All Forum Posts by: Colin L.

Hey All - I have a few rental properties out in Boise where things were pretty easy going, but just moved to Seattle and am looking for our first primary residence. We've got a healthy budget, but get scared away from even small reno or remodel requirements because everyone is telling us that contractors are booked out 6-12 months and that costs have soared. It's hard for us to evaluate a potential home if we don't know if we can do some layout changes, additions, or even a simple garage build in the next few months for a predictable cost. 

I know a bunch of you have either done some recent remodels or can myth-bust a bit here, but would love some advice. 

One key question we are trying to answer: Would it be better to buy an already "finished" place or to invest a bit less after-repair value to get a finished place to our liking? It is unclear whether that is even possible (e.g. buy for $1.1m + $200k to get equivalent of $1.5m outright) or whether there is any return on remodels we hire out ourselves. 

Thanks! 

This is a little intense, but by far the best resource on the issue and he has some non-math posts in there (read his guide to the series here since it is otherwise 70+ posts and going): https://earlyretirementnow.com/safe-withdrawal-rate-series/

The guy is a math/stats/finance background and re-does most of the analysis that drove the original 4% rule of thumb with even more thorough and clever approaches. 

He also provides a free Google Sheet to run the simulations with your own costs/assets over time to show you if you have chance of failure.

Summary: 4% isn't enough, but you should probably have a variable method (he tests many of them against every bad recession + monte carlo simulations) with a change in asset type allocation over time. If you do want to just use a standard % of assets every year, the 3.2-3.4 range works. The variable methods allow some very good years and some modest, but not super low years (i.e. just a few % off your target income). 

First post!

Any Boise investors here? My partner and I will be living in Boise for 6 months from California temporarily and are looking to find our first investment property during that time. It would be great to hear what strategies have worked for you recently in the area.

(We aren't from California and my partner is also just looking forward to seeing winter again.)

I am not married to specific strategies yet, but here are some general goals:

• Down payment in cash is fine, so long as a cash out refinance is possible in a reasonable timeframe (BRRRR, though avoiding seasoning would be great)
• Looking for areas with tenants who tend to stay around for many years
• Looking for at least some cashflow for buffer and to allow us to continue re-investing
• I am looking for long-term investments, so appreciation is not the primary goal
• Want to build a great trust-worthy team since we'll be doing repeat investments even when we move back to CA
• Not looking for major (plumbing, major damage) renovations, since this is our first investment 

For you Boise investors, I am curious what approaches have been working for you lately. It's hard to get a reliable read on the market and understanding what is due to the COVID situation vs. fundamental supply/demand shifts. 

Also happy to connect when I'm in town.