All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Slaughter

@Adam Sheren way to go and thanks for sharing your story!

Welcome @Starla Nicoll! It sounds like you have a plan, BP is a great resource and I think it will be a huge help as y'all get started.

@James Meador, I see what you're saying. Great news! You can get a conclusive answer from a lender. Some lenders don't need a history of income on a new rental property, they will just use 75% of the income instead of 100%. Additionally, some lenders won't count an income property against your DTI, as long as 75% of the income covers your mortgage, etc. Start calling lenders and if you need any recommendations feel free to send a DM.

Hey @Kevin Grinstead, great question.  Our realtor is AWESOME and I'm super grateful we got connected when we were new investors.  The first thing that comes to mind is the value he added.  It wasn't usually him giving us information but him connecting us with resources, more experienced investors, basically him teaching us how to fish. He constantly asked us questions and let us feel like we were making decision but he was really good at motivational interviewing and giving us perspective from the other side of the transaction.  

We were brand new baby investors when we first started working with him and we learned a ton. It took us SIX MONTHS to finally lock down our first house, we made at least 10 offers and we were under contract 3 times before we finally closed. Talk about annoying clients, sheesh.  But a couple months later we were able to purchase another house with him and the next time we are buying in his market we will buy with him.  

Hope that helps!

Hey @James Meador, are you talking about limiting belief or a maxed out debt to income ratio? I would like to hear more specifics about your situation, are you saying you weren't able to get financing on rental properties or you are afraid you won't be able to finance your home if you purchase a rental property?

I think its wise for you to start building your portfolio while you are still in. We had a lot of friends that built their own portfolios by purchasing a new home at each duty station and we also started building our portfolio while my husband was in USN.

Have you talked to a lender about refinancing out of your VA and into a conventional loan with your current home so you can use the VA when you move to CHS? If you did that, including equity, how much would you need to put down in order to refi?

@Francis Dinh, I might have missed it, but what is your goal with investing? Are you looking for cash flow or something else? 

You are right, you can't change some of the hard numbers and I would keep expenses for vacancy and maintenance conservative.  If the numbers don't make sense based off of your cash flow objective, you can either make a low offer where the numbers would make sense or you can move on and keep looking for a property where the numbers make sense.

@Michael Greenberg, we are working on a side project that is similar but what I think will make ours easier from the bureaucratic side is that our units are attached.  Not nearly as charming as cabins but we will use them for short and long term rentals.  Our project is in central Colorado and I agree, it's a lengthy process of hoops and county/state requirements.

@An Duong, good questions! I like to think in terms of best and worst case scenario.  Consider what you will want to know about how the PM will lower your expenses, AND what they will do to protect your investment if you have tenant issues.

1. Does PM have a full time rehab/maintenance team or do they outsource/hire subs?

I would want a full time team, this will lower your expenses and shorten the amount of time it takes for work to get done.

2. Does PM have in house attorney and accountant?

3. How does PM handle collections and do they have a collection department? 

When I am investing out of state, I want a one stop shop.  I don't want to have to hunt down subs or find an attorney out of state in the case of eviction, etc. I know some investors prefer smaller PM companies, but I want the economies of scale in my favor because the PM will be more likely to offer different services all under the same roof and have professionals to save you money and care for all of the needs for your investment.

@An Duong, why do you need to go to the closing? Unless you want to go, you can close anywhere.  Yesterday I closed in Tennessee...while sitting in an office in Fort Collins, Colorado.  

As far as building a team goes, great questions.  I like to start with a good old fashioned google search, you can plug in the name of the business you're looking at and see if anything negative or positive comes up, there are also scam and forum websites where you can make sure there isn't anything alarming.  

From there, interview PM's.  Ask your most important questions. Get referrals, ask them your most important questions. Check them out on BBB.  

You can invest anywhere from anywhere and what will set you apart is having expert boots on ground nearby your investment. I have built remote teams in different areas, feel free to reach out if you have more questions.

That's crazy and I second what everyone else said, fire him.  Out of curiosity, did you get references for him before you started working with him? I've worked with different agents out of state and in my process of interviewing different professionals and doing due diligence sometimes you get info that is a red flag.  I've never worked with someone like what you are describing but hopefully you still have the chance to avoid working with him.