All Forum Posts by: Jiri B.

You would need to hire a broker in charge who would associate with your LLC and then obtain a firm license for your LLC.

In my opinion, condos have horrible appreciation over time and considering we are at the hight of the real estate market, I don't think going for negative cash flow in this case is a good idea. The one way i would personally consider condo at this market is if I can at least have a very good cashflow out of it.

Of course, you can just put more money down to offset the cashflow but at that point, you are just making yourself feel better about bad investment.

If condos are your thing, maybe look into some that need improvements / rehab which would allow you to purchase under market value, get extra equity and increase the rent once you fix it up.

@Rachel Healy those are good questions. I think this will all depend on the details as well. 

Obviously, the easiest option would be to sell that as is and let the buyer figure that out. 

If you can get enough rent (which i would assume so) to cover your cost and get positive cashflow and willing to become a landlord and don't need the cash, then renting it out might also be good. Also depends on how long ago and for how long you lived there. Eg. from tax perspective, if the home was a primary resident for at lest 2 years in the past 5 years, you might just sell it and avoid capital gains (I believe up to 500k for married couple). Otherwise renting it out might be better to avoid the taxes.

As for subdividing the land or working with a builder. That will depend on the details.

Eg. What is the exact size of the lot. Does the current zoning allow you to do that? Are there any other restrictions (HOA). Are there utilities on site, or is that home on septic tank, etc.. What about the other homes / lot in that subdivision? Is there any new construction nearby? There is a lot of due diligence to do on that. But if you enjoy doing that, then why not.

Also keep in mind, that building new homes is pretty expensive right now and there is a labor shortage so it might take some extra time. Not sure if builders would want to take on that risk unless it's a very desirable location.

You can probably check Zillow to see what the home might be worth as is and see if that would work. The market is still pretty hot so selling now might be a good time right now. If you don't want to publicly share the address, I can send you comps or more details specifically for your home if that helps.

Either way, good luck :)

Wow, that's a great, detailed write up @Denise Brown-Puryear I think the trend is pretty clear. The more hands on and the more effort you put in, the better the outcome. Which kind of sounds logical. I really like how you have vendors for all the main work and then do the parts you enjoy the most. I think that is the key to happiness and successful business, enjoying what you do. 

Thank you for providing all that information, that's very helpful to hear that.

Thank you @Kenneth Jackson and @Bruce Woodruff. Those are great comments. It completely makes sense that the more effort and time you put into that, the likely better return you will get. I will do more research and see if there are maybe services that helps with that. I don't mind providing the properties but wont have enough time to manage all that. But considering the possible returns, I could even hire someone full time to take care of most of that stuff.

I really appreciate all the comments! Thank you!

I'm a long term rental investor but lately been thinking about trying an Airbnb. One of the main reason for my hesitation though is my time. The nice thing about long term rentals is that once you have a tenant, it requires very little time investment.

Would anyone be able to help me understand what amount of time it would take for managing Airbnb? Are there any good services that can be relied on, like cleaning, stocking up coffee, etc in the Raleigh / Cary location that are dependable?

And how much more profitable this would be vs typical rentals?

Just trying to get a grasp of this if anyone would be willing to share their experience with short term rental.

@Brian Garrett good luck on your project! I think it's great you are finding ways to make this happen. I would just be cautious about doing the work yourself, without pulling permits. You might get it look good, but if you have no permits it might not be safe or up to code and might make the house hard to sell down the road. There are certainly some stuff that does not require permits so those type of thing, might be ok but I would focus on the quality as well.

I think your question is hard, because the actual cost comes down to the details. Eg, how big is the home, what year it was build, what type of plumbing the home currently have? 

For example, replacing a simple roof of 11000sqft home will be much different then complex roof on 2,800sqft home. The same goes for pluming. If the home was build in 1950, small leaks might mean all new plumbing. Or if the home was build in 1980's maybe the plumbing is polybutylene and again, will require whole house plumbing. 

How big is the driveway and or does only small section needs to be replaced?

I know you might not be able to post the address worrying someone else might find or get the deal but without the details, it will be pretty hard. 

Also keep in mind, most houses these days are already priced well with the cost of repairs in place and trying to get anything or even writing an offer under asking price is pretty laughable today. Not trying to discourage you but it's tough. The chances are that if the home is a good deal, someone already more experienced looked at it. If no one is bidding on it, then i would be cautious. Inspections are good start, but they don't check anything that the inspector cannot see so once you start opening walls, you might be in a big surprised. Some of the things you have described sounded like the structural integrity of the home could be compromised so it might be more then cosmetic things. Water damage can cause a very serious damage to structures.

Sorry I was not able to give you any specific numbers to help you but good luck, sometimes keeping it simple might be good to get started with. So if this does not work out for you, maybe finding something with a little less work and little less risk might be good to get your foot in..

It's relatively simple process. Sounds like you already have some knowledge so will just answer your direct question.

The replacement property needs to be like kind exchange. I don't think there is a very specific definition for that so in your case, as long as you are going from an investment property to another investment property, you should be fine. I did a duplex > sfh.

The intermediary is pretty much just someone who holds the funds for you in a trust account. I used a specific intermediary company to do that. I think it was about $800 and they took care of the funds / payments and paperwork so it was worth it. But your closing attorney could technically do that as well for you if that is something they offer. 

The whole process sounds complicated but once you do it once, it's really very simple and very straightforward as long as you stick to the rules.

In the lower price range, Zillow seems to get the majority of leads / inquires. That also syncs to Hotpads and Trualia (owned by Zillow). For more expensive rentals, we use MLS that also publishes to Realtor and many other 3rd party sites.

We get very little leads from the rest like Apartments, Rent, Rentals, Homes etc and lot of those, they stay outdated. Even after its rented, they still show the property as active so we pretty much just stick to Zillow and MLS.

But i think the most important thing is to price your rental well. Not too hight and not too low. We aim to get 2-3 applications in the first week or two. If you get too many, you listed it too low and if you get none, you priced it too high. And of course, the higher the rental price, the longer it takes to find tenants.

Most rental agreements prohibit this so you would need to make sure you are permitted to do that and make sure doing so would not violate your rental agreement.