All Forum Posts by: James H.

Thanks all. The next step is to finish up the details on our new home and rebuild our cash reserves - which will be easier with two rent streams now coming in.

It sounds cheesey, but the house we just bought for ourselves is literally our dream house (we are modest dreamers) straight from the 50's, built by the family who lived in it and who also developed 10 acres in the same neighborhood back in the day. We are the 2nd owners of 60 year old house.

Along with continuing to save money, we are starting to aggressively pay down student loans. I foresee being able to purchase a third rental in about another year to year and a half. Some of that depends on what my wife's work situation is when she returns fron Afghanistan. We will definitely not move out and convert the house we just bought. It would profit as a rental, but we like it too much and it is just too much work to move and set a new house up for ourselves to do it any time soon.

Just want to thank everyone for all the info provided here. I bought my first rental about 1.5 years ago. Last week I collected the deposit to rent out my second unit. This house was purchased as my primary 4.5 year ago. I was very lucky that interest rates dropped in half since then allowing me to refinance a 600/month PITI to 450/month.

The house is rented how for 750/month. After the 50% rule applied, my total cash flow should be 750/2-260(P&I) = 115/month. I am self managing, so in theory, I should be able to "earn" another 75/month.

I found who I believe will make good tenants who had 5 years at their current apartment with only one late payment. Their income is not as strong as preferred (less than 3Xrent), but the rental history made up for that.

The first rental I was lucky to find for 12K (about 5 to 7K less than anything comparable in that area in its purchased condition). This second one I was lucky that interest rates dropped in half. Both rentals I have been lucky to find solid and projected solid tentants.

So what have I done? Just tried to save money and be ready to meet it with opportunities. Having knowledge of what is realistic and not (thanks it no small part to this site) has been a big help.

Now I have both tenants depositing directly to the bank and the mortgage will autodebit from that account, too. Have HVAC guy going around to rentals and primary to do AC tuneups and got a 30% PM discount for multiple properties. Now that's "landlording on autopilot" if there was such a thing haha!

Thanks to all,
Brian

this is the way to say what I said if you have a clue about garage door openers,lol.

I like the idea of posting questions on CL..

My personal opinion is that once a property is paid off, for whatever reason, it should be left paid off. Isn't that the point? Anyway, there are varying opinons. I would look toward trying to get a conventional loan on a second rental. Then you'll have one paid and one with debt service. I have one paid and one with debt service (just added the second one last month) and I think it is a good mix and also easing the transition to seeing what it is like to have more than one mortgage (including my primary).

Having two rental payments coming in, I feel comfortable having the rental mortgage payment autodebit from the rental account to keep everything segregated.

Rob K,

It is a Price Fister. I bought the valve wrenches and the graduated square tool (and the hexogonal one since I didn't know which it was before I took it out - now I have both..) and removed the entire valve and seat and replaced with all new. Yes, it is the cold water valve only that is leaking. I just replaced both while I was at it - figured if one wen out the other was soon to follow. Is it possible I could have damaged the new seat by over tightening?

Creating an access panel may or may not be worth it. I'd have to crawl in behind the kitchen cabitets. Still might be easier and cheaper than replacing the sheetrock and installing new FRP in the surround.

I am all ears and open to any advice you have on replacing the assembly. The piping in this house is old galvalnized, so I tend to not mess with things unless they really need it. Overall, the fresh water connections have been okay.

That's what I'm worried about. Is there any trick to getting around this?

I would only consider that property if it was in an excellent neighborhood and needed absolutely nothing to put a renter in. Even at that, it would take many years to see a gain on it. I don't think it is a good first property because I think one should invest first in higher cash flow properties and then later on in properties that are long term equity deals.

Also, if there was some significant equity, that might interest me some.

Its a SFH. The faucet is dripping, not the faucet handles. There is no access panel behind it, else I would not worry about tearing the wall apart. No other faucets are dripping, so I assume water pressure not to be an issue.

I tightened everything as far as what it felt would be okay before stripping stuff. I used plumber's tape on all threaded parts.

One thing I noticed is that one of the valves seams to tighten to a sure stop whereas the other one just gets indefinitely tight - like the rubber bottomed out on one seat but not the other..

My garage door will revert to open if it closes onto something prior to its fully closed position. I think that is standard. There is a sensitivity turn screw that adjusts how hard the door has to hit something before it automatically goes back up. If the opener is adjusted too sensitive, it will sometimes reopen upon fully closing. I would check that setting first. That is the full extent of my garage door opener knowledge.

One of my rentals has a drippy tub faucet. I replaced the valves and the tenant has reported that it is dripping again. I don't know what to do other than tear the wall out and replace the valve assembly. I am reluctant to do so, but not sure what else can be done. I have seen kits that cover a big hole which I presume is for replacing the valve assembly without completely destroying the wall. Has anybody used one of these kits? How did it work out.

The unit rents for 550/month. They are due for renewal and I am planning to raise the rent 15/month. Would you make it a priortiy to fix it? Other than dripping, it is not causing any damage.

Is there possibly a trick to installing new valves that a novice valve replacer would have missed? The new valves included new seats.