All Forum Posts by: Eva Dees

Greetings BPeeers! I finally know what I want to be when I grow up! This was a tough one for me and it's taken almost a year of digging down deep but I've finally nailed down a strategy that I am super excited about...vacation rentals! I have come back to this as a potential strategy so many times and after listening to podcast #364 twice, I am sold. Seal the envelope, this is happening! Thank you Avery Carl for that awesome insight (and I'm sorry/not sorry I am going to try and copy your success). I have always loved the Smoky Mountains and have had a side eye on Tennessee as a potential state to invest in for a while .

I digress. The first part of last year I was desperately trying to purchase a small multifamily as my first RE investment. I must have walked 15 different ones and tried to write offers on a handful with no luck. By summer I had saved up a good chunk of money and taken out a personal line of credit at my bank. At the suggestion of other very helpful local investors, I decided to attend the judicial tax sale in my county. These properties are being sold for cash, "free and clear" (no liens, etc..) for sometimes extremely low prices. Granted, you can not go inside them and you are only to drive past them and decide if you want to bid on them. It's kind of terrifying and exhilarating. So I spent the weeks leading up to the sale driving around my county after work and crossing houses off the extensive list, or making notes next to the address like "bid high" or "bid low". Low and behold I walked away with 2 properties last July. Almost immediately, I sold one of them under article of agreement because after I had it inspected, I quickly realized it would cost way more to fix than it would ever be worth in the next 20 years and the cash flow on it after repair was non existent. I made a profit on that one and I was happy with that. I am currently living in and renovating the second property. I had to pay the tenants of the previous owner to get out and take all their gross stuff with them which was totally worth it. They had been non-paying tenants for 2 years prior to me purchasing the house!! 2 years!!!! After I dump a total of about $25,000 into the rehab and get some tenants in here, I should be able to net about $30,000 on the cash out (after paying my line of credit and my credit cards back that have funded the rehab) and have the property cash flow about $75/month. Not the cash flow numbers I am shooting for but this property is merely a launch pad for my vacation rental investing, a great lesson in rehabbing yourself, and my very first deal!!!

Back to the future...My plan for investing in the GSM is to self manage the properties while keeping my job in Pennsylvania (for now). At first I am looking for turn key but am open to value-add fixers in the future when I know more about the market and contractors. Eventually I would love to relocate to Tennessee (or Texas). I am researching the market and will start diving deep into cleaning arrangements, repair folks, what types of properties bring the biggest return (size, more private vs more crowded cabins, closer to or further from town, hot tubs, views, etc...)

There are a few reasons I am zeroing in on this strategy. I have a service heart and mind. I worked largely in the service industry for many years and there are so many things I love about interacting with people on that level. I'm good at it. I want to make peoples experience wonderful. And after sitting at a desk the last 2 years straight, doing graphic design, I know that I am much more fulfilled when I am working with people. I also like change. I like talking to different people every day and learning new things. Also, I feel confident that I can pull this off and keep my design job until I can replace my income.

I am pulling together a business plan as I am interested in partnering for the first one or two properties and want to present potential partners with enough clear and accurate data that they can make an informed decision.

For those of you seeing success in this market or for folks that may just know about this market, do you have any advice on things I should add to my business plan other than the usual suspects? And does anyone know how long, assuming I am going to be great at this self-managing thing, it will take to get some traction on Airbnb, VRBO, etc..? Essentially, is there a rough time frame that it will take me to get to 50% occupancy, 60%, 70% or whatever the

average is for well-run, self-managed properties? I don't care so much about that time line as I do about reporting an honest potential-profit statement to a partner that is not familiar with vacation rentals or the GSM market. I'll be talking to different types of potential partners, some have real estate knowledge, and some do not, but I basically just need more capital and I will run the whole thing myself. I want to run the whole thing myself.

One more question and I'll let you guys and gals out of this book: I am planning a weekend in GSM in February and I haven't been there since I was a teenager. I'll be traveling with my vegan sister. Are there any super delicious places to eat that have animal-less options that we absolutely can't miss out on? We will just be driving around most of the time anyway looking at adorable mountain cabins so anywhere from SV to GB to PF and surrounding.

Thank you for reading my book. I appreciate all of you who post and who take the time to read and respond to all of us newbs. Much love.

