All Forum Posts by: Jessica Goldsmith

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $320,000

A multi-family property in Sevierville. I rent out each unit on Airbnb, Vrbo, and other booking sites.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I personally love Airbnb experiences, and the cash flow looked really good.

How did you finance this deal?

I got a traditional 30-year bank loan

How did you add value to the deal?

Currently in the process of getting the interior re-painted, adding accent pieces, and get professional photos taken. With vacation rentals image is everything!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Hire a guest contact or property manager for managing your short-term rental. I managed it by myself for the first year and regret not hiring someone sooner. It would've reduced my stress and anxiety for sure. Hiring someone diligent and hardworking is more important than where they are located. A short-term rental can be managed from afar if you have the right local contacts in place.

Thanks for the advice, @Mike Krieg! I'll start taking a look at those markets.

@Aaron K. @Brian Napierala Appreciate hearing your takes on residential vs commercial. I was learning more towards residential as well for my first and then maybe getting a commercial property later on.

Thanks @Brian Napierala for the info about the show! I will definitely look into it.

@Aaron K., thanks for noticing. This is something I've been thinking about. Say I have 20 - 25% to put down. For a first-time investor would you have any recommendations for whether to start with a residential or a commercial property in terms of ease to finance and manage?

@Jonathan Wade, welcome to BP! I'm new here as well.

I haven't purchased my first property yet but there seems to be a good number of people on here who have maintained a full-time job while appraising properties. I just started listening to this podcast episode that might be helpful: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/02/21/working-job-investing-real-estate-arthur-garcia/

Welcome @Scott Russ! I am also from the tech world and just starting out on my investment journey. Best of luck to you!

I am a newbie investor hoping to buy and reposition my first multifamily property (4-8ish units) and then refinance it after a year. My background is in nonprofits, front-end web development, and marketing.

Like many on here I would love to reach a point of having financial freedom so I can invest more time and money in what is important to me. Also, I am passionate about communal living so I would love to have at least one property that I hold onto and live in and establish a more intimate community around shared meals and other activities.

As San Diego is such a competitive market right now, I'm researching other markets I can invest in. Since I have job location flexibility, I am hoping to live a year in my first property to get some experience overseeing it.

Excited to connect with people from this community, especially those interested in tag-teaming on some market research for good locations for investing!