All Forum Posts by: Holly Ross

Hi –

I'm gearing up to rent out my SFH for the first time in the next few months, and just trying to get everything in order ahead of time. I wanted to share my to do list in case anyone here with more wisdom than I can help me spot any gaps or things I may not be thinking of from a lack of experience and/or share pointers!

I'm thinking I will: 

1. Prepare the house and take photos
2. Get in touch with property management partners
3. List on Zillow and Trulia
4. Get in touch with geico in case I need to make updates to my homeowners insurance
5. Background check / vet potential tenants
6. Get set up with a payment system, maybe? Or perhaps I'll use venmo / paypal? 

Is there anything major I'm missing? Any pro tips you can share as far as vetting tenants or collecting rent? Any other wisdom that you wish you'd known ahead of time?

Best,

Holly

No preconceived notions here, just want to hear from some different perspectives! Can, or should, first time investors BRRRR?

When I started building a 5 year plan for myself I thought it made sense to buy my first property and BRRRR it since I want to get in at a low price point and force equity/refi so I could buy a second property faster than by saving up with my W2. But after speaking with a local investor-agent, he felt pretty strongly that a first time investor should just scratch BRRRR from their vocab and buy something nearly turnkey, collect the steady drip of cash flow for a few years, and save up for property two via W2, and then start to think about BRRRR. In fact, he's been doing it about 20 years himself and only just started getting into BRRRRing I guess. 

I've consumed enough podcasts, courses, etc to know that there's many paths in and a lot of it is dedication and due diligence. 

But curious if there's any other strong opinions out there. Do you agree? Or do you think BRRRR is feasible for a first timer?

I've said a few times now that I have no aversion to loans, just a lack of confidence in the deal! What you've described is exactly what I mentioned I was looking for – a "mini flip", since I'm aware I'm not ready to take on a complete gut reno. 

Appreciate the input.

I've never heard of the howey test before, I'll read up! Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

I'm not against financing, I just thought it may be a little safer to borrow from friends and family for my first project since we could set more generous terms that give me some padding for when things don't go exactly to plan or on timeline. I expect I'll be failing and learning hard lessons quite a bit with my first property, and truthfully I'm just not sure what "worst case scenario" would look like with bank financing... Not that I expect to get there, but just want to make sure I'm never getting in a scenario where I lose my car, my primary home, or my savings to dig myself out of a hole. 

I actually truly have no idea what "worst case scenario" looks like, so maybe those are silly fears and they just take the house back? But just saying this to explain why I'm poking around in creative financing / low cost of entry!

This is so helpful, thank you. If I want to get some ducks in a row before pitching to my network, would I just be searching for an investor-friendly attorney and underwriter, and get them on board with my plan so that as soon as I have some folks hooked, they're ready to underwrite?

I'm actually not against debt, I was just curious if I could get a start without it since I'm so new to my first mortgage. I appreciate all of the input!

Generally speaking, my primary interest is in BRRRR or fix and flip, and I verrry much want to be in the trenches on reno and commit my time to the process fully. But since I have no current experience with distressed properties I'm finding it really hard to assess which distressed properties are good deals or which are too far gone. The blind spot adds another layer of uncertainty with debt because I want to feel confident in my purchase if I'm taking on debt.

My dream for a first step would be to buy a 2 unit with a 2.5k mortgage and have both units renting at $1500! I just feel like I can't figure out how to get there with my renovation blind spot. 

For example there's a property that I know is in a GREAT area here in Buffalo, huge 2 unit house with potential for a 3rd unit listed at ~150k. It's been on the market a while. I toured it but found that it would almost need to be an actual rebuild since the foundation is cracked, the roof has a tree growing out of it, and just about every surface in between is painted or ruined by former tenants. I know without a doubt that the ARV would be high (well kept houses go for 500k or so in the area) but my realtor thought that unless they were selling it for 20k, the reno costs would be too much to possibly break even.

I reached out to an investor-friendly realtor locally to see if they can help guide my thinking here. It's hard feeling like I need a mentor but also wanting to be respectful of peoples' time and not ask too much of them to teach me, so I'm trying to do as much as I can on my own first. 

TLDR: If I can feel confident in the deal itself, I have no problem taking on additional debt. I just lack the confidence in the deal and the process which makes debt much scarier. 

Hi! I'm trying to figure out how to get into real estate at a low cost of entry (~$50k cash), and so I'm of course trying to learn about how to use OPM and other creative financing options. 

So far I've kind of got the general idea behind subto, wrap loans, lease to own. And I know OPM just means sourcing friends and family / within your network largely. 

But for as many podcasts as I read, books, etc. The one sort of obvious piece I'm missing is what do you do once you actually have these people on the hook? Say I was able to get 4 people in my network to commit an amount of money... at this point would I meet with an attorney and ask them to draw up paperwork? What type of paperwork am I even asking for? I'm just a little lost with what kind of legal binding is in place and how to get it set up. Also curious what a normal interest rate and turnaround time would be for OPM. 

I know these things are highly variable, but even just a rough example scenario would be helpful to wrap my head around it! Thanks so much to anyone who could weigh in or give pointers to connect the dots for me.

Thanks everyone!

I'm not sure if I truly mean "turnkey" or what the word would be for the state of home I envision –– I'm thinking more like a mini flip... exterior paint, a new fence, add a kitchen backsplash, that sort of thing. Cosmetic updates that make the place look significantly nicer without needing to sink a ton of time and expense. So sort of turnkey, but not expecting anything glamorous for $50k! Memphis has actually come up a few times in my research but I have done no research yet to understand the area. 

I would LOVE to house hack but my situation is basically that I just bought my first home off market for a good price early December, but it's a SFH. Eventually I want to convert this into an MTR since it's in a great location for it (two lvl 1 trauma centers 10 min away), but I want to live here for a year or two first. That said, I don't want to take my foot off the gas with investing either. I'd really like to find or flip my first duplex this year and get it to pay for itself.

Taking on debt isn't off the table, I'm just really afraid of the risk since I'm not sure how it would impact my current mortgage, or what the worst case scenario would be if things failed. I'm not sure how to evaluate the risk of a second mortgage. Maybe that just means I should try to speak to an investor friendly lender first and see what they think. 

Hey all. I want to get started in real estate and am hoping to get some insights on the approach... I have $50k cash and don't really want to take on debt (or do creative financing). Is this a do-able starting place financially, or a pipe dream? 

Do markets still exist where you can buy nearly turnkey rental property for $50k?

I've been taking in so much info that I'm in the analysis paralysis phase but I'm curious how someone more seasoned would get the ball rolling with just $50k cash today. 

Thanks so much for any insights you could share. I'm learning as much as I can and currently in the "i'll never be able to do this" phase (but giving myself a pep talk out of it!) 

I definitely think I will soon, if not for my first property! I'll add you to my contacts to reach out to as soon as I'm ready to boot up my Columbus venture