All Forum Posts by: Jennifer S.

Oakland is setting itself up for a lawsuit. All it takes is a violent crime to be committed against one innocent tenant by another criminal tenant, which could have been prevented by running a background check. I'm thinking along the lines of sex offenders.

Yeah, I've run into my share of naysayers as well. Some people are just inherently risk-averse, not actually knowledgeable about investing let alone real estate investing, or just too traditional in their lifestyle interests to consider something like house-hacking/landlording/renovating/flipping. 

My recommendation is to discuss this people who have a demonstrated interest in trying out different investment vehicles besides 401Ks, IRAs, and pensions. People who mention they are interested in looking into other types of investments will be open-minded enough to discuss REI further and weigh the pros and cons and potential risks rationally without being immediately dismissive.

Has anyone on here gotten into a bidding war, competing against multiple offers for an investment property? What are your strategies for getting through the process?

For background, when searching for our (my husband and I) first property, we got into multiple-offer situations for several houses. We lost on several before finally getting somewhat lucky.

Why not just tell all of the applicants that you will be increasing rent by at least $100 at the end of the lease and just see how many are still interested? This way you are not be scammy but they know it's underpriced and to expect an increase?

As a Millennial, it disheartens me to see so many of my generation "struggling". But I suspect a lot of this is due to people not truly being willing to make sacrifices (e.g. the schools, the lifestyle, etc). Packing a lunch is not a sacrifice. I listen to some people who make six-figure salaries tell me they will never be able to afford a home - well that may be true if only a luxury home in the most expensive neighborhood will do (all the while paying high rent to live alone). Other people I know complain that they had to spend some money renovating one part of their home and how much of a struggle it was. Everyone wants perfection and they want it immediately.

On the other hand, if they were willing to do something like what a lot of people on here do (myself included): buy a fixer-upper and house-hack or just whatever it takes to get started, they could make a real sacrifice for a few years and come out far ahead. But people usually balk when hearing this. Too much work and supposedly too risky. 

That said, I wonder if the subject of the article can't buy a home because her debt to income ratio is too high with how much she still owes in loans.

You can roll it over to your new 401k, roll it over to an IRA, or take the distribution. If you rollover into a like 401k or IRA (i.e. Roth to Roth or traditional to traditional) you will highly likely not pay taxes. You should confirm this with your broker though (e.g. Vanguard, Fidelity, etc.). If you take the distribution, you pay taxes plus a penalty for early withdrawal.

If you decide to rollover, my recommendation would be to ask a financial advisor what type of fund or ETF would give the best tax advantages as well as the right portfolio for your age. Other people have mentioned putting into a total stock index fund, which does limit some risk since your money is spread across the stock market. However, there are two caveats: 1) portfolio theory says that you should balance stocks with some bonds and other more conservative investments (the ratio to be determined by your age), and 2) some funds/ETFs make more sense in terms of taxes for traditional 401ks/IRAs than for Roth and vice-versa (this is called tax optimization). 

Any properties near Redstone Arsenal will likely go up in value over the next several years. More personnel both inside and outside the Arsenal will be moving in within the next couple of years - and all of those people are going to be looking for places to rent (and then possibly buy).They are all likely to be high-salary and good tenants due to the nature of their work. If I were you, I would start looking around there first.

Thank you all for the warm welcome. I'm looking forward to connecting and participating in the BiggerPockets community!

Hi everyone!

Excited to join BiggerPockets, connect with like-minded real estate investors and professionals, and learn as much as I can!

My husband and I bought our first 2-unit house hack a few years ago in Medford, MA and we are looking forward to buying a second house-hack property sometime next year as we prepare to start growing our family. We've learned a lot over the past few years about renovations and being landlords, but there's always more to learn ...

We also invest through REITs (like Vanguard) and real estate crowd funding.

Looking forward to getting to know everyone!