mobile home park collecting rent on the spaces. 

Thanks @Mike McCarthy

@Ian Fretheim, when speaking with the appraiser to schedule time to view the property I told him I have an info sheet showing what work we've done that I want to send him, and asked for his email address. Then sent this info along with comps/etc about 3 days prior to when he would be at the property. 

Yes but only with a contingency so that after offer acceptance I could have time to view and back out if needed. Being 1 hour away is not a good reason to not tour. A 1 hr uber or friend with a car or rental car is under $100; just get out there to view.

Bill T. There are actually very many reasons to go for a 30yr loan rather than a 10 or 15. And wanting to pay off property may be short sighted. Money tied up in a property is not doing anything for you besides avoiding 4-5% interest. Instead, you could stay borrowed against the equity and put that money towards additional investments assuming they generate additional income. 10+% CoC returns are easy to find. To the OP, yes, 30 year loans on residential (1-4) units are very common. Commercial is generally shorter.

Seattle is a tough market to get anything to pencil out in. Margins are very slim. I see many investors heading further and further south, to tacoma and beyond. 

I did a BRRRR this last spring in Renton which I had to leave approx $31k of my capital in the deal because my all in after rehab costs came out to around 84% of the ARV. (final refi was 75% of the appraised $347k ARV and my all in costs until that point were abbout $290k) This was planned from the start, but from my experience is about as good as it gets. Even with many creative strategies you need cash.

Being a general contractor / project manager these days is very lucrative. 

What does your rent and ongoing costs look like on this property?