All Forum Posts by: Duncan Van Horn

Just letting you guys know that I responded; didn't realize I could tag you.

@Taylor L. @Michele Fischer @JD Martin

@Alex Driesen

Ah thank you Alex for showing me how to tag people. I was wondering how they might see my responses... I am happy for your stamp of approval and glad we jumped at the opportunity. Have you ventured into the world of mid term rentals in Omaha? If so, how was your experience? We were thinking about starting with a one year lease and then looking at furnishing it for that purpose. It also has a large basement with true windows which could double the livable space in the future. Glad to find someone in the area, thanks for commenting. 

Thank you for the kind words JD. Yes we are currently renting. Unfortunately where we live we'd have to easily shell out 350k to find a home that we would be happy with and that wouldn't really feel like progress to me, just more burden. The furnace, AC, and hot water heater were updated in the last three years. Kitchen appliances will need updating. Hopefully we can find solid renters with the desirable location.

Michele thank you for your thoughts. We will definitely keep funds liquid for unexpected costs. Fortunately we don't need the extra income to fund our current lifestyle. I was thinking about opening another bank account to collect rent and use this account only for rental necessities and/or saving up for the next rental. Do you think it necessary to start an LLC for our first rental to keep everything more separated from our personal finances?

Hi Taylor, 

Thank you for your response. My aunt has owned rentals, but definitely not a real estate investor. For what it's worth this home was not one of her listings, I didn't want her bias to get in the way too much. We had already spotted this home the day before she suggested it based on our own criteria. It was nice that we could FaceTime her and get a virtual walk through and see the neighborhood, etc. I had been looking at other midwest cities that had homes in our price range, but without having an insider that I trusted it was hard to know if homes were really a good deal or just a cheap flip in a bad neighborhood. I probably should have started here and reached out to people in those areas. My aunt has clients with multiple rentals in the area, I will get their contact info and continue my research.

I was not planning on using a property manager. Perhaps I should reconsider, but with only one rental I can't see my time managing the property as that much of a burden. what are your thoughts?

I will talk with my wife and come up with plans for the "what ifs." That will probably go a long way in mitigating my fear.

Thank you for your time.

So my wife and I are buying our first rental. We live in Oregon and the real estate prices are so high that we would need an extremely large downpayment in order to get our payments down to the point of making 2X our payment in rent. Thus we elected to buy a home in Omaha, NE. My aunt is a realtor there and directed us away from certain neighborhoods and was very happy to find us a small house in between the University and the Hospital. My uncle also does home inspections.

Some basics:

Me: 65k per year, 70k in brokerage, 25k in Roth

My wife: 35k per year, 10k in brokerage, 20k in Roth

We own two bare land properties, both worth about 100k each here in Oregon. One is paid off and one we still owe 20k on. We bought one with owner financing and the other we paid cash.

We have no debt other than the land payment, no car payment, student loans, etc...

The house: We have an offer accepted at 156,000 for a 2 Bedroom 1 Bath. Nice little house, renovated bathroom, one car garage, needs small things done like new paint on trim and basement, some carpentry work on back porch/steps, new gas range/oven. Comps in the area renting for about 1400. Monthly payment will be slightly below 750.

I have done quite a bit of research and felt good about the idea, but now I'm so nervous. Due to this we're moving into a house that runs for 1,000 a month in January, down from 1,600 right now. I'm also thinking about selling the property that we still owe on in order to have more of a cushion. We could also use that money next year for another down payment on another property if all goes well.

My fear definitely arose from watching my parents divorce right before the recession, go bankrupt, and one year later my father was driving a school bus and my mom was living in a friend's spare room. I have been quite careful with finances for my entire adult life. Our credit is very good.

Can someone either tell me everything will be okay? is there something I'm missing that I should consider? I have more questions that I'll post elsewhere, but for now I just need to hear from other people that were nervous when they started their real estate journey.

Thanks for any input.