All Forum Posts by: James Blalock

Adam - if there are no good prospects in your area look outside of your current location. I’m investing in the Cleveland area and live in Virginia. I’d recommend using your money for a down payment vice buying a manufactured home. Take a look around Euclid ( suburb of Cleveland) for opportunities. Amazon is setting up shop there. $40k would be a nice DP for a property in that area. 

$10k would be a nice reserve, however, if you buy the right property, and account for reoccurring cost in your rent, their shouldn’t be any surprises that would require that size reserve . The buffer on my first property was $2k. With that said, I also put $500/month into the rental property account so that At the end of the year I will have that much more for a down payment on my next property. 

@Danny C.- check with your CPA and attorney. Hire experts. Don't be cheap when it comes to planning for your future. You'll be happier in the long run. 

I'm closing on a MF this month in Cleveland. It's my first rental investment. If all goes as planned, once rented, I should make close to a 12% ROI.

How do you check on the legitimacy of an LLC?

excellent! 

Looks like everyone is providing good advice.  

I thought the usual amount of time for seasoning a property was a year and that you should plan at least that, up to 18 months for paying back to a hard money lender. Sounds like that would have altered your outcome if you had more time to find lower refinancing terms. 

Have you looked into an Home Equity Line of Credit?

Shoot! Unfortunately I have a standing appointment on Monday evenings with my trainer. We'll, maybe I can reschedule a few sessions to check out the REIA.

I read somewhere that when closing on a rental property, you should use the Property Manager's address since they are local and any issues coming via mail would get to them quicker.  Is it possible to have your address listed as the owner and the property manager's address listed for the purpose of sending correspondence? What happens if you change Property Managers? Do you just call the Title Company and provide them with a new address?