All Forum Posts by: John Carbone

I’d still be careful with this. With interest rates so high, if someone has a very favorable locked in rate (sub 4 percent) banks may be looking for a reason to call a note, and doing it without permission certainly is a reason to call it.  I also wouldn’t call them, id get something in writing. I agree it’s extremely rare in general, but things have changed quickly and this isn’t a normal market now. 

 Another thing with doing this model, let’s say you get your lease and you do very well. An owner can follow to see how well you are doing and then either A) raise your rent price for the next lease or B) not allow you to re-lease and then they decide to do it themselves after seeing it was a success. I really only see downsides with this. 

I don’t really see the point of arbitrage. The tax benefits and appreciation of owning far outweigh going for arbitrage. 

Labor is in short supply now especially tradespeople. There are stories everyday now how people who used to make 50-80k working for someone else started their own business and are making 400K a year. This will slow down with the recession, but things really have gotten crazy. I know a plumber who won’t even do work for $150 an hour cash because he’s booked out working 7 days a week. call around to some other people and see what they say. If you are in a time crunch and you don’t feel you can do it yourself, then you’ll just have to pay the kings ransom quotes unfortunately. 

He should be able to get all 4 done in a day. He’s providing no parts, so it’s strictly labor. Figure $100 to get out there and another $100 in labor for 8 hours you should be looking at around $1000 and that’s all profit (less gas money). 

I don’t feel like I missed out on doing it myself. Same can be said for using a property manager vs yourself or using a realtor or not. HVAC used to be a field where you needed a certified technician to do it. Technology changes and that’s not the case with the split systems. Obviously if you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself then don't, but it’s a pretty easy process and there are tens of thousands of reviews of people who have also successfully done it. I could theoretically run my own electrical as well, but I would never do that because there is nothing DIY for that, and there would be a serious risk to doing that - so I had a certified electrician run my electric lines. 

I’ve installed DIY split systems myself. Each one took about 2 hours. Did you get a DIY split system with refrigerant pre charged?

As several have said HOAs can change quickly especially if nobody else in there is doing short term rentals. All it takes is 1 person to suggest banning them, and anyone who isn’t renting their property will very easily just go along with the suggestion because it doesn’t affect them personally. Just avoid them altogether it’s not worth it.