All Forum Posts by: Eric Ducommun

With rentals in NC, FL and MO - I'm less concerned with market and more with sustainability with property management. I get that this was geared towards flippers, but I feel like the premise may hold true. 

The mantra is location, location, location right? If a location is solid, adequate property management solutions will exist. If there are not competent property managers willing to manage the rental, it's probably not a great place to be flipping either.

Thoughts?

Two important considerations are if it's a cash deal and if your intent is to rent or resell. If it's a cash deal to keep as a rental, I would approach it totally different than if the intent is to re-sell and the buyer will need a traditional loan. 

For distressed properties I intend to keep as rentals, the buyer pool is greatly reduced and being able to close cash and waive inspections provides a lot of negotiating power.  Additionally, you are then able to fix the problem without involving engineers and other costly expenses -- when a decent contractor could've remedied the foundation issue. 

Nice! I’m going  to try to make it to one!

My lease has an access/inspection paragraph that allows entry for inspections and/or maintenance. Another commenter mentioned that rodents are almost always inevitably correlated with poor housekeeping. I have run into this enough that my lawyer added language in my lease under the maintenance and repair rules paragraph that states the tenant must “deposit all trash, garbage, rubbish or refuse in locations provided therefor and shall not allow trash”… “to stand on the exterior of any building or within the common elements.” I inspect my properties at least bi-annually - primarily to make sure the air conditioning/heat is working well before the seasons change - but this clause is helpful in the case you encounter tenants who need encouragement to clean up. 

I am a big fan of investing remotely for several reasons -- and I don't even think price is the most important! First, and most importantly, investing somewhere other than where you live makes you focus on the fundamentals. You will pick a location that is most aligned with your personal strategies and then a property that will help meet your goals. Next, you will be able to systematize your business much better than if you were present. I have more in my bio on how I do each of these. Best of luck in your journey!

 Awesome @Ben Naught! Are you selling all new homes, or new and used?

I agree that Grand Junction is an outstanding opportunity in Colorado. Since the 1960's, the city leadership has been very forward thinking in their developments, ensuring the future viability of the city. With two major hospitals and a rapidly growing university, Grand Junction has the fundamental elements of continued development. It also has destination attractions such as the world-renown Colorado Mountain Winefest and brings in people from neighboring states for events at Las Colonias Ampitheatre.

 

I'm glad they were helpful! Thanks for letting me know. 

House hacking is how I bought my first multi-family property. I lived in the main house and rented out the garage apartment. I have since used AirBnB successfully in house-hacked multi-family situations. I was able to purchase a downtown home on a large lot with a pool and still maintain a comfortable mortgage payment by AirBnBing out the detached garage apartment. I detail my experience on several YouTube videos on house-hacking that you can link from my profile or by searching YouTube for #ducommunproperties, if you're interested in my experience with it. 

Mark,

I highly recommend finding an accountant who you pay an annual fee to based on your tax situation. I meet quarterly with my accountant to review my budget and get insight from him on tax strategy. This has been very beneficial. I recently posted a YouTube video that shows segments of my accountant and I's quarterly meeting. You can find it by searching YouTube for #homeofficedeductions. Hope that helps!

-Eric