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All Forum Posts by: Taylar Caraway

Taylar Caraway has started 9 posts and replied 44 times.

Post: Brand New Member in the Wichita Community

Taylar CarawayPosted
  • Realtor
  • Marietta, GA
  • Posts 50
  • Votes 23

Welcome to BP Thomas!

Rich Dad Poor Dad is an excellent book. Have you read any others? I'd be happy to suggest a few.

We have friends in the Wichita area and have considered investing there at some point in the future. Best advice I can give you now is to keep increasing your RE knowledge through books, podcasts, webinars, etc! AND make sure you stay in school so you can have that engineer W2 income as you'll need it to help you with financing in the future :)

Best of luck to you!

Post: What is your "why"?

Taylar CarawayPosted
  • Realtor
  • Marietta, GA
  • Posts 50
  • Votes 23
Originally posted by @Garrett Diegel:

Time is everything. Time with family, friends, or whatever you want. Money is nothing but choices. The more you have the more choices you have. 

LOVE THAT!

Post: Better market for my first property, please help!

Taylar CarawayPosted
  • Realtor
  • Marietta, GA
  • Posts 50
  • Votes 23

I think it sounds like a good plan, house hacking is definitely a fantastic way to get started!

We are moving from CA to GA soon and are planning to do the same thing... as long as you are doing owner occupied, you will be able to get an FHA loan for as low as 3.5-5% down. I'm not sure of the laws in Colorado, but usually it's around 1 year that you have to stay in the property.

Definitely recommend reading these 2 books by Brandon Turner before you do anything though! The Book on Rental Property Investing & The Book on Managing Rental Properties. Extremely helpful!

Post: Newbie in LA. Which area to start? Where to find data to analyze?

Taylar CarawayPosted
  • Realtor
  • Marietta, GA
  • Posts 50
  • Votes 23
Originally posted by @Anita Cekovska:

Looking to flip! @Taylar Caraway

 
I'm not too familiar with the area, even though I actually live in Santa Clarita currently. Been here for about 1.5 years. Quite expensive to invest out this way but I've always thought that Palmdale would be an interesting place to look. It's quite far from Downtown LA (probably 2 hours with traffic at least) but it's still part of LA County. The Aerospace industry has a large presence there (and there's also a prison in Lancaster). People seem to "escape LA" and move to Palmdale where they can actually afford a house since everywhere else around LA is ridiculous. If we were planning to stay in this area, that's where I would look to invest. Especially for flipping, I bet you can find a diamond in the rough out there. 

Definitely look into local Real Estate Investing clubs in your area and you'll learn a ton. And continue to network on Bigger Pockets!

Hi Obed, welcome to Bigger Pockets!

Based on what I see on the report, you seem to be low with vacancy, capex, repairs, and management. What year was this built? Has anything been updated within the past few years? Looks relatively new(ish) from the picture but either way I think 5% on CapEx is low. I suppose 5% on repairs could be okay but it depends on the condition of the property and the type of tenants you'll have in that area.

For management, usually I will put at least 10% in my analysis (especially for a duplex) as any property management company will typically charge a placement fee (usually 1 month rent) when they place a tenant in the unit. So with $120(12) = $1440/year which won't be enough for 2 units if you have to replace both sides. Even if you plan to self manage, always include the management fees in your analysis so you don't get stuck in a situation where you have to self manage in order for the deal to work. You never know if you'll still want to manage it in 2-3+ years.

Will you have any other expenses? Any utilities? Water/garbage/sewer? What about lawn care? All things to consider.

Also I see that your ARV is less than your total project cost? If that is the case, then cancel everything I just said because it's definitely NOT a good deal.

Do you plan to owner occupy the property?

Post: Newbie in LA. Which area to start? Where to find data to analyze?

Taylar CarawayPosted
  • Realtor
  • Marietta, GA
  • Posts 50
  • Votes 23

Hi Anita, 

Welcome!

The answers to your questions depend on your goals. Are you looking for single-family, multi-family, buy and hold, flip, house hack??

Post: Should I buy these Duplexes

Taylar CarawayPosted
  • Realtor
  • Marietta, GA
  • Posts 50
  • Votes 23

$300,000 for 3 duplexes (6 units total @ 500/mo) = $3000/mo gross rental income

Seems like an OK deal to me. Meets the 1% rule. But I agree with the others that anywhere that rents only $500/mo could be pretty rough clientele and certainly should be taken into account with your vacancy rate.

If you did some minor repair work maybe you can bump the rents up a bit? Try plugging the address into Rentometer.com and see what the average rents are in the area. Maybe you can do a few cosmetic repairs to get closer to the median range. Also check craigslist and see what other properties are renting for around you.

Have you plugged everything into the bigger pockets rental property calculator? Plug in some numbers and see what purchase price it would take to get you $100-$200 cash flow per door.

Post: Finding current rent rates

Taylar CarawayPosted
  • Realtor
  • Marietta, GA
  • Posts 50
  • Votes 23

Rentometer, Craigslist, and Zillow... those are my top 3 (in that order)

Post: 1st Out of State Rental Property (or AirBnB)?

Taylar CarawayPosted
  • Realtor
  • Marietta, GA
  • Posts 50
  • Votes 23

Interesting question! Looking forward to hearing what others have to say as we have considered the idea of AirBnB in touristy areas as well...

Post: Does Living in a Apartment hinder new investors?

Taylar CarawayPosted
  • Realtor
  • Marietta, GA
  • Posts 50
  • Votes 23

We are kind of in the same situation. We will be relocating to the Atlanta area in September and we want to begin real estate investing. It's tricky trying to figure out the best course of action! We aren't sure if we should start off by renting somewhere month-to-month when we arrive, buy a single family home, or buy a duplex to owner-occupy... there are so many options! But our struggle is finding the right deal at the right time. We don't want to settle for something just because "we needed a deal"...

I think in your case, like @Prag Patel said, you're in a great position because you already have your apartment and can live comfortably there while you wait for the right deal to come along, then if you choose to rehab it, you still have a place to live. I'd definitely look into how much it would cost to break your lease that way you are prepared to do so if/when you had a reason to. But otherwise, just keep searching and you'll find the right deal for you!