All Forum Posts by: Jaron Walling

@Bryan Liu "The repair for foundation and earthquake retrofit comes to $97,000." - How much experience do you have repairing and remodeling RE? 

"Currently, asking some of my close friends to help sign a lease agreement with me. I provide them with the rent amount and they write a check in their name." - So a fake lease agreement trying to show rental income? This reads like fraud. 

You shouldn't drain $200k from a stock portfolio to get this deal done. Unless you bought a homerun deal I'd never consider it. Retirement account? Early withdraw taxes really hurt. 

@Steve Dora You have come to right place. The BP forums and blogs are full of useful, free, information. I encourage you to search in the forums, connect, and learn about your market. You're local to some good markets for both rentals and flipping real estate. 

READ, READ, READ, and research your backyard. Look at what other investors did before you and try aligning it with 2024. We know it's challenging because so much has changed post COVID, fed rate hikes, etc. but that's how you avoid rehab mistakes, bad neighborhoods, and terrible deals. 

Never buy in an area you wouldn't live in. 

Your former boss (retired) inspired you how? What REI did he do, can you learn from him, does he have anything for sale? Every contact you know that actively does REI is your new best friend. I have good friends but very few actually own investment properties. None of my parents ever owned rentals. They're homeowners not investors. Big difference.

What are your strengths? Leverage the h**l of them ASAP. When I started out it was swinging hammers, DIY projects, and managing local contractors for heavy lifting. I'm a people person and ask detailed questions. Find/buy/create opportunities that align with your strengths. If something is outside of your knowledge, contactor support, or understanding walk away. Everyone levels up. Very few people start out with an 8-unit apartment, and 3 SF flips going all at once. 

Get to the finish line on a property and be proud. I remember my first cash-out refinance like it was yesterday. My brother and I made it through a 6 month live-in flip and put $10k into my checking account tax free. Know your numbers, strategy, and block out the noise. 

@Corina Eufinger Alternating lights on night is something I do when working on property. It's worth it and takes no effort. 

@Lisa Mallory 

I'm glad your doing okay! Sorry to hear about your property. We took this disaster personally as we love Asheville and have visited many times.

When there's an official presidential disaster declaration (there was), flood insurance policy holders should apply for FEMA assistance in addition to their flood insurance claim. I would apply because FEMA disaster assistance can help with uncovered expenses, and we all know how insurance companies play games! I can't speak for the taxes or how to handle that so ask your CPA when the time is right.

I'd review of your flood insurance policy and see what's covered. Hopefully your insurance is pretty good. Be glad you had it. FEMA assistance is pretty limited. Anything is better than nothing.

I work with floodway violations at the Indiana DNR. My job is stopping and/or limiting construction in mapped floodways. The flooding that occurred NC/TN had to be beyond mapped zones. 

My family is donating supplies for the flood. I'm posting on socials and posting on here. We're working with Civilian Crisis Response Team (https://7ccrt.org/Donate). They're coordinating with other agencies, collecting supplies (they have a list), and flying it down on Saturday. I think there doing multiple drops but we don't know. 

The disaster services are 100% funded by it's members and donations.

We had a vacation planned for Asheville in 2 weeks. We hope for a quick recovery. Sending prayers from Indiana.

Sounds like you're doing the right thing. I'm glad your tenants are okay! It's really sad to see everything destroyed. It's hard to watch the flood damage in the news because my wife and I have visited numerous times. We got married in Asheville two years ago. 

FEMA rental Assistance covers the cost of monthly rent and essential utilities, gas, electric, water, trash, and sewer. It does not cover phone, internet, or TV.

I'd open up the STRs for locals in need. You're going to have cancelations because nobody OOS can safely travel. We just cancelled our family vacation to Asheville. We were suppose to be down there on Oct. 14th, but have no way to visit due to the damaged roads. We were looking forward to taking our 10 month old son into the mountains. Hopefully your properties can benefit someone else. 

