All Forum Posts by: Elenis Camargo

@Tim Kaminski Great questions! We are paying more than our cash flow for the HELOC just to get it paid down faster. We have jobs now but plan on moving to Jacksonville next year and doing this full time so we want to pay down the HELOC before moving and not having these jobs.

Correct, the PM only does the tenant placement. He took the pictures, listed the property, showed it, accepted applications, did background checks and did the walk through with the tenants. Once they have the keys, the tenants are mine to manage. Great question about the PM placing anyone in there. The PM will present to you all applicants and let you choose one, and good PMs will tell you their opinion on whether to accept them or not. That's what ours did. The tenants he placed are the only ones that have autopay setup and have not given us any headaches so far. Worked out well!

The tenants have my phone number and email. I tell them to email me anything they need and call only for emergencies. They mostly follow that rule. I got some contacts through referrals and others by Googling or looking on Craigslist (handyman for example). 

I honestly did not want to use the HELOC for a down payment but we only used some of it and since we have additional money from our jobs where we can pay it down within a year, it mitigates the risk. If you were going to take years to pay down the HELOC then I wouldn't recommend it. The market can swing at any time and interest rates can go up. But if it's paid off in the short term then it's not as risky. My opinion of course :)

Happy to chat more and answer any other questions! Just send me a PM. Best of luck on your current and future properties!

@Monica Bear Awesome! I'm glad you were able to read both and enjoyed them  :)

Thanks for the compliments on the property! I was very proud as we had never done that before, especially out of state. 

Those are exactly the points I was trying to show in the other article. There WILL be issues along the way, that's the nature of the business when dealing with tenants and properties. If this is something you really want to do long term, then you don't give up no matter what gets thrown at you. 

You're welcome. Feel free to reach out any time and I wish you the most success on your first deal!!

@John A thomas Thank you! I'm happy to hear it served the purpose I originally intended it to. Best of luck on your first deal and always feel free to reach out to me.

@Ramon Flores Thanks so much! Don't we all regret not investing when we were younger? The important thing is you are doing it now and you can always invest in Florida from LA! Best of luck to you on your next investments!! Feel free to reach out if you ever have questions about Florida.

@Kristina Anderson Thanks for the kind message. Go Brooklyn haha. That's awesome that you own a property here. That's a huge deal. I agree on needing to have cash reserves for things breaking unexpectedly. Also that if things go wrong you can always find a way to get out of a deal, as a worse case scenario. Best of luck on your next investments!

@Timothy M. The blog commenting was acting strange with me as well a few times. Thanks for your message. I'll explain a bit.

For the first property, we already replaced the floors and redid the bathroom. The roof and AC does need repairing, yes, and we expect to do that in the next year or two. We have money set aside for capex as well as a HELOC and other savings we can use for repairs such as these. This property provided us the HELOC that allowed us to acquire the third one. It also served for major relationships we created that have allowed us to learn a lot and will allow us to continue growing in the future. Although the cash flow will fluctuate greatly depending on if and when we have to do certain repairs, we are well aware of what we need to do before going into a deal. This one still made sense, especially because the appraisal was a good amount higher than what we purchased it for. Once we replace the AC and roof, it will appraise even higher. Some homes in that area in the same condition go for $150k+ with new roof and AC, so we can easily make our money back by doing a refi on it or selling it if we wanted to. You can read more about our experience with this first property here.

Our second property needs a new AC but does not need any other major work. Of course anything can happen along the way, right? We are aware of that. Our third property needs a complete overhaul, which we accounted for at the beginning. 

I personally don't see not budgeting for PM an issue, in my case at least. I know I did not say this in my article but I am currently in the process of getting my RE license in the state of Florida. After 2 years of hanging the license I can get the broker license which will allow me to open a PM company to manage other investors' properties. This is a business we are going to start once we are down in Jacksonville and I have my broker license. This being my short term goal for the next few years, I know I will continue to manage my own properties through my PM company. And I did pay a PM to rent out the property. I paid one for the first property when I had the tenant abandon it. The other two still have their own inherited tenants. I have a lease that I am having them renew with through DocuSign to avoid paying a PM the renewal fee. We find ways to cut costs and be efficient as much as possible  :)  We always have more to learn of course. 

These are also properties we plan on holding for 10+ years (as long as it continues to make sense) while acquiring more. If it doesn't cash flow the first year or two, it's perfectly fine. All of the above is specific with our plan and goals. I know it varies with each investor, as it should.

No problem at all! I welcome all feedback and appreciate the great questions and comments!

@Michael P. Being a turnkey provider in the future would not be out of the question but what I meant by partnering with other investors is finding people that want either 1) to have passive income in real estate or 2) that have the money to invest but don't have the knowledge and would benefit partnering with someone who's gone through the process several times and can teach them along the way. Of course many other opportunities in between but those are just two that made sense. Then we would split the profits every quarter.

@Jason Krawitz Yes, definitely makes sense and I agree with that approach. If you go out looking for flips and find a BRRR or wholesale opportunity instead, you can't pass that up. Very smart. Keep us posted in your progress! It's very cool what you're doing.

@Eric A. Thanks! Congratulations on your success as well. I can see from your profile you have great success in the short term rental space. 

Yes, for sure. The first property we purchased does need a new roof and AC. We are taking that into consideration and adjust our cash flow as we go along when we expect to do these repairs (most likely in the next year or two). The second property we are about to replace the AC as well (most likely in the coming month) but it does not need any other major repairs. The third one, as I stated in the article, needs a complete rehab so we knew that up front. I appreciate you being up front. I welcome any constructive feedback that can help us learn as I know that one year in this business is still considered very new. Thank you!

@Bjorik Mutize Thanks so much! I'm happy to hear it was helpful in some way. Feel free to reach out to me via PM at any time  :)