Greetings BPeeers! I finally know what I want to be when I grow up! This was a tough one for me and it's taken almost a year of digging down deep but I've finally nailed down a strategy that I am super excited about...vacation rentals!  I have come back to this as a potential strategy so many times and after listening to podcast #364 twice, I am sold. Seal the envelope, this is happening! Thank you Avery Carl for that awesome insight (and I'm sorry/not sorry I am going to try and copy your success). I have always loved the Smoky Mountains and have had a side eye on Tennessee as a potential state to invest in for a while .

I digress. The first part of last year I was desperately trying to purchase a small multifamily as my first RE investment. I must have walked 15 different ones and tried to write offers on a handful with no luck. By summer I had saved up a good chunk of money and taken out a personal line of credit at my bank. At the suggestion of other very helpful local investors, I decided to attend the judicial tax sale in my county. These properties are being sold for cash, "free and clear" (no liens, etc..) for sometimes extremely low prices. Granted, you can not go inside them and you are only to drive past them and decide if you want to bid on them. It's kind of terrifying and exhilarating. So I spent the weeks leading up to the sale driving around my county after work and crossing houses off the extensive list, or making notes next to the address like "bid high" or "bid low". Low and behold I walked away with 2 properties last July. Almost immediately, I sold one of them under article of agreement because after I had it inspected, I quickly realized it would cost way more to fix than it would ever be worth in the next 20 years and the cash flow on it after repair was non existent. I made a profit on that one and I was happy with that. I am currently living in and renovating the second property. I had to pay the tenants of the previous owner to get out and take all their gross stuff with them which was totally worth it. They had been non-paying tenants for 2 years prior to me purchasing the house!! 2 years!!!! After I dump a total of about $25,000 into the rehab and get some tenants in here, I should be able to net about $30,000 on the cash out (after paying my line of credit and my credit cards back that have funded the rehab) and have the property cash flow about $75/month. Not the cash flow numbers I am shooting for but this property is merely a launch pad for my vacation rental investing, a great lesson in rehabbing yourself, and my very first deal!!!

Back to the future...My plan for investing in the GSM is to self manage the properties while keeping my job in Pennsylvania (for now). At first I am looking for turn key but am open to value-add fixers in the future when I know more about the market and contractors. Eventually I would love to relocate to Tennessee (or Texas). I am researching the market and will start diving deep into cleaning arrangements, repair folks, what types of properties bring the biggest return (size, more private vs more crowded cabins, closer to or further from town, hot tubs, views, etc...) 

There are a few reasons I am zeroing in on this strategy. I have a service heart and mind. I worked largely in the service industry for many years and there are so many things I love about interacting with people on that level. I'm good at it. I want to make peoples experience wonderful. And after sitting at a desk the last 2 years straight, doing graphic design, I know that I am much more fulfilled when I am working with people. I also like change. I like talking to different people every day and learning new things. Also, I feel confident that I can pull this off and keep my design job until I can replace my income.

I am pulling together a business plan as I am interested in partnering for the first one or two properties and want to present potential partners with enough clear and accurate data that they can make an informed decision.

For those of you seeing success in this market or for folks that may just know about this market, do you have any advice on things I should add to my business plan other than the usual suspects? And does anyone know how long, assuming I am going to be great at this self-managing thing, it will take to get some traction on Airbnb, VRBO, etc..? Essentially, is there a rough time frame that it will take me to get to 50% occupancy, 60%, 70% or whatever the

average is for well-run, self-managed properties? I don't care so much about that time line as I do about reporting an honest potential-profit statement to a partner that is not familiar with vacation rentals or the GSM market. I'll be talking to different types of potential partners, some have real estate knowledge, and some do not, but I basically just need more capital and I will run the whole thing myself. I want to run the whole thing myself.

One more question and I'll let you guys and gals out of this book: I am planning a weekend in GSM in February and I haven't been there since I was a teenager. I'll be traveling with my vegan sister. Are there any super delicious places to eat that have animal-less options that we absolutely can't miss out on? We will just be driving around most of the time anyway looking at adorable mountain cabins so anywhere from SV to GB to PF and surrounding.

Thank you for reading my book. I appreciate all of you who post and who take the time to read and respond to all of us newbs. Much love.

@Eileen D. I think most buyers can see through that kind of behavior. I would actually be 100% honest with your agent and have you're agent be 100% honest with people walking the property. Your agent could say something like "The female tennent is super sweet. If her dad happens to be visiting, he's a little offended that he wasn't able to be the listing agent and he may seem disgruntled".

