All Forum Posts by: Jarrod English

I appreciate all the advice.  I've been looking at all of your websites as well and it's interesting to see what you all do.  I'd definitely like to get in touch with some of you and see if we can make some deals happen :)

I think first though I'm going to spend a little time researching taxes and corporations.  Speak to a lawyer and accountant and then some lenders to see what my options are.  I'd like to be more in a position to pull the trigger before actually making trips down to the states.  This may take me a few months I'm thinking though.  I'll be sure to share my progress as I go.

Only if I'm not there occupying Dawn's time haha.  The nice thing about those prices is I could probably snag 2 or 3 without looking for financing in the US.

Ah yes it was you Dawn!  I didn't know you worked with Canadians too.  I read Ali's article that popped up about where to invest with the pretty coloured bar graph and a lot of people seem to be recommending the Indianapolis area.  I would definitely be interested in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indianapolis, Georgia (seems to come up often) and maybe some others like Kentucky. Willing to partner up for some deals Dawn? :D

I feel like a lot of you bigger pockets celebrities probably have 50 of your own properties to manage, how do you take on out of state people's properties also?  Do you assist in locating the property for the person?  One thing I'm not sure about is how to do the due diligence in another area.  I was browsing zillow/trulia/realtrac and see cool heat maps, but also hear people mention how they are way out to lunch on pricing and accuracy.  I'm not sure where to find what the actual house prices are, what the good neighbourhoods are and what the average rent is.  In the ideal world, I find a partner that's looking to property manage for whatever fee they take, they find me a house and I buy it in cash or with financing that hopefully I acquire on my own.  This is why I ask if you folks find houses and if you charge like a finders fee haha.  But I don't mind digging in and doing research, just trying to figure out where to start :)

PS:  I would love to snatch up a house for $16,000 and rent it out for $700 a month though, sounds like a great deal to me!  Is that a normal housing price down there or is that on the really low end.  When I see these really cheap homes online, it's hard to tell if it's a good buy from looking on the internet, if it's in a good neighbourhood, and if it'll even rent.

I would pretty much just be looking for the single family homes.  I'm not sure if people have basement suites in the US?  It wouldn't be a big deal though and would probably prefer a simple rental.

I've seen some of your posts in my searches.  You look/sound to be a well known and reputable person and would be exactly someone I'd be looking for as a partner haha.  There was last week's podcast with the guy from California partnering up with the one woman out in the mid-west, just looking to do exactly the same thing.  Not sure if you're interested in that as you say you used to work with Canadians.

Hello, I've been aware of Bigger Pockets for about a year now. Had some simple ideas about long term passive cash flow by slowly acquiring buy and hold properties.  I've got one house that has a basement suite and the upstairs is about to get renovated and rented out as well.  I intended on picking up another similar house for my next investment but houses here are going for at least $350,000 and am starting to take interest in the US market.

I've been browsing on here and everyone seems to agree you need a great partner in the city you're acquiring property as well as a lawyer and accountant to handle all the legalities/taxes.  There was also a topic discussing using a corporation or joint venture and other options.  I think currently I'd be more interested in a buy and hold where I try and obtain my own financing and the partner is just there for property management.  Ideally I'm thinking I could find someone reputable on Bigger Pockets :)
I may also be interested in funding a flip as this would get me some short term profits.

I found a useful link on here showing the average housing prices of major cities in the US and I am going to start exploring Zillow and Trulia.  What I wanted to know is where people think some great opportunities are and how people go about looking for their next purchase in the US (I'll start searching around as there are probably tips on this in other forums).  For those that have entered into this sort of business arrangement, have you purchased the house on your own or with a realtor's help, or do you have your partner in the US locate properties for you for a small fee?

Any advice is greatly appreciated as I'm looking to gather all the information and just start casually browsing properties.  I'm actually going on a mini vacation to Phoenix from July 1st-5th and would love to spend a few hours with someone there if they don't mind showing me around.  My plans for now are just a little research and to start being more active on here and see if I can find some potential partners, and then make a trip down to the states to meet them and make my first purchase sometime in 2014!

Thanks!

