All Forum Posts by: Cory Childs

No offence at all, but this is not a starter property. I would advise you to run the other way unless you have a large amount of capital to pour into this and an experienced partner that can help you thru this massive project. 

What I would suggest is to pay attention to local listings in your market on a regular basis. Join the FB groups, get on apartments.com, wherever properties are being listed. Pay attention to the area, bedroom count and condition the property is in. Also notice how many properties are being available for rent in your area. In my market there is a significant shortage in rentals so property owners/managers know they can push higher rents for desirable properties. 

Try to prescreen them with a phone call or google forms questionnaire to reduce the number of showings. Then I block off like 2 hours of time and schedule them in 15 minute intervals. Open house type showings are another option, but probably not ideal when the unit is occupied. Good luck!

If you're trying to get them to pay for that new water heater and the tech calls good luck with that. I don't think you'll have a shot at recovering that money. The tenant just wanted the bill out of their name. You should have been on top of transferring the utilities back to you as soon as they moved out. It is pretty ridiculous that two techs couldn't realise that the gas was off, so I'd avoid using them again. As far as the pets go, if you allowed pets in the unit, can you really expect them to not pee in the grass? Sometimes you have to take a loss or two and write them off as learning experiences my friend.

@Jefferson Mcvicker my lender will just use 75% of lease less PITI for properties that I purchased recently and are not yet on tax return. I think that's pretty common. So it shouldn't be a problem if your DTI works out with those numbers.

Cory

Brady Schultz at Advanced Construction was great to work with

Hey Chris,

I'm in the same boat. We had a good size hail storm in last year in our area last year so I'm seeing some steep increases as each one comes up for renewal.  I had two get hit by the storm that got covered completely, so I fully understand the benefit of good, replacement cost insurance, but I've been seeking a cheaper route as well. I'm having another company quote our portfolio currently, but I've realized it's not a simple feat. The questionnaire I received to fill out for each property was something like 38 questions, x 8 properties plus our auto policies, I've spent quite a few hours on this now. Have you looked into getting quotes from another company, or asked your agent about your umbrella policy idea? 

Cory

I wasn't a fan of mint or personal capital because I couldn't personalize it as much as I would like. I use an excel spread sheet I've built over the last two years that works great for me. Every two weeks when I get paid, I review my CC, bank transactions, and log everything. Spend about an hour every two weeks, but manually doing this makes me really aware of where everything is going then we review together once or twice a month. I'd recommend experimenting a little and find what works for you, Mint and personal capital are easy enough to set up, it's worth trying. But if you like excel, just build one that you can make fit your financial life. 

Hi BP, 

I'm a Janesville WI native working on growing my rental portfolio locally. I currently work a full time day job and focus on real estate on the side. I am here on BP mainly to grow my education on real estate and find local real estate professionals to connect with. I currently hold 2 SFR rentals and a duplex. I am self managing these and doing the initial renovations myself. My main focus is to find low cost single family homes to rehab, rent and hold.

Look forward to hearing from you guys!

Cory

@Chris Youssi BRRRR is an acronym used around BP for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance and Repeat. So you buy a unit that needs some rehab, rehab it, get tenants in there, then once stabilized, refi it for cash out and turn around and do it again. Sounds similar to what you are doing. Eventually I know I will have to go commercial, but I would like to acquire our first 20 SFR with 30 year conventional mortgages, ten under my name and ten under my partners. I like the fixed rate and long terms on these for my situation.