All Forum Posts by: Heidi Wilson

Hi everyone, I have 4 BRRRR houses and am thinking of selling two of them (hot market) to pay off the other two and maybe start a new project (new build or another BRRRR). I read the article on inflation here yesterday and I gotta say it kind of freaked me out. One property in particular is not a super cash-flowing house (it is rented right now under market which I did to get tenants to sign a two year lease and live in it while I did a major major reno job on it). I broke the rule of no rental houses with pools and it has a pool. Plus it’s in a very hot area so I could easily sell it. My question is two-fold: 1) I have in my mind that I need to wait two years from purchase to sell but I don’t know why I think that. Is that a tax thing? If so can someone elaborate? 2) are any of you thinking of cashing out in the hot market before things slow down and reconfiguring your portfolio? I don’t want to be rash but I also don’t want to be stressed out later of appreciation stops and interest rates are up. I’m having a tough time balancing the pros of “hang on to your assets and let the market do its thing” vs “respond to market conditions and make sure you are not over exposed/leveraged.” I have a lot of equity in all of my houses (well over 50% for all of them but one) so I’m not leveraged to the hilt or anything. But still. That article kind of freaked me out. I also am aware that some neighbourhoods are kind of insulated from market dynamics and I feel like mine could be one of them. But I lost my crystal ball. Thoughts?

I’m looking at using someone out of town for better expertise. I haven’t decided yet but you can check out Brandon hall or Nick Aiola they are both active on BP

I’m in Columbia but am thinking about getting into the Charleston area so I will come down. Looking forward to it!

Exactly - use an agent and leverage their knowledge of the area to get an idea of ARV. Don’t go it alone - and it’s not you paying it’s the seller!

To borrow down payment I would only do BRRRR. It gives you instant equity which you then pull out when you refinance and you pay back your initial lender. BUT...If you have never done this I think it’s a bit risky. You have to really know your market to nail the resale value and get your money out.

I just use Venmo. Not sure it has all the features you are looking for.

I did a full landscape job myself including laying sod by hiring high school kids to help lay it. I did the design work and got plants on clearance at the nursery and worked alongside them to do the physical labor. Including landscape beds, slag walking paths, mulch - the whole shebang. I got the whole yard done for $2k when landscape quotes were between $4k-8k for the same job. Was a sh*tton of work but saved some good coin and got the exact result I wanted. I also logged 22k steps on my Fitbit the last day of getting that property ready. Ugh. I also paint a lot of my houses and do things like window glazing etc. Just depends on how much time I have and what the deadline is for move-in. I enjoy the physical labor and the satisfaction of seeing it all come together with my own hands involved. But it’s fatiguing and not scalable.

Here’s yet another approach: I have a formula for all my rentals. Master is one color, hall bath another, living room another etc. - so they all look like a “home (they are SFH). Only time I deviate is when I have extra paint to use up that’s the expensive kind (like from my own home). I also use this as a selling feature for the tenants. The type of tenants I attract are kind of “Pinterest home” tenants (it’s a niche lol) and they love the attention to detail I put on the design. It looks so custom but it’s pretty much the same for every house. I have a “Heidi” bathroom design that my contractor knows how to do in a new house - beadboard, Pale Aqua walls, chrome fixtures, gray plank tile. We just say “Heidi bathroom for the hall bath” and he knows what to do.

I am still just starting out but have good success so far and my One Thing is knowing my market. Without that I’d be toast. I recently predicted the appraisal on my latest BRRRR to the dollar. Because I know my (narrowly-defined) market really really well.

I’ve done that twice and it worked out fine. So many variables though it’s really hard to say for sure for your situation. If you *can* see it, you should. I was out of the country so it wasn’t feasible; I sent family members in my place.