All Forum Posts by: Joseph Weisenbloom

@Zachary D. I started off in your shoes wanting to multis but over time my opinion has changed. I guess it comes down to what kind of investing you are trying to do and what you want to achieve. I personally want stable passive income with little management involved. SFR's generally have less turnover, high quality tenants, lower expenses and less management. Multis have more cashflow but more risk, more management intensive and higher expenses.

Not to say they are worse just more active on the active vs passive spectrum. In addition the economies of scale wont make sense to hire an onsite manager until you get in the much larger buildings like 30+.

I notice you are a local DFW guy and you may notice that the inventory for the type of building you are talking about is bone dry. Meanwhile SFRs are more abundant and cheaper.

@James Wise Lebronnnn!! haha this might be even bigger than RNC

As a guy that used to live in Cleveland I can attest that this city is underrated not only in real estate but culturally and in standard of living

@Walt Payne @James Wise @Bob Cash 

Well as predicted the reason it was tripping was because it was a 20amp connection for a 30amp dryer. According to the elctrician this is the most common reason for this problem. No damage done should cost around $120 to have fixed which isnt too bad. Hopefully this will be a useful post for future people that have this problem.

@Matthew Paul Hahaha

Thanks guys its sounds like there is no typical answer for this question. @Walt Payne   Im not sure if it can handle 30 Amp that is a good question I will ask. The electrician will be stopping by tomorrow morning so I will keep yall posted on what it was.

The title explains it all one of my tenants keeps complaining that the breaker is tripping for the dryer. After a little research online it looks like its either the connection may be 20 AMP for a 30 AMP dryer or the breaker itself is broke.

Anyone else had this dilemma before? I called an electrician today because I don't want this thing to overheat and burn the house down.

@Cassandra Truax 

To avoid PMI 20% is standard. If you want to consider conventional financiamg I would look at local community banks. These types of banks are more leniant with underwriting and will allow smaller loans. If that does not work you could look at peer to peer lending. There are online sites that will lend you smaller amount like 30-40k.

Like has already been said the expenses seem a bit low. Where are you getting the rent and other numbers from? Dont trust realtors or others that have a conflict of interest in selling the house. If these numbers are true they do look pretty good.

Personally I would rather have a property rented at a lower rate then vacant at a higher rate. Real estate only makes money when it is occupied. Put yourself in the tenants shoes at the end of your lease agreement they are going to look elsewhere. If they take a look elsewhere and they find your property is nicer and cheaper than the competition they will never move. 

Obviously things are different in all markets but if you can have a property rented for 2, 3 or 5 years without any turnover that is huge.

@Zachary D. Great question on how to accurately run scenarios. I am currently looking for another property as we speak so I will walk you through my process. Some stuff you are going to have to just save a percentage of monthly income for and others you can get a real number.  I typically account for 10% vacancy, 15% maintenance/capex, 10% management. I then try to get the exact insurance and tax numbers. For insurance call around and get some quotes. Tax numbers can be found on county tax assessor websites. Keep in mind if you buy a house for significantly above assessed value your taxes WILL go up the following year when they re-assess it so account for that.

For determining rent I like to use rentometer.com and also look at the rentals section on realtor.com. When looking at realtor.com try to keep in mind the square footage and age of the comparable property. I personally try to envision myself undercutting the competition by at least $50-100 per month in rent. The more competitive you are the lower the vacancy cost. Once you know an area well enough you will know what to look for.