All Forum Posts by: Irvin Nguyen

@Account Closed

Yea I agree, when I was first setting thing all up, I would assume a tv in the living room and master room is good enough. But looking in forums people have mentioned that they like to watch tv at the end of their day to unwind before bed. Which I can understand. Plus side is at least tvs these days are not as expensive as they used to be so it is affordable to have them. I have seen people complain about not having enough tvs in the home but have yet to see someone complain about having too many tvs? Still new to this all and trying to make sure I start off on the right foot going into my first str. I'm in oregon so it does get rainy in the winter seasons so that could be one reason for getting it or if the house is booked by 4-5 couples vacationing together who just want to go to their own rooms end of the night and watch a show. 

@Forrest T Schue 

I dont plan to rent it out by the room, looking more towards renting out the entire house. 

Hi guys,

Looking to setup one of my an STR and was only planning to set up a TV in the living room and master room. Its a 5 bedroom home, was curious to see if NOT having TV's in every room is a deal breaker? The tv's I was leaning towards is the TCL with built in ROKU which are pretty budget friendly. Just trying to see what are must haves. Or if having a TV in every room is too much ?

I went with the HELOC option. my rate on my primary was 2.99% so I felt that cash out at a 6.3% was not ideal for me. HELOC seemed best for my situation because if I took out a equity loan or refi, with having to make payments right away, I didnt want to feel forced to rush to buy into a bad choice. Now looking for properties, I just take in to account the HELOC payment also so as long as the cashflow coming in covers both the house payments, expenses and AT LEAST the HELOC interest, I can tackle the principal then refi later when things go back and just throw the difference saved back into the HELOC principal as well.

Awesome information guys! Thank you for all this. I'll let you guys know how it goes!

thank you guys! all for the helpful insights! Will be talking to my current PM about our situation right now and make a decision from there. Just trying to plan everything out for the what if situation if tenant leaves, or choose to stay. But my biggest worry was that Oregon isn't too landlord friendly so I just wanna make sure all bases are covered to mitigate any other headaches that may occur during the transition.

 Thank you @Nathan Gesner ! Will definitely start looking into those. Appreciate the help.

Hi all,

I currently own a rental property in Beaverton, OR.  Our tenants lease ends in April and plan to renew it so they say for now anyways. My wife and I were currently looking to stop working with property management and trying to take it on ourselves. How was dealing with the tenants, PM, and everything from canceling PM and taking on the role yourselves? Was there any fees or things i should look out for? Or how do you go about telling your tenants? I assume they wont have an issue since nothing is really changing for them besides new management and rent increase. I just would have to find a lease contract to write up for their renewal. I have looked into rentredi, and stessa so far. Is there any other stuff you guys would recommend?

if it helps, our heloc just went through and we had to draw 50k on our 200k and just threw it all back in after. No seasoning period or anything. 

Quote from @Eric Fernwood:

Hello @Irvin Nguyen,

Assuming your goal is to get off and stay off the daily worker treadmill, I recommend selecting an investment location before selecting a property type. All long-term income characteristics are determined by the location. Also, select a location based on metrics, not other people’s opinions. I recommend the following:

• Metro area population size greater than 1M. Small towns may rely too much on a single business or market segment. Wikipedia
• Both state and metro populations are increasing. Do not buy anywhere if the state or metro populations are static or decreasing. Wikipedia
• Low crime - High crime and long-term appreciation and rent growth are mutually exclusive. Do not invest in any city on Neighborhood Scouts' list of the 100 most dangerous US cities.
• Low operating cost - High operating costs can turn what appears to be a profitable property into a money pit. The three most apparent are income taxes, property taxes, and insurance. Insurance - ValuePenguin, Metro Property Taxes - LendingTree
• Inflation compensating - To have the additional dollars you need to pay for inflated prices, rents must rise faster than inflation. Therefore, a critical location selection metric is that rents and prices are rising faster than inflation. Rents lag prices, so you can use the appreciation rate if you do not have historical rental data. Zillow Research
• Rent control - Some states and metro areas have implemented various kinds of rent control. Rent control may prevent you from increasing the rent fast enough to keep pace with inflation. It may limit your property manager's ability to select the best tenant. It may make evictions of non-performing tenants difficult or impossible. Never invest in any location with rent control. Rental restriction information comes from interviewing local property managers.

After location, the next most important decision is the tenant pool segment. The only way you will have a reliable income is if your property is continuously occupied by a reliable tenant. A reliable tenant is someone who

• Has stable employment in a market segment that is very likely to be stable or improve over time
• Pays all the rent on schedule
• Takes care of the property
• Does not cause problems with neighbors
• Does not engage in illegal activities while on the property
• Stays for many years

How do you find a segment with the highest percentage of reliable tenants? Interview multiple local property managers. If you would like a list of sample questions, let me know.

Once you select a segment, determine where and what they rent today (from property manager interviews) and buy similar properties. Important: the tenant pool segment determines all property characteristics (type, configuration, rent range, and location.) If you buy anything else, you exclude this segment.

What if you choose a property based on others' opinions and not the tenant segment you want to target? See the image below. You get whatever the property comes with, which may not meet your long-term goals.

Ivan, I hope this helped.

 @Eric Fernwood 

Amazing and helpful post! Thank you for all these useful links to look into. Looks like I have a lot more to add to my list of research before picking a location. I will also start calling some property managers to get some data as well.