All Forum Posts by: Heather Schmidtknecht

My husband and I travel to Mexico (or somewhere similar in climate) every year; I feel like we are at a place in our lives where we might start vacationing 2-3x/year instead of 1x/year. I am tossing around the idea of purchasing a property in Mexico that we would stay at when we vacation, but I’m also anticipating that friends and family might stay a number of weeks during the year as well. Looking for advice from anyone who has experience with buying/owning property in Mexico as a U.S. citizen.

@Patrick C. you could crunch the numbers and see if a cash offer to relocate would be worth it for you... by this, I mean you could offer them $500 to find a new place to live and then they leave and you can start fresh with your own lease and higher rents.

@Danielle McClelland I’ll be 47 in a couple of weeks and just closed on my first deal six weeks ago. I plan to continue working my FT job, as I slowly build a modest RE portfolio to diversify my retirement.

@Lakeisha Baker I have had several different experiences with this — it seems in WI and MN that it is up to the individual realtor. I had one realtor that wouldn’t give me ANY info until I met with them in their office (which I’m guessing would have resulted in me signing a contract), I’ve had a realtor that just had me sign a contract that coveted her up until the end of the month that we anticipated closing in, and I’ve actually done a deal start to finish without a contract at all (other than the actual property sale, of course).

@Ryan Williams

Thanks for the intro to mini splits -- I had never heard of them!  I did a quick Google search and read a bit about them... and it sounds like there is a filter that should be cleaned on a monthly basis to prolong their life and decrease long-term maintenance costs.  Do you have your tenants doing this?

There are a couple of older (>100 years old) homes in the community where I am looking for investment property that have radiator/hot water heat and no ventilation/duct system in the home — and I’m told it would be very expensive (and not worth it) to add the duct work. I know I could use window A/C units; however, I was hoping for an option that might add to the ease/value of resale (when that time comes). I’ve heard of wall A/C units as well as air handlers... however, I don’t have experience with either. I also don’t know if there might be other options?

@Curtis Sharpe if you house-jack the duplex, you may not have to put the 20% down because you will be living there. Check with your lender.

@Terrell Garren I really appreciate your comment, as in addition to Bigger Pockets, I am also a big fan of Dave Ramsey. He was very successful in real estate and then lost everything doe to being over-extended.

@Samantha Miller would it work to have your “friend/roommate” pay for the utilities, taxes/insurance and/or other ecoenses assicisyed with this house instead of paying you “rent”?

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $114,000
Cash invested: $20,000

3 bedroom, 2 bathroom SFR
Rents for $1000/month

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Most of rental property in this area is targeted toward students and not as *nice* as other renters may desire.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Realtor.com -- I worked with a realtor who is also an investor, which was very helpful. It was listed at $116,900 and after negotiating, we settled on $114,000.

How did you finance this deal?

I put 15% down in cash and borrowed $96,000 from the bank.