All Forum Posts by: Crystal H.

Getting ready for our first purchase and would love to hear any input people have. 

Our objective in real estate is slightly different than many others - we're over invested in company stock so are diversifying to real estate for less volatility. We don't need the cash flow right now. This is a long term play.

Property is a duplex in a hot neighborhood in a hot market for appreciation (Nashville). Idea is to hold for minimum 5 years, likely longer. The place has been recently flipped so new bathrooms, paint, floors. Opportunity to modernize kitchens in the future. Built 1980, brick. Tenants already in place with a year lease and they look solid. Tenants pay all utilities.

What am I missing??

Bonus Question: We're doing a walk through today. Any tips on thinks to look for / gotchas appreciated!

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@Brooks Nicholson I'm in Nashville and am purchasing our first rental (a duplex) in the Old Hickory area. It's so hard to get the numbers to work. Out situation is somewhat unique in that we have equity we want to get out of company stock and into real estate to minimize the volatility. It's a buy and hold (5+ years) strategy for us. We have to put 40% down for anything to make sense on a monthly cash flow basis, but for us, that is ok. We don't actually care at all about the 1 year return; we care a lot more about the appreciation over 5+ years. With some updates, we should outpetform the market so we are going for it.

@Kiet Ho I ask myself this question regularly as well. I'm by nature against debt because we used to have tons of it and no money. It's a hard mindset to change when you have spent a good chunk of your adult life getting out of debt. We are doing buy and hold so the monthly cash flow doesn't matter to us, what matters is appreciation over many years. We also live in a very competitive market where a cash offer can get us a better deal and more likely to win vs financed deals. We are going to buy our first one cash and then prob do what you are planning... Use income as a potential down payment for future properties. Perhaps will finance in the future but not at the moment.

I live in the Nashville area and have a friend looking to escape San Francisco so their family can purchase their first home (cost prohibitive to do so in SFO) 

Their options are Nashville area (south of town, need good schools so Williamson County) and the Phoenix area (also near good schools, I'm less familiar with this metro). Their plan is to stay a few years, rent a couple of years (likely move to Europe to be closer to family) and then sell while they can still get the tax advantages. 

Has anyone looked at these two markets head to head?

All very helpful, thank you so much for the input, appreciate it!

Hi! Relatively new here, and accidental investment property owner. We bought our first home (primary residence) in 2014 in Seattle (Ballard area for those familiar with the city) We paid $669k for a 4BR/2BA, 2500 Sq Ft home built in 1940. It's walking distance to everything and in a very nice, family friendly area. Has been meticulously maintained; we were only the 3rd owners. We put 10% down ($70k) and have $520k left on the mortgage. Zillow / Redfin + what I've seen in the area it would now sell for $1.05-$1.1M. 

Last summer we moved to Nashville to be closer to family and we kept the Seattle house and are renting it out. It rents for $4450 and when you back out lawn care, property management, etc. we cash flow $200/mo which we just add to our mortgage payment. The strategy was to hang on to it for appreciation. 

As suggested by many, I've been doing a lot of deal analyses just to get the practice, as we want to purchase a rental property here in Nashville with some other funds we have. My question is - how do you evaluate an investment when you switch from primary to rental? For project costs, would I just include the things we needed to do to prep for rental (some electrical work - $7k) or do I need to include my down payment as well? What about other work we did to the home while we lived there (new windows, siding, etc.)? I'm trying to get an apples to apples comparison to evaluate the options of 1. hanging on to it for X more years 2. selling it and reinvesting (1031, perhaps - we are in the highest tax bracket) here in Nashville. How do you decide when to let go of such a huge, appreciating asset and re-invest it in several smaller properties?

Thanks @David Goodman! Yes, we were looking at condos, not interested in a huge rehab at the moment.

Anyone have a perspective on rentals in Davidson vs Williamson Co?

We are looking to invest in Nashville or the surrounding area rental properties (long term rentals) The objective is to hold and create cash flow.  We can either pay cash 100% for the rental or finance it, looking to keep purchase price under $300k. 

What range of CoC return do those of you doing Long Term Rentals in Nashville typically see? Any areas of town I should be gravitating toward? Tips? :)