All Forum Posts by: Trevor Bingham

Have you checked out the book "The Book on Rental Property Investing"? It's what got me into BP and the endless knowledge here. If you haven't I would recommend it, it'll answer all your questions and get thinking more than the AARP mail you mentioned. I also watched a youtube video sometime that Brandon did about evaluating a rental. I realized if I were to rent my condo that I live in, I would lose almost $50 a month even though I initially thought I would cash flow $300. Heres my math, Mortgage= $833 I have been told I can rent it for about $1150. So, $1150 - $833 = $317. But then theres CapEx, HOA fees, Vacancy Calculations, Repairs, and Prop Management. In the end I decided to wait until our market slows down and start buying the units all the suckers bought at the premium price tag. I'm new and hate being on the sidelines, so I have been looking at long distance also. But thats a whole other can of worms. So I'm just learning and researching about it. Sorry, long reply but I hope it helps. Check out the book, run some numbers, listen to the podcasts. Rentometer.com might help to get an idea what you can rent for also... anyways, I digress...

BP, 

I'm wanting to get into the real estate business. The idea of "passive income" fascinates me. The issue I'm having is uncertainty. We live in a townhouse we're paying a mortgage on. We've got about 20k in equity. The housing market here in Utah is very high. I'd like to sell our townhouse and move to a market where duplexes are ample and renters are plenty. I'm not even sure if such a sweet place exists. My wife is fine with the idea and our 10 month old son seems to be okay with the idea also. Anyway, I've qualified to buy up to 260k. But I'm not sure how to go about that if I quit my job to move, the funding will most likely go with it right? How do I get into the real estate business? We're pretty flexible and would be interested in moving almost anywhere. I've got the desire, just trying to decide on the path. Any insight or recommendations? 

Thanks, 

Trevor 

  Great news! I was reading this thread like a crime novel, waiting to know what happened at the end. Thanks for posting in so much detail all of your numbers and experiences. I have just found out about TK investing and am looking forward to getting started. Looking forward to making a call tomorrow to Memphis Invest to see how they work and if we're a fit.

Thats how its done. Off the grid to owning 2 duplexes, way cool! Great work and VERY inspirational... Thanks for sharing. 

I would be saving money from my day job to cover those expenses. The Market in Utah seems to be like this all over. I've read a few posts from fellow BPers in the area and they've all got right margins as well. It's tough pulling the trigger in this area. 

Anders, 

     I live further North in Logan and the 1% rule doesn't come close to existing up here. I would imagine it's the case all over Utah, but I'm not sure. I'm a newbie and barely getting into all this. But I was told by another BP member in Utah that we have a unique market. We are pre-boom and it is more valuable to have the property than be too concerned with Cash Flow. It's a hard pill to swallow, but I think as long as I'm not sinking money into a mortgage every month, I'll feel okay moving forward with hacking. 

 Trevor

I am looking into hacking this Duplex. I currently live in a condo paying a mortgage of $833 a month with an HOA of $75. It will rent for $1200 from what my Realtor and Banker have told me. Leaving me with $292 before CapEx, Insurance, Vacancy savings, etc... The Duplex I would like to hack Rents for $695 on one side and $465 on the other for a total of $1160. The cheaper unit has not had its rent raised in years and I think that is the unit I would target to move into. The mortgage estimate is $926.73 leaving $231.73 left to pay on the mortgage. I am considering taking the income from the Condo and using to close the gap on the mortgage. For the next year without having a mortgage payment I would use my personal hourly wage to save up for the rental unit operating costs. I would save about $1,200 a month for a year and then move into another duplex and hack that as well.

My question is this, Does this sound like a good idea or am I missing something? This will be my first Rental Property Investment and I want to make sure its a good one. I am married and have an 8 month son. There isn't much room for error here.

Here is a link to the Duplex, its a little distressed but I think I could make the repairs and gain the sweat equity that can be found there.  https://www.utahrealestate.com/1521475

Thanks for your advice and guidance.

Trevor 

I'm having an issue getting it downloaded? It appears there have been other readers with the same issue. I tried to get the audio version and it never provided the link for download. I wasn't charged for anything yet, that I can see.  Are physical and eBook versions all that are available at this point? 

 I listened to the podcast from BP to day and I loved it. I can't wait to learn more about it. 

BP Community,

I'm new to this whole real estate investing idea and have a lot of questions. I'm not even sure where to start, I have so much going through my head. So, I'm just going to start and see if anyone can answer. We bought our current (primary) home 2 years ago. As per Zillow (is zillow reliable for real estate estimates?) our home is currently valued $202,116 and I have a principal balance of $147,654, if I understand that correctly I have about $27,345 in equity (Right?). A property came up in our area recently for $92,000 and I wanted to make a move on it. But the bank was slow in processing my paperwork, partly because they needed to send form to the VA and check if I was able to use VA funding. (Not sure if that is applicable because we bought our current home with a VA loan and I don't think I can use VA resources to do a rental also.) How would I go about making a move on another potential property using my equity, HELOC, banks loans or any other leverage options? I feel I would be able to qualify for about $100,000 - $110,000 property, but I am unsure how to use my equity and HELOC (I'm not too sure on how a HELOC would work here with it being only $27 k +/-)

 Sorry for the lack of organization in my thoughts, but thanks for any help and advice that you might have.

BP, 

I'm very green to the realty investing world and looking at getting my first rental unit. 2 years ago we bought our townhouse, our current home. I would like to get a rental unit but I'm unsure which financing option to use. We bought our current home with a VA loan. My lender says there is a potential to get the rental with remaining VA credit if possible. She also recommended the Owner Occupied option, but my wife isn't big on the idea of moving again. Theres also the HELOC option, but I'm not very familiar with how that option works. It seems a little more risky than anything else. So my question is this, if we were to do the Owner Occupied option, is there a way to do it without actually having to move into the property, ie. having bills sent to the address or something of that nature?