All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Robinette

Hi good to hear from you! The property works out great! You want to talk over thr phone or meet for coffee? Would love to help you with your investment needs! My cell is still the same 7035893146

Jennifer

Jess F. Hi Jess, I have invested in two buy and hold houses in Manassas and Woodbridge lately. I live in Falls Church where no houses can cash flow. However I was able to find two houses less than an hour away that can cash flow even with more expensive type of Commercial Mortgage as I bought them in LLC. Here are some numbers for your reference. Feel free to contact me if you want to learn more. Manassas: SFH, built in 1950s but was remodeled by the previous owner. Bought for $299,500, 25% downpayment, 3.85% interest rate, amortized over 25 years. So monthly payment of PITI is a little less than $1500 per month. Rent out before the closing so only have it vacant for week. Very lucky this time. Great renters with good credit for $2100 per month. Cash flow $600+ per month. So far only have some small maintenance but I do expect some Major repair with the next 5-8 years. So the cash will probably mostly be saved for a new roof, new hot water heater and some other unexpected repair. Woodbridge: TH, built in 1985 and also remodeled when I bought it. Paid $200,000 with $5k seller subsidy. It took a little over a month to get the right tenant. The price level and the area attracted a lot of low credit score people. I finally decided to rent to a mom with two daughter who are on county subsidy (section 8). Monthly payment $1077 and rent $1450. Tenant pays $720 and the county pays $730. I do think this tenant will stay for many years and have less vacancy cost down the road. The house won't have a lot of repairs down the road. When I am looking for rentals, I look at Cap Rate (gross rent/purchase price), return on cash (net rent / cash invested), monthly cash flow etc. You need to have enough cash flow to cover potential vacancy (I use 10%), potential fixes and capital reserve (10%), and the property management (10%) ( I manage those myself now but I plan for the worst, if we need to move out of the area for example, we will need to put it under property management and the cash flow needs to be enough to cover that cost) and see if the cash flow is still positive. Ideally you still have a few hundreds positive cash flow after the costs but it is hard in our area. So my goal is to not put in any more money down the road for fixes etc. The cash flow needs to be enough to cover those costs. If I have money left, great, but I invest this for the long run. The key to hold it for long is to be able to hold it for a long time without impacting your life. Eventually the equity will be paid off and the price and rent will go up and you will see the benefits. The first 5 years are mostly to break even. Hope this helps! BTW, I did this for a 1031 exchange so I had to find a house that was ready. You can buy a fix upper and save some costs upfront as well if there is no time restrictions.

I recommend Joe Facenda with ReMax, he has helped me with a couple of similar rentals recently. Highly recommended. Very responsive and knows the knees of investors. He is on BP as well.

I use verticalrent.com to manage my properties. It has a free version that is good enough for me now since I only have three properties to manage. I can upgrade to a pay version to collect rent directly and have a tenant portal which will be needed once I have a lot more properties. Jennifer

Recently I did a 1031 exchange to convert a one bedroom condo in Falls Church to a single family house at Manassas and a TH at Woodbridge. The house at Manassas rent out quickly but have some trouble getting the right tenant at Woodbridge TH. I posted the listing on Postlet and get lots of inquiries, but many of them don't show up during the showing or don't have the credit I want. Thinking about using property manager this time. Really appreciate anyone who can recommend one in Woodbridge area!

Thanks

Jennifer

I am looking for a good construction lawyer to help draft a contract between me, my partner who is also the owner of the builder we are using so that it represents all of our rights in the fair way. Would appreciate a recommendation very much!

@Tom Kern, Thank you so much for the referral! Sorry for not replying back for so long! Kristin has been great and I think I will use her for my BRP. Thanks again!

thank you everyone! I got the one I needed from Sears. It has 27th in depth but it turned out that you can install the vent on the side to save about 4" in the back.  

Jennifer

I am renovating a condo I own to sell and I can't find a stackable dryer/washer that fit the space.  All the dryer/washer center I found are 27" depth, I can only have the set that is 24-25" in depth. Does anyone know where I can find those? 

Thanks

Jennifer

Hi, I am in Northern Virginia and doing a tear down and new construction project. I need to purchase a Builder Risk Policy under a LLC but all the agents I have talked to can only insure under my own name and add the LLC as add'l policy holder. Does anyone have done those deal before and can refer their insurance agent to me? Also anyone knows the major difference between insurance under LLC I own, vs. insurance under my name and add the LLC as add'l holder?

Appreciate the help!

Jennifer