"FEMA announced that federal disaster assistance is available to the state of North Carolina to supplement recovery efforts in the areas affected by Tropical Storm Helene from Sept. 25, 2024, and continuing."

"The President's action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey counties."

@Joshua Melero We had vacant property that were remodeling and considered installing cameras inside the property. At the time my wife and I were very hands on with remodels. I worked late hours getting projects completed so I never installed cameras. When we get into our next property and remodel I'm installing the system linked below. We did buy the basic indoor system for our primary residence and use it everyday. It's super easy and runs via the app or keypad.

https://simplisafe.com/

From the website - "Without Wi-Fi, you can still change your system and sensors’ basic settings via the Keypad as well as take advantage of our Professional Monitoring service’s basic features. And if you are subscribed to a monitoring plan that includes cellular backup, your Base Station will still communicate with our cellular connection back-up."

The service is not very expensive and once the remodel is complete you could take it all down. You don't even have to drill holes in the walls to mount stuff. You can have multiple base stations and multiple properties all connected under one account. You can buy extra indoor cameras or customize kits. Cheers man. 

@Chris Villegas The original tenant is responsible for any action that takes place in your property. They're obligated to honor the lease agreement. Read your lease agreement (again) and follow it accordingly. 

You should have clauses in the lease that describes what takes places if someone moves out, moves in, or tenants want to break the lease early. Allowing them to move in depends on your screening criteria (criminal findings) and your history with the original tenant. Text messages and phone calls go a long way here. If you have a long standing tenant, good communication, and rent is paid on time this shouldn't be an issue. 

It's a case-by-case situation but it's also a business. Don't be waver from your lease and screening criteria. 

@Jared Sliwinski Are you living in the property? If so you can rent rooms to anyone and nobody can stop you. I rented a room to my brother for 2 years when I bought and remodeled my first property. 

If you're not planning to live in the property you can still offer rent by the room. I'd be shocked if Youngstown, OH has regulations regarding this. Every tenant would have there own lease stating the rules and responsibilities for BOTH parties. I've always compared rent-by-room to student housing. During my time in college I never lived on campus and rented four different houses with roommates. We all signed leases individually and the landlords never had special zoning or permits. If one of the roommates (tenants) moved out the others had to cover the difference in rent or find a replacement tenant. The person moving out also have the option to find a replacement. 

Rent-by-the-room is a great strategy in this market. It provides housing when we have limited supply, it's a good way to find tenants and make friends, and it produces a great ROI (if managed correctly) because the rental income is generally higher. If you live in the property it's basically a house hack. It's a win-win for anyone with flexibility in there life. Best of luck man.

@Austin Bird Good looking spreadsheet. I'm not sure if this is BRRRR deal or flip but the numbers are fairly accurate.

IMO here are some issues;

#1 Do you have experience with foundation repairs? Does the property actually need this repair? $25k for that expense is huge. It's a deal or no deal issue if you ask me and we have REI experience. We cosmic+ remodeled an entire SFH for <$25k. If you decide to buy a property like this you probably need to buy it cheaper, get multiple quotes, and talk to contactors in person. That's when you ask detailed questions. That's how you read body language, negotiate, and get a better price.

#2 $12k for the entire kitchen or just cabinets and countertops? Plumbing, GFCI outlets, tile backsplash, etc.? This is over priced unless you're remodeling a big kitchen, going luxury, or looking to flip. 

#3 $2500 for painting (assuming interior) is incredibly low unless you're doing the work yourself. Two coats of paint including ceilings and trim for a 1200 sqft. house in our market is at least $5k including materials. You can probably "find a guy" for cheap but they will spray everything (blow and go) and cut corners. Depends on your expectation for this remodel. Cheaply painted houses drives me nuts. Think about the end buyer or renter. 

The negative CF hurts but how much equity is created remodeling this property? What's the ARV? That's where you build real wealth. It's the spread between the purchase, ARV, and future cash-flow (lunch money). Maybe rates dip a little and you rent it for $1400 next year. That could boost cash-flow and make this a fantastic deal.

Cheers man