All Forum Posts by: John Leake

I would feel more comfortable in your position if I'm exchanging my cash for keys to the unit, a receipt, and my lease. Alternatively a cashiers check would be an option I would present to them if that is a good middle ground. As a property manager I don't like cash I try to do everything with a paper trail. With mobile deposit I can start the deposit process before I even leave the property, I do prefer a cashiers check for the first one but do not require it. If they pass the credit and background check I hate to have them waste their money on the fee for a cashier's check as well.

I'm in a rural area and I had minimal impact on receiving rent. We are also seeing now a slight increase in rental rates due to the need for housing if you spend some extra time making sure you get a great tenant it should make all the difference!

I agree with the above statements. If they are in breach of their lease start the eviction process. The best case is that they leave when they say they will and the worst case would be you have to complete the eviction. Regardless of how it would work out you'll have your property back to get re-rented with someone who you choose. 

That doesn't make sense to me when you refinance the property you are pulling out your equity from a property in cash there shouldn't be any restrictions on what you do with it, it's your money..... I would speak to another loan person and get a second opinion. I guess it could be something specific to your area but this just doesn't sound right.

Your husband being a veteran (thank you guys for your service) you should qualify for a VA loan which I believe is 0 money down. If you used that for the residence you live in now you could likely refinance that to a conventional loan possibly pulling out some funds for repairs, safety net, or another deal and then get a new VA loan for an owner occupied house hack. If it will be solely an investment property I would speak to a local bank or credit union not a big chain bank about your financing options they have both loans they keep in house (portfolio lender) and the government backed ones you mentioned. They are more likely to want to build the relationship for future business. Hope that helps!

I'd be happy to be a resource for you, I started off a few years ago and found a 4 unit that needed a lot of work and now have several properties. I self manage all my units, am currently working on a flip, and looking to build a storage unit here this year! Bigger Pockets podcasts are the way to go for information. I probably listened to them all 3x before buying my first deal playing them nonstop in the background of everything I was doing. I would recommend focusing on any higher % interest debt you have first rather than just the smallest amount. The only nice thing about doing the smallest first is that you get some gratification out of that debt disappearing off the books. Dave Ramsey's advice is great for 95% of people, but lots of those folks don't invest in real estate. If you can invest the money rather than pay down debt and make a better return then your money is better off working to make you more. 

Nice work! The first one is always the hardest, once you complete your first deal you are so much more likely to do another one!

@Gary Nash There are definitely a bunch of different ways you could go! What would your strategy look like? I would probably BRRR the property, in that scenario you could pull out 125,000 to use for another property and repeat that process on another one! I've done that successfully a few times and been really happy with building my business that way!

Awesome deal if you haven't already I would recommend checking out Storing up profits! https://store.biggerpockets.co... I plan to build a self storage facility in my area in the next year so I just read it. It is very analytical and really for larger deals than what I'm looking at but may be good for you. What software did you decided on to handle the rent collection and accounting of the storage units if you don't mind my asking?

You'll want to talk to your tax person, but I believe for a second home there are requirements for living in the property so many days out of the year. If you're wanting to expense off the majority this year you'll want to see if that is actually better for you. Listing the repairs as capitol improvements may be a better, showing the property is worth more and giving you a bigger number to depreciate over the years to come. I would guess a tax person will pick some from option 1 as well as option 2 depending on your specific situation and the law.