All Forum Posts by: James Murphey

@Wendy Fate a big reason many people retire or move to Tennessee is because there is no state income tax.  That saves them a ton of money retirement withdraws.  

@Jacob Morgan I just want to have everything inside of one or two applications.  I do not want to create a monster of different systems for each renter.  Tenant Cloud is looking more appealing. How many properties do you manage? Could you see yourself using your system for 20 properties?  

@Jacob Morgan thanks for the input!  Zillow is such a big company now they seem to have shinny object syndrome.  They are now leveraging their name to do everything.  It would be a great solution because of name recognition, but the more I look into software, I am leaning more toward tenant cloud.  What do you suggest?  

A lot of great advice here.  I do not own a property yet, but I help my mother who refuses to use the internet, and makes multiple trips to bank to deposit checks. I just know I want to have one system in place.  I do not want to be in a situation where one tenant uses vemo, another cash app, another pays in bitcoin, and I need to check cozy.  I am going to check out tenant cloud, smartmove, and zelle.  Thank you all for the input.

I think it is a great way to get into a property with the stipulation that you live there for 1 year. I am planning on utilizing FHA Loans, and moving every year or so to get the financing. The only issues is PMI when punting down less than 3.5%. The PMI can eat us a ton of cashflow, but if you can get enough units in a property that may not be an issue. I am sure the new house hacking book will provide some valuable information.

Personally, I would try to BRRRR. I really like the idea of recycling money while obtaining cash flowing properties. Close second would be down-payments on cash-flowing properties. Did you come into a windfall?

A few of my favorites in no particular order

1.  Building Wealth One House at a time- John Schuab

This book gives a great philosophy about building wealth and how to creativity structure deals.  Some of the information is outdated, but most still applies.  

2.  Land-lording on Autopilot- Mike Butler

No-nonsense systems, and tools to use when buying and managing rental property.  It is a must  for every property manager.  

3.  Retire Early with Real Estate- Chad Carson

This book details many investors who have retired or supplement their retirement with real estate.  It also gives several plans one can follow to retire with real estate.  

4. BRRRR- David Greene

This book gives tips and systems on this BRRRR process. It also give a detailed investor first BRRRR. Things to watch out for when BRRRRing, and how to negotiate rehab cost. Very valuable information if you decide to BRRRR.

I would suggest reading How to Invest in Real Estate first then after that decide what you want to pursue, and concentrate on that.  

Great question. We currently rent a townhouse with HOA fees. Looking at the numbers of when our property was first purchased, and the current rent it is around a 1.5% property. Pretty great cashflow. Living here and seeing how, and who runs the HOA it makes me very weary about ever investing in a property like this one. However, knowing our landlord, and hearing all of the headaches that come from the property manager I would avoid investing in a similar unit or situation. I know another person who had to pay 10k out of pocket to replace all of the old windows in their complex. That would eat up any profit for a while if someone was renting the unit out. I think investing can work, but I would want to be on HOA Board, I would want to know the HOA's financials, specifically the reserves. I would want to feel comfortable with the property manager. There was a podcast of an investor who mostly purchases condos/town-homes. She is successful, but she is very involved with the HOA. I think this is the essential part.

I plan on investing in a college town too.  There are several student housing complexes that offer low rents, movie theater, pool, BBQ area, and more, but they also have terrible management, and parties constantly.  They can be hard to compete with though.  I would check out those places in your town to see what they offer how much their rent is, and what you could do to compete with them.   Let us know how it turns out.  I agree that lowering rent is better then changing your criteria if possible.  

I have a Master in Teaching, and a BS in Physical Education.  I do not think the degrees are as important as the character traits that drive us to get the degrees.  As an educator I am constantly warning students to be careful when when going to college.  I advise them to think of it as an investment.  There needs to be a return that will cover your debt service.  

Anyways, back to the original question.  I do think taking large class loads, human anatomy class, sleeping in my car, and starting my day at 8 and ending at 11 was a valuable experience.  Probably not something I needed to pay thousands of dollars to do.  If someone is a very driven I think they can easily skip higher education and be just as if not more successful.