All Forum Posts by: Erin L.

talking about classifieds… I can actually say that in 10 years I have never advertised the property once! I do love being a landlord/owner in a military town. I have 3 people already interested in the unit I live in and I wasn't even ready to price it and be ready to roll for at least another month. The only thing that makes me nervous is the long distance thing, although I've done it before from San Diego it was stressful. This time I will only be 4 hours up the road and we will just use this as an excuse to have a working vacation of sorts every 6 months.

@Elizabeth Colegrove thanks! I have read many of your posts already since they pop up on my keywords and they are very helpful. We started with a lower enlisted income so the duplex was certainly a great way to get into the game for less expense. As retirement edges closer we are definitely looking at this as a possible income solution, we just need to manage our finances well so we can do the same thing again, albeit with a conventional or other than VA loan since that's tied up - hopefully with a better class/larger "twin home" type duplex so we can owner occupy for awhile and not be cramped. 10 years with 4 of us in 1000 sq ft has certainly been a lesson in patience! Not excited about the DC/MD area though!

Just joined last week, what a great site! Duplex owner for 10 years, honestly came into it not really looking to be an "investor" but just as a way to get a foot in the door of homeownership cheaply. My spouse is active duty military and we have been stationed here and lived in the duplex the whole time which enabled us to afford to remodel the units. Result was rents increasing as well as being able to make improvements in order for us to be happy in it ourselves for this long. My husband has prior construction/DIY experience before the military and I'm the "numbers and people" girl so it has worked well with me managing the property and him doing repairs and improvements which saved a ton of money. We have had 2 "bad" tenants so I have some lessons learned the hard way under my belt as well. We have outgrown the property now as we have 2 kids and we are moving to the Southern MD area this summer and when faced with the prospect of selling the duplex or renting, well… renting won. We have now decided that Buy/Hold small MF properties may just be the answer we were looking for to supplement eventual military retirement income. Learning all we can now about doing things "the right way". Luckily it looks like our numbers will be ok for cash flow - went about things a little backwards but we are here, nonetheless! I have already learned so much from the few podcasts and forum posts I have seen, great community at BP!

My family has lived in our duplex next to our tenants for 10 years. The good outweighed any negatives for us. We were able to live for "free" which enabled us to put together money to remodel both units without tapping into much credit - which had the effect of rents increasing from 600 to 1200 in the other unit. My husband is in the military and still deploys so I'm not sure we would have the time to get many projects done had we not been on site. A huge plus is that tenants don't do much damage or party too much when their landlord is next door and probably think twice about showing up in a new SUV while leaving rent unpaid! The key is to not become overly familiar with them and keep things pretty private and professional. Then it will be more uncomfortable for them to ask for "favors". That being said, we now have 2 pre-teen boys and things are getting tight and it is time for us to move on but it was good financially and for a learning perspective while it lasted.

I am so new here I haven't had the chance to introduce myself yet but Aaron's reply has me saying "Yes!" Exactly what we did before we even knew we wanted to start taking the investment property thing seriously. We purchased a duplex that needed a good deal of upgrading and repairs but was livable on a VA Loan (husband is active duty). Within 2 months of working just nights and weekends we were able to rent out one side to pay the mortgage on the whole property. Living in your multifamily is a great way to get a head start on saving for your next one while learning a lot. Bonus is that you save on maintenance and other things by just being on-site. Tenants don't generally trash property when the owner lives there. If this idea sits well with you, it's a great way to get started. We are looking at doing it again in the MD area when we transfer with the military.