All Forum Posts by: Guy Yoes

I am raising rent at the start of next year. My rents are currently two hundred under the other duplexes on the street. A few are three hundred more. Most of my tenants are elderly and on a fixed income. That said, due to a tornado that hit the street last December, I had claims on 4 of my six duplexes. This has caused my insurance to rise by 20%. I expect to see a rise in property taxes as well.

I will be raising the rent 8%. I am also adding the garbage pick-up to the rent. I have two tenants who cancelled their trash pick-up and have been dumping their trash in other tenant's cans. After a discussion, it came to light that several were sharing the trash bins. I will solve the issue by including the trash fees into the rent.

@Joshua Janus

Thank you for the kind words !  It has taken a team. It also takes time and work to find the right people who are generous with their time and knowledge. I'm a big fan of @Dave Foster. His knowledge of the 1031 process is beyond compare. I went through several banks before finding the right banker who was willing to work with a small investor like myself. My title company has been with me through several delayed closings. They have done all the closings on our duplexes. 

I have only been investing in real-estate for about 5 years and it has been a journey of faith. When I needed a realtor, accountant or insurance agent a door was opened. It's not what happens in life that matters, it how you decide to handle it that matters.

Four years later-

Having my two properties paid off at the time of of my previous post I was able to 1031 each property for a duplex (thanks 

@Dave Foster) with no cash out of pocket. I then used equity out of  the two duplexes to buy two more duplexes. I turned two doors into 8 doors in about 16  months. At the end of last year, I sold 1 of the four duplexes (paid 100K for it and sold it for 153K)  and did another another 1031 into two more duplexes (all on the same street). I bought my 6th duplex last week. 

It has been three years to the month since I bought my first two duplexes. It was because of the equity in the two SFRs I bought and paid off that I was able to now own 6 duplexes with a market value of 975,000 with no out of pocket expenses. I currently have a contract on my 7th property. 

I had no loss of rental income during covid and rent has increased 15% in the last two years. 

@Deatrick Carter

We use American Modern Property and Causality ins.

We had our first insurance claim on some of our properties on December 12th

A small tornado hit four of our duplexes. Damage was minor to moderate (mainly roof damage, fences and some water issues.

American Modern did a great job in working with us to get the properties back up and going.

Every insurance company works differently to some extent. We were able get everything repaired and even after the deductible we had a some funds left over to replace some worn out windows.

Hope this helps

here's some good, bad and just plain ugly

No Tell Motel/ Here today Gone tomorrow/ Happy Traveler Inn/ Gamez Hostel/ Roadside Rivera/ The Highway Hotel 

Shepherd's Inn/ The Stables/ The Gables/ Roadside Resort/ Sleepy Hollow Hotel/ The Scarlet Letter Inn/ Beds-A- Plenty

The Quiet Place/ Stop and Stay/ Manor House/ Your stay by the Highway/ Rooms to Rent/ Courtyards by Concrete/ Bed Bath and Begone/ The Weekly Renter/ Come and Go/ Lost Souls Inn/ Stop and Stay/ Hideaway hotel/ Wanderer's Retreat/ The Commons

The Sleep Over/ Holiday Hideaway/ The Hotel California / Inn and out/ Sweet Dreams Inn / The Weary Traveler Inn/ Beds on a Budget/ A Room with a View/ The Twilight Hotel/ The Bunk House/ Peyton's Place/ The Field of Dreams

Hope something here works for you. 

You have several good options. Looks like you net about $900 a month correct?

collecting $900 a month is $10,800 a year.

buying notes through Safeguard Capital Partners at 9% is $27000 to $30,000 a year.

You could do a 1031 @Dave Foster ERG company into a passive investment and not have to pay taxes and depreciation. 

I currently am doing all three. I own 7 duplexes I manage to qualify as a real estate professional. (not an RE agent)

I also have had great luck with Capital partners ( Talk to Corey Fleetwood) mention my name

I just sold 1 duplex and through @Dave Foster I am using the 1031 to buy 3 duplexes with no out of pocket costs.

 I'm sure that there are many options available to you. I've had great success with these options.

Hope this gives you soon things to think about.

I have 7 duplexes and thank God I have never had to file a claim. That said, I know other REI investors who went cheap on insurance and it cost them dearly. The area where I live has a major hail storm last year. While my properties were not damaged my insurance went up nearly 18%.

Those who did not have replacement insurance were on the hook for thousands of dollars to replace the roof. Over the past two years i was able to replace the roofing on my duplexes. At the time it was around $7000 for a 2800 sqft duplex. If I had to replace a roof today, it would be more than $8000. I have a $1000 deductible for my properties. Which means if I needed to replace a roof today it would only cost me $1000 instead of $8000.  

If the roof is older, the insurance company will depreciate the value of the roof. If the roof is valued at$2000 and your deductible is $1000, then your new roof will cost you $7000. 

Insurance is expensive until you need it. When you need it it is cheap.

As stated above, go through an independent agent, require renters to have rental insurance and keep enough reserves to cover your deductibles. 

I'm in the Branson area and nightly are doing well here.

It's been been 2 1/2 years since I made this post. First, I would like to thank everyone who encouraged and supported me as I started my REI journey.

Tomorrow I will add another milestone to my journey. Two weeks ago I bought my 5th duplex. That was the goal I set out to achieve when I moved to the Branson area from Tulsa. I turned 60 this year and thought I'd ride out the next 5-10 years just managing my 5 duplexes and enjoy my semi-retirement of managing my properties. I had worked hard to get them almost paid off. I bought them right, added value and created a very decent cash flow. 

I was raised by parents who eschewed debt of any kind. Dad's motto was " a debt free man is owned by no man".  I still believe that is somewhat true. HOWEVER, spending time on BP has lit in me a fire to not only create wealth for me but also for my children. I realized that what worked for my father may not work for me. 

A unique opportunity came along this past spring and my REI investing juices started flowing again. My mentor had a terminal illness and asked me to manage his properties when he passed. He gave me a lease to own contract on his last three duplexes (all on the same street as mine). I had enough equity in my other properties to get a loan for the 3 duplexes. That however would reduce my nice cash flow.

After a few conversations with my wife/partner/advisor we decided to act on the opportunity. The first thing I did was contact @Dave Foster who had helped me with several 1030 exchanges when I started buying duplexes in 2019. Dave at ERG helped me understand the whole process and we created a step by step plan to make the project happen.

We decided use my 4th property which had enough equity to purchase all three duplexes at once with zero out of pocket costs to me. After running the numbers (not once or twice but three times) my net rental income for the 3 duplexes would be slightly over $2000 a month.

Property sold: paid $110K  monthly / rent $1300 / appraised value 158K / Sale price $153K  Profit $70K

Properties bought (3)  paid $300.000 / Appraised value $495K / rent $4000 / cash flow $2184 monthly

Out of pocket costs: 0.00

Recap: over two years I bought 5 duplexes. This month I sold one and bought three using a 1031 with the help of @Dave Foster.

Bonus: Because of the 1031 I had enough funds to purchase another duplex on the same street as my other duplexes.   

Bigger Pockets and people like Dave Foster have changed my life. If a 60 year old man can do it, so can you!

This is Angel.  Very sweet girl