Hello, I'm watching my first ever tenant move into my first ever basement suite right now and noticing a few items that makes me wonder about wear and tear in regards to hanging paintings or shelves. They asked me about hanging a few small shelves in the bathroom and asked if I had touch up paint for when they take them down. And so I'm ok with that as long as they fill in the holes and cover it up.

Just curious to hear what other peoples experiences are. Like do you make tenants fill in little tiny tack holes if they hang up a poster or something? Or do you just leave it be and let it accumulate over the years and then do a full paint job with filling holes later?

Thanks for the info.

I'm curious, when you do a lease with students for your properties, are you creating a fixed term lease for a whole year or something month to month? Or do you have the lease set for 8 months to match the school year?
Thanks

See that's what I was kind of aiming for was national/international students. I inquired about the need for room housing with the university and they said there was always a high demand. If I provided room/utilities/internet I think it would fetch me at least $500 a room. I've heard of some places going as high as $700. I'd have to do some local market comparison first. I went and purchased all the appliances last night. Didn't get furniture as I was leaning towards what everyone was saying and that I should avoid the per room basis. Perhaps I should have been clear that I was focusing on bringing in students :)

Does that change anyone's opinion?

That sure is a lengthy reply on the downsides of things haha. I the point about liability is definitely a good one. Some bonuses to my suite is that they are all lockable doors and there are no carpets. I won't be allowing pets or smokers either. Probably broken furniture and keeping the place clean will be the toughest. I don't think I would do a co-ed type of situation, it would be all guys or all girls as there is only one bathroom they'd have to share.

I'm from Canada and we're allowed to rent per room here. I was mainly going to look at students (national and international) as they would be the easiest to maintain I think. Keeping to themselves studying in their rooms all the time heh.

Good point about the set it and forget it type of investment. Perhaps there will be more time spent trying to find single room tenants than an individual. One bonus is that I live upstairs so I'll know what mostly goes on. I was thinking it would be smart to have a monthly visit to the basement as a sort of check in to make sure nothing is damaged and the place is clean. Just have to give 24 hour notice here before doing that.

If anyone has any more experience with room versus full suite rental, by all means share your story. I'll have to think about this a little more.

Hello,

I've finally taken my first step towards real estate investing and have a finished basement suite in my home. It has a separate kitchen and laundry. Now that the basement suite is done, I'm thinking it would be very smart for me to move out after completing some renos upstairs and renting out the upstairs. Even if I move into an apartment for rent or stay with a friend and pay some $500-$700 a month, I'd still be making money on the upstairs.

So my 2 options for the current basement suite are:

- I could rent out the whole suite with utilities/internet for maybe $1200-$1400.

- Or do it based on room with utilities/internet at around $500-$700 per room for 3 rooms. One room is large, one is medium and one is small so I was thinking of charging $550 for the small room, $600 medium and $650 large (possibly $1800/month).

If I go the individual room route, I would have to furnish it and would put in a dresser, bed and desk. I like this route because I also don't have to worry about people moving in and out and hauling their furniture through the suite as everything is brand new down there haha.

So my questions are more related to if I go on a per room basis and buy beds, my mom suggested buying mattress protectors and plastic sheets for the beds to protect them. I'm wondering if tenants would be uncomfortable with that as I imagine it's noisy to sleep on. On the plus side it protects the beds and I don't have to worry about replacing them (though they'll only be $100 or so for a small mattress). Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

I was also curious about chores, specifically shoveling snow as I won't have any shared space with the tenants. Winter is coming and I will be living upstairs and figured it's fair that I shovel the front walks and the tenants would shovel on the side of the house which is where they would walk to get to the back door. Does that sound reasonable?

And then the taking care of the bed coverings and the snow shoveling, is this something that should be written down in the lease? If I furnish things, should there be some sentence in the lease about "all furniture in the suite is property of the house" so there's no disputing what's owned by me/the house if there are issues with a tenant and furniture? If something gets damaged then it's covered.

I think that's all I have for now but I'm sure there will be lots more to come so I'll use this thread to bounce ideas off everyone.

Any help is greatly appreciated!