All Forum Posts by: Jarid T. Sox

@Patrick McGowen thank you for the reply. It’ll be about a month in Billings followed by heading up to Havre. With MSU-northern and the railroad there’s plenty of people always wanting to rent and not put down roots.

Using a zero down VA is my plan for the first property and I may try to do it like a house hack as Brandon has described on multiple occasions. I'm decently familiar with that as it's how I bought my first house

It sounds like everything was done through text. Which I'm going to assume means you didn't have a contract because you've worked with him before and trust him. If you're comfortable enough to work without a contract, 200 in materials is really nothing. Additional materials are common on roof jobs. However, if you want to avoid this in the future put him under contract that requires change orders. Then if he needs additional materials he needs to submit a change order or he forfeits legal claim to any more money. That being said 200 dollars could have easily been 1000 from someone else. It's always risky to work without a contract. Similar to conducting business with friends. Contracts keeps everything professional and while it may seem too formal, will actually keep the relationship more healthy. Just my .02. I'm quite new to the REI world but I know contracting haha

This is a bit of a dual post between a new member introduction and starting out. My name is Jarid Sox. I am currently active duty in the USMC but will be transitioning out within the next several months. I have been listening to the BP podcasts during my commute and have read a few books including the book on Rental Property Investing by @Brandon Turner. I am moving to Montana after a get out of the military and am looking to invest in real estate through house hacking and buy and hold investing. I will be using a combination of VA loans and conventional loans to get started with multi-family residential and eventually multi-family commercial properties. I have a fair amount carpentry and DIY skills and a pretty robust inventory of tools to start with coupled with roughly 60k in capitol to start with. I am waiting until I am in the town that I am moving to actually pull the trigger on my first deal but I am trying to evaluate the market and find deals now. I am looking to get some advice and updates to my strategy.

Currently I am finding properties that have been on the market for a while and getting what they are renting for. I then run the numbers not for what the asking price is but what I can offer to make them follow the 2% rule, as well as 1.75% and 1.5%. I'm using 50% of the monthly total at 100% occupancy to account for expenses. Then, from the remainder I subtract mortgage, tax, and insurance. I'm planning on 20% down and calculate rough cash on cash ROIs from that. So far I have found 3 properties that I think I would have a fair chance of getting offers accepted on. One 4-plex, one 5-plex, and one 14-plex apartment complex. The lowest cash on cash in my figures for these 3 properties comes in at 12.7 with the way I am calculating. 

Does this sound like a fairly accurate way to calculate my initial deal or would you be factoring in other things as well? I understand that 50% for expenses is a very rough number and will vary depending on the property but it seemed to be a relatively conservative approach to start with until I come to know my market better. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!