All Forum Posts by: Scott Dixon

@Jennifer ChooChee

Welcome to BP and congrats on the first rental property.  If you provide a little more information I am sure we could help point you in the right direction.  Depending on your situation I am there are numerous threads with a ton of information that could help.

Additional Info  

1)  How is the condition of the property?  Need work or ready to rent?

2)  Is the property currently occupied or vacant?

3)  Are you planning on managing the property yourself or getting a manager?

Any other details you could provide will increase the likelihood of getting some helpful information from the BP nation.

All the Best!

Scott Dixon

@Matt Kelty

In a normal 12 month student rentals I include as few utilities as possible but in cases of shared heating or something similar I cover that portion of the utility bills.  I currently have one unit which is a corporate / visiting scholar rental and for that unit I do the opposite and cover everything.  I even have a nice flat screen, Hulu and fast Wifi.  In this case the setup is much closer to an Airbnb/vacation rental than a normal rental unit.  It works well for renters who are only staying with us fo 2-6 months.  

Best of Luck!

Scott

Hi @Kiran Chaudhari,

I can only speak for more than my local area which is the home of the University of Illinois and would be classified as a classic Big Ten college town.  we have seen over the past 5-10 years a large influx of investment.  Our enrollment numbers have increased over the past 5 years but I would say the number of "beds" coming online every years are 3 to 4 times that of enrollment.  This has shifted the market substantially.  10 years ago the vast majority of students would sign leases in Sept and Oct for the following school year which started in Aug.  Now many students wait till the Spring and Summer to sign and have plenty of options with incentives like no security deposit or 1st months rent free.  

I would strongly encourage you to sit down with a local investor for the market(s) that you are interested in and get a lay of the land.  I am sure there are still great of markets with opportunity but for my 1 data point here in Champaign Urbana many of the experienced investors are pausing or even selling properties till things cool down a bit.

All the best,

Scott Dixon

@Myra Vogt

If you have the option between self directed IRA and self direct solo 401K I would recommend the latter. If you have income from your own business (with no employees) you could open a self-directed solo 401K which I prefer over a self directed IRA.

I opened one last year and prior to starting the process did not have my own business.  To ensure I qualified I joined the "gig" economy by signing up as a driver for Grubhub.  This might sound a bit crazy but I delivered food for a couple of weekends in addition to my normal 9-5 job which was enough to meet the criteria of my own business in 2018.  

The crew over at mysolo401K.net helped me through the process and did a great job.

Best of Luck,

Scott Dixon    

@Toni Jordan

Do you have a property under contract at a below market price?  It all starts with a deal and if you truly have an under market priced home locked up finding a private or hard money lender will be much easier.  

Best of luck,

Scott Dixon

Hey @Christopher Wasowicz

Welcome to BP and it's good to see another member from Central Illinois.  Looks like you have solid momentum going into the New Year and best of luck as you expand out to the next phase.  I have browsed at Bloomington over the years and looked at a couple places but never pulled the trigger.  Not sure on how ISU student housing has changed over the years but I would suggest syncing up with a local investor with 10+ years of experience to get the higher-level view of the market dynamics.  

For example:  10 years ago Champaign student housing used to lease up 10+ months in advance of the new school year and now you can pretty much find open apartments at any time and students have very little motivation to sign early with all the incentive programs from the new properties coming online.  

All the best,

Scott Dixon

@Account Closed

Just my 2 cents but I think youtube would give you a solid platform to share your knowledge in REI and finance. I would set a simple goal of producing 20 videos to get the wheels turning. No need for an elaborate setup just your smart phone, simple phone stand, and a lavalier microphone will do. During this first 20 videos no need to optimize your tags, titles, thumbnails (canva.com is free), etc. because you won't have much past data to reference. Once you get to 20 videos you can jump back and look at your analytics to better understand which videos seemed to get traction and which ones simply were not discovered by more than a few people. You then can narrow in on the topics of interest which resonate with your audience and focus in these areas for your next 20 videos. You can expect progress to be slow at the start but if you put your head down and work there is a good chance you can build up a healthy following within 6-12 months.

Best of luck!

Hey @Justin Oliver

Welcome to BP and let me know if you ever need a locals take on investments in Champaign/Urbana.  

Best of Luck

Scott

Hey @Mike B.

Yeah this is a first time for me and I decided to go with the butcher block because it went with the overall design and was cost effective (only needed an standard 8' section).  I am treating the butcher block with standard mineral oil in the following process:

Stage 1 - daily coat of mineral oil for first week

Stage 2 - weekly coat of mineral oil for first month

Stage 3 - monthly or every other month coat of mineral oil for life of counter top

I would not put this in my standard rental since it is too much maintenance but since this is a short term rental / airbnb we will be in and out fairly often so it will only take the 2 mins it takes to lay down a coat of mineral oil when needed.  You probably can take a more permanent approach to sealing the butcher block but I don't have any direct experience to give an educated opinion.  

Hope this helps,

Scott Dixon

@Brent Mowery

I am pretty curious myself.  Looks like there are a number of people in the Chambana area which are bringing in a consistent cashflow.  If you are looking at possibly becoming a host I would recommend getting a month subscription to Airdna which will give you a really good look at the numbers (occupancy, avg nightly rate, seasonality, etc.).  My biggest concern is if the additional cashflow will justify the additional management work which short term rentals / airbnb demand over traditional rentals.  

@Patrice Penda

Appreciate the heads up and I have inserted the website in my profile description now which isn't hyperlinked but at least visible now.