All Forum Posts by: Lance Johnson

I currently own rental property (SFR) in KCMO, Brookside area. It has been great for me so far, and I am looking at other properties, as well.

KCMO has huge job growth. By some reports, KCMO had the 3rd largest tech job growth in 2013. I see a lot of potential there. Cash flow is very achievable and there is certainly some chance for appreciation, especially if the Silicon Prairie really takes off.

Welcome to the BP community, @Johanna R. - nice to have you here.

Thanks, @Brandon Turner glad to be here.

My plan is to hold on to the San Fran property for now. It is cash flowing, and I hope appreciation will come at some point - it's mostly recovered from the 28% drop in 2010, so hopefully now it's time to go up.

@Tanisha Blakemore I allow tenants to pay via checking account (mailed or QuickPay) or using an awesome service called Venmo. Venmo allows tenants to pay electronically directly from any of their bank accounts or, if they choose, they can also use their credit card for a fee (that they pay). There is a limit to the amount a user can send at one time, though, so it only work for properties where the rent is $1,000 or less per month. I use it for my tenants in Kansas City, and it make life extremely easy for me.

If you want to sign up and test it out (and benefit me with a $5 referral in the process), feel free to use this link: https://venmo.com/i/lance-johnson otherwise you can just signup directly at venmo.com. 

I have also heard of a service called Pay Near Me (http://www.paynearme.com/en) that allows users to make cash payments at select locations. While that may be handy for some, Venmo is much easier for my tenants, and also allows me to have all of my transaction records in one handy place.

As to software, I don't use a property-management specific software. I use AccountEdge Pro for accounting purposes.

@Ivan Burley - Welcome to the forums and thanks for posting!

@James Brookins - Welcome to BP! Good luck to you in all your endeavors in REI.

@Embry Peeples  Welcome to the community. We're certainly glad to have you here and hope that you find everything you are looking for.

As a first bit of advice, I'd suggest that you avoid ALL-CAPS messages in the future, as I think you will find that many people won't read them.

To address your specific questions, I actually think that the script (http://www.yellowletters.com/page/scripts) that Michael Quarles provides gets the heart of your motivated sellers questions (both of them). His service also seems to be pretty well equipped to handle your first question, as well, though I haven't used the service personally, so I can't really attest to that first-hand. He was recently featured on Episode 77 of the BP podcast, though not specifically regarding Yellow Letters. I'd recommend listening to that episode, though, as he does do a nice job of highlighting how you can learn about sellers and their actual level of motivation.

@Gary Tommeraasen - Welcome! It actually sounds like you might be in a prime (if small) market for very good cash flow properties. I hope you find the community here to be extremely helpful. Good luck!

First, welcome to BP and the world of REI! You have put together a pretty comprehensive plan, and it is nice to see that you have thought of potential exit strategies down the road.

That said, I think some of the financials aren't as well thought out. If you end up buying a $675k property, $500 rent is just not going to cut it. You would be better off determining the required rents based on the purchase price. So if you pick up a $675k property, all-in, you're going to want to be generating absolutely no less than $6,750 per month in rental income. If you are living in one of the units, you can take a haircut from that number to account for the unit you are occupying. Ideally, though, you would come close to 1.5% or even 2% per month. If you are going to be going to college in California, 1% might be as good as you can do. Property prices here tend to be high relative to the rents.

I would suggest that you find your mentor ASAP and work through some of these deal options and questions with them, as well.

@Kelsey Truitt - if you have a network of people around to help you and management isn't going to be an issue for you, then the decision really comes down to your risk profile and your plans for the future. The earlier you start investing for the future, the better off you will be in the long-term; however, real estate can be risky, so you need to make sure that you don't put anything on the line that you're absolutely unwilling to lose or that you think you are going to need to get your feet on the ground after graduating. There are so many people on this forum who would be happy to help and answer questions, and the BP podcast is a treasure trove of information. Start small, keep it simple, learn the ropes, and then take it from there.