All Forum Posts by: Gary Walker

My day job is insurance agent.  I've been in a LOT of homes over the past 19 years.  It amazes me how nasty some of the cat houses are.  Couches reeking of urine when I sit down - enough to burn my eyes, cat litter tracked through the house on the floors, wood floors discolored around the water/food dishes, and I've even seen on more than one occasion a cat walk into the room and drop a poo right in the floor while we were talking.  I can't put into words the stench in some of those places.  I've left many homes to postpone the next appointment and go straight home for a shower.  Cats are generally clean and loveable - I've got a couple of them!  But just one cat with a nasty owner can absolutely ruin a place.  I would never allow a cat in a rental that I own. 

This may not be quite as relevant because I'm primarily with vacation rentals up to this point, but I've had a lot of experience with different dogs (no cats allowed) many times a year with each property.   It seems to me that larger dogs don't get bathed as often because it's more of a chore to do so, and they cause much larger messes of all types.  Even after only a week-long vacation, that "loveable well-behaved mutt that just lays around all day" can cause terrible odors and stains that are costly and hard to remove between renters.   Small dogs don't cause any kind of problem like that, and they're almost always kept clean.  We now only allow small dogs up to 25 lbs and we're strict with that limit.  All dogs must still be pre-approved by us.  We've had no problems at all since putting that policy in place, and our property manager has to see the dog at check-in so there's no chance of cheating.  Even with the restrictions I believe our rentals stay booked significantly more by comparison to the ones in our area that don't allow any pets.  We're now searching for a multifamily property to rent out long term and we'll probably adopt a similar policy for those units.

@Jason Hopkins  That is one impressive set of numbers.  Congrats to you!

Thanks everyone!  Nice to meet you.

Thanks for that Michael.  BTW, I have a good friend / RE broker I'm working with on the NC coast, which is where I'm centering my long term rental focus at this point - but I'll certainly remember that and I welcome your comments and advice here on the forum!   Interestingly, I have a close friend who just rehabbed and rented out a triplex in your neck of the woods - it's in Spring Lake, I believe.  He's made a nice little cash machine out of that property.  It's an interesting area.

Thanks for the welcoming replies.  

Jerry, I've had so many questions already answered just by the existing content - some answers were to questions I hadn't even considered asking! 

Aaron, I have two beach houses - one 2nd row in NC and one ocean front in SC that I own with my sister.   One old art-deco theater building and a note I'm getting paid on from another building I sold to the occupant are all I have left of the commercial side, which I'm slowly getting out of.  I also have a lakefront lot I purchased for a great deal a couple of years ago.  That wasn't my smartest purchase for cashflow but at least it's better than money in the bank.

My take?   Commercial is great until there's a vacancy, which can be frequent because new businesses fail so often, and they can last a long time.  Repairs can be complicated and costly too, roofs especially seem to hate me. lol!  

Vacation rentals are wonderful assuming it's in a location people want to be in, you buy it right, AND you have a property manager who's way above average.  I highly recommend using a property manager unless you want to spend all of your time doing a lot of work that won't bring you more money.  It's a must for me because I live 5 to 6 hours away from them.  A big perk is that when you go do any work on them you're at the beach!  That's a win!

Hello everybody, I'm Gary from NC.   My wife and I have some real estate experience and own a few vacation rental and commercial properties, but it's time to scale it up and focus on residential rentals.   I've been following the content of BiggerPockets and getting a lot of ideas and encouragement.  Anyway, nothing interesting in our story like I've read in some of the other intros, but I did want to officially say "hi" to everyone before I get started posting.  So Hi!