@Rick Imby Rick, I don't make much at any of my jobs which is why I work so much. And if I didn't have a bf that I love dearly, believe me, I would live in a vehicle as well! I'm quite the vagabond at heart. But yes, I'm starting to lean towards saving enough for 20% down. I want to make sure that I can cash out refinance after I rehab a place. I'm just so impatient and ready to start my investing noowwwww. The sooner I can start investing the sooner I can stop working 70 hours a week for other people.

@Matt Crusinberry Thanks for reaching out! I guess I just want to immerse myself as much as possible in the real estate world in the limited time I have and I see me getting my licence as another way of doing that. Access to the MLS and entrance to listed homes at my leisure is certainly appealing. I have very limited times when I can see property and those times have to match up with my agents availability and the tennents availability. But networking with local investors is definitely something I am interested in. I would love to come to a meeting. Either or both that you mentioned. Thanks so much for your willingness to help.

@Lexi Teifke. Hi Lexi. Thanks for your encouragement! The first deal was a fully occupied fsbo duplex that I was going to partner with my sister on. The deal fell through because the seller would not give us an extension on the 10 day inspection period. I blame myself for that because he was very easy to deal with the entire time but because my sister and live in different states and I had no idea what I was doing (I had never had a property under contract before) there were a lot of other delays leading up to to inspection period. I think by the time I asked for an extension he probably assumed I had no intention of following through with the deal. The 2nd deal was a triplex and I kick myself for not landing that one. The seller was POA for her aunt who was in a home and she just wanted rid of it. It needed a lot of work so I kept trying to get her lower on price. I was trying for an FHA rehab loan so I needed to make sure I got her as low as possible to make for for the repair loan. On the final negotiation, she backed out and went with one of the 3 people waiting in line behind me. The place had amazing potential. Would have cash flowed like a dream once rehabbed. The lesson for me on that one, amongst others, was that I should have presented that deal to someone with capital and partnered with them so that I could have purchased it with a conventional loan. I just feel like with no skin in the game and no deals done, my credibility is....lacking and to ask someone to invest with me would be naive. Plus I guess my pride got in the way. I wanted to do it myself and prove that I can do it. Kind of silly but I'm trying to get over that.

Hi there BP community! I've been a silent stalker for quite a while now. I'm finally to the point of (after saving for a couple years) having enough in my savings account ($8,000) to buy and slowly house hack a 2-4 unit with an FHA loan. I've had 2 multi family units under contract in the last year and both fell through (I blame myself).

I'm still in to the idea of house hacking but it seems as though the memo is out on multi family investing and the ones in my price range of $70,000 get snagged up rather quickly oooorrrr they are so dilapidated that it will not qualify for an FHA.

I've been listening to BP podcasts for about a year and a half now and because I have the shiny object syndrome, every investment strategy that I hear about sounds achievable to me. The reason hacking a multi family is appealing to me is because it's something I can do all by myself. And I tend to be an independent person. I work a full time job and 2 part time jobs. I raised my daugter on my own while going to school and working multiple jobs. I can buy a place my self. I can fix it my self. I'm frugal and have an eye for design. I've taken design classes, carpentry/construction courses, and grew up with parents that built and fixed things for a living.

Then yesterday, while sitting a my desk, minding my own business, doing my low paying (slightly unrewarding) graphic design job, I listened, for the 2nd or 3rd time, to show 246 on buying mobile home parks with Kevin Bupp. I've known this is an amazing strategy. But now I think I want to change lanes. I don't think my $8,000 is going to get me anywhere when it comes to playing with the M.H.P. big dogs buuuut I'm wondering if I should (which I've wanted to do for years) get my real estate license. Should I spend a good chunck of my savings on a licence if eventually I want to get into the mobile home arena? I know that there are times when having your licence is not recommended because of the type of investing you are doing so I don't want to jeopardize my lofty future endeavors. The main reason I want my licence is because investor friendly agents are.....they don't....no one knows wth I'm talking about when I say I want to BRRRR a propertyx They don't get it even when you explain it. And try finding a bank in Central Pennxsylvania that will understand what I'm talking about. I mean...I work 70 hours a week so I don't have a whole lot of time to chase these folks down, either, so maybe they are out there. Would you spend a couple grand to get your license if you were me? And bless you if you made it this far. Cheers!

Maybe you could negotiate a small percentage of the mineral rights? Say, 5% or something. I'm not sure how those things work but I would inquire if you are able to own a portion of the mineral rights. Tell the sellers you want a small stake in any future mineral payments so that you can "subsidize" rents if they go putting in an eye-sore of a pump, which might make it harder to rent.