All Forum Posts by: Holly Yankus

Hi, 

I am a new REI this year! Woohoo! I have a SFH and a duplex. (We are living in one side of the duplex for a year, so I technically only have 2 rentals right now). I am going crazy trying to figure out the best way to get started with bookkeeping. I am going to have a lot of backlogging to do as far as tax prep goes because we didn't realize we would be owning rentals until August of this year. I have a business account, but as of now, only rent and mortgage is going in and out of the account because we do not have enough cash flow to cover all the rehab we are doing. I thought about buying quickbooks, but I'm worried it won't work right since we are using our personal account for expenses right now. Judging from other posts, a simple excel document will work well for 2 rentals. I'm just having trouble finding one and figuring out how to use it. I saw one advertised on here, but it seemed very complicated to me. Anyone have an easy/beginner one that would be good for me? Also, any recommendations for short online classes or youtube videos on bookkeeping would be great. I'm somewhat numbers/accounting savvy, but that's definitely not where my expertise is.

Hi guys, 

I am in the Dunedin area and just jumped into REI this year. We have two rentals (one SFH and a duplex). I am looking to meet up with an REIA group too. We have so much to learn! I may check out the John's Pass meet up Zach! Anyone have recommendations for a CPA in the area? I know local is not necessary, but I really like to meet people in person if at all possible.

I did include PM fees in the calculator. We plan on using one right away, and he is also acting as a realtor for us getting the house. I think I did the suggested average for Cap Ex, vacancy, and maintenance. 

Thanks for the input! 

Very close to making our first plunge into REI with a duplex in Clearwater, FL. We are doing an FHA loan since we don't have enough cash for 20% down; and therefore, will have to live in one side of the unit for the first year. Occupying one side will make cash flow very tight for the first year. I plugged rent numbers for 2nd year and beyond in the deal analysis calculator. Let me know what you guys think please. Anyone else buy houses with loans that require intent to live for at least 1yr? Husband and I have different opinions on whether or not this is a good deal.

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Purchase Price: 195k

Estimated immediate repairs: 3k (both units are livable and in fair condition - 3k would be for more durable flooring - no immeidate major repairs - roof is new)

Estimated total rent (both units): $1800/mo

PM Fee: $180/mo

Estimated mortgage (30yr) w/ 3.25 interest rate: $1384

Some numbers from the Deal Calculator: 

Monthly Cashflow: $426

NOI: $15,120

Cash on Cash ROI: 28.40%

Income-Expense Ratio: .86%

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Hi, 

My husband and I are in a position to start buying some rental property. Husband wants to go with a PM first just to get our feet wet and learn more without too much risk of failing at the landlord part. I'm assuming there are tons, but anyone use or know of some tried and true PM's in the Pinellas county/Clearwater/Safety Harbor/Palm Harbor areas? We talked with one already who does seem good, but we'd like to talk to a few before making a call. The PM we talked to is also a realtor and can help us find good deals and close on them which is a big plus. 

TIA

@Thomas S. Why do you think our current paid off home is not a good rental property? You think the rental expenses would be over $800/month? If we sold the home today, we could probably get around $30k. Its in a starter home/rental home neighborhood. 

Hi, I'm new here too and looking to break into REI in the Tampa Bay area. Curious to hear the responses on this. We will likely be doing this in reverse though. We want to buy a few rental properties prior to buying our "live in" home. I'm a little worried that we might mess up our ability to get our nice personal home after tying ourselves up in a couple of rental property mortgages. We have to buy a personal home in a better school district within 3 years, as this is when our son will hit school age.

I may not know how to word this correctly, but does anyone know of an easy way to research the rental prospects for a certain area (ie: how much places go for, how quickly and consistently they are occupied, quality of renters, etc). Is this just something that can only be found by networking and stalking renter sites or is there an easier way to get some of this info? I am looking at Pinellas and possibly Pasco counties in Florida. Most likely cities of Palm Harbor, Safety Harbor, Clearwater, Dunedin. 

Thanks for the input guys! @Kevin Mika - We could do that, but we wouldn't be able to keep saving money the way we are now. Our current home is paid off and we are not insuring it (we live in a Flood Zone A and the house is not worth the cost of insurance - we are in Holiday). So if we move to pool home, we pay $1600/month for mortgage and get approx $800/month from renting out our current home (this will be all profit, minus renting and pm expenses, since we own it). In my (inexperienced thought process), I imagined saving more money by renting the pool home for $2000/month and staying in our current home. Then we could keep saving money at our current rate ($2000/month) and have approx $400 positive money from the pool house rent. Within a year, we would have much more money saved for acquiring a second rental property, move into the pool home, and rent out current home. If the pool wasn't a factor, would this be a good plan or am I crazy? I fully admit I need to do more homework on how to crunch numbers to analyze deals. I'm really glad I found this forum because I realize my husband and I are being very naive with all this. 

Thanks for your input @David Faulkner - You really lost me in that second paragraph though. I am currently in the process of learning the language of all this REI stuff. I have never bought a home before, but my husband has. He may understand your input a little better, so I will show it to him tomorrow. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

Hi there, 

New to this site and new to REI, so please let me know if this question should be posted in a different thread. I am looking at a home that has a pool. I have heard from a PM that it is not advised to go for a rental property that has a pool due to liability. However, we live in Tampa, FL area, so a pool is sometimes a perk (depending on the tenant I suppose). We actually would like to have this house as our living home once our son is school age because it is in the top rated school zone for the area. What we would like to do is stay in our current home (paid off completely) for a few more years and continue to save money, while we rent out this home. The small research I have done so far, says we should be able to rent the home for $200-$400 more than our mortgage. I obviously need to crunch some more numbers, but just curious if this pool is a deal breaker?