All Forum Posts by: Gil Happy

Hello,

I am trying to determine which is the better return (ROI, Cash on Cash, etc) for furnished vs unfurnished for a condo rental property I own. Here are the details:

- purchase price was $153,000 in 2005

- paid mortgage in full in either 2006 or 2007.

I am trying to determine which is the better return whether I do fully furnished (where I pay for all of the utilities, my furniture etc) vs unfurnished (tenant pays utilities and provides own furniture). I have been renting fully furnished for the last 9 years or so and I'm thinking about switching to unfurnished.

- condo fees = $3480 / year

- property tax = $2038 / year (2018)

- Utilities = $2535 / year (2018)

- Rent in 2018 = $15550 (~9 months), rent in 2017 = $10850 (~5 months), rent in 2016 = $23000 (~10 months)

I have seen rental listings in my building for ~ $1800 / month unfurnished. My furnished rental rate is in the neighborhood of $2250 - $2500 / month. Obviously the unfurnished is probably a better return, but I'm looking to build a spread sheet etc where I can just plug in the numbers, etc to see the ROI / Cash on Cash difference.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you @Jon Crosby and @Ryan Swan.... I'm not necessarily looking to figure out how much my can rent for at this point (either STR or LTR) as I already have a decent idea based on Zillow data sets, etc. I am looking more to take all of the existing numbers (expenses) and then go in reverse - that is figure out my expenses if I do STR (which include utilities, mortgage, interest, taxes, pool, lawn) and calculate out how much I would need to bring in, in a year for a good ROI (e.g. maybe from 6% to 10%). Then compare this to LTR which doesn't have utilities (and possibly doesn't have pool and lawn care expenses either) and see how much I would need to bring for a return of 6% to 10%.

I may learn that the LTR monthly rates in my area based on my mortgage costs and expenses don't make sense and I should go the STR route.

Thanks for this... Yep, I think the 1% rule is hard to achieve from a very high level LTR, so that is why I'm trying to figure out which is the better investment and how much I would need to earn in each scenario (STR vs LTR).

Hello,

I currently own a vacation home in Phoenix that I use mostly use for personal enjoyment, but I also do to short term rentals (STR) through AirBnB and VRBO to offset some of the costs.

Since I use my home mostly for enjoyment and sometimes do STR, I am trying to determine the return calculation comparison between a LTR (long term rental) and STR. Here are the current numbers:

- Purchase price of 340k in December 2016

- Not sure if this is relevant, but I put 10% down and have a 30 year fixed at 3.5%

- Utilities (electricity, gas, water, internet) have averaged $3627 / year for the last 2 years

- Pool cleaning $ 1000 / year

- Lawn care $ 1200 / year

- Property Tax $1450 / year (2018)

- Mortgage interest $6900 (2018)

- PMI $638 (2018)

I guess I am trying to decide how much I would need to earn per year doing STR vs LTR 'and' which is a better investment based upon the above numbers. (I believe that following the 1% rule, in order for it to be a good investment, I would need to generate $3400 / month). If it is determined that an unfurnished, LTR is a good (or better) investment than a STR, I could do a LTR on my existing home and then purchase a new vacation home if the numbers made sense. The utilities, and possibly the pool cleaning and lawn care could be removed from the list of annual expenses if doing a long term rental. Hopefully all of this makes sense?

Thanks in advance!

Thank you for the link to the bankrate.com calculator. Unfortunately I had tried that same one before posting my question. The problem is that calculator does not provide a number that says you need to be in your home x number of years before the loan with the higher origination fees will make sense over time... it only provides APR. I'm sure there is a correct term for what I'm trying to explain.

Hello,

I am looking for a specific type of online mortgage calculator - I am looking for one that can compare the costs between 2 different mortgages. To explain, I have been provided numbers on a 30 year fixed mortgage between 2 different lenders; one has a lower rate and higher fees, and the other is a higher rate and lower fees. I recall seeing a calculator where you could enter the numbers and it would then tell you how long you would need to keep the house until the lower rate / higher fee mortgage would make more sense.

If anyone knows where to find this calculator, I would surely appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks Scott... since it would be an investment property, it would be 20% down (10% from each person).

Awesome, that helps big time!  Both people would certainly be on the title, so the next part would be to figure out if it would be 1, 2, or 3.  Thanks

Hello,

I've a got quick question about possibly purchasing an investment vacation home (with the intention to rent it out as much as possible) with a partner / friend. My question is about the loan or mortgage - when people go into an agreement like this (assume they are splitting all costs equally), do both people obtain a mortgage for 50% of the property, or does one person get the loan in their name for the full amount and then just receives payment from the other party for all expenses, etc? However it is done, both of us would be on the title to the home.

Just to give you a quick background, I have been doing vacation rentals for a number of years by myself on 3 different properties that I currently own.  Also, the purchase price would be less than 150k.

Thanks in advance!

Hello,

I have questions about using the Zillow price-rent ratio data-sets to locate profitable areas which to purchase rentals. Looking at the following article on BiggerPockets:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/6157/69626-nar...

Since I am a complete newbie to GIS (I tried using GRASS GIS) and any GIS platform has an extreme learning curve, so far I have been unable to get all of the components working. However, the article mentions in paragraph 7 about using Excel instead to create charts and graphs. Has anyone had success using Excel, and how difficult was it compared to GIS software?

Please note, this is not my only criteria for finding rentals, but since I am a technology person, I would like to figure this out.

Thanks in advance!