All Forum Posts by: John Sharpe

A colleague and I took out what was essentially a bridge loan (in my name only) to buy a new-build condo from a developer we were working for...   in December 2007!  

Very difficult to re-arrange financing but we luckily found a tenant to cover about half the costs until things stabilized.  

If you haven't already listened to Bigger Pockets Podcast #331 with Ashley Hamilton, I think you'll find it interesting!

My two cents with your plan is you might want to get a mortgage for your first primary residence in Detroit (when you have a job there), and pay cash for your first rental property, rather than the other way around.  Only because mortgages on primary residences usually have lower interest rates, lower down payment requirements, and are easier to get than mortgages for investment properties.  

But I also understand your reasoning about not wanting a payment for your own housing.  

"Whatever you are not changing you are choosing."  

- unknown (maybe Laurie Buchanan)

That would be about $1,250/yr in San Bernardino County, California for $100,000 in property value (approx. 1.25%).  

Financing: at least 20% down payment needed for my next purchase(s). I'm avoiding any hard money, HELOC, personal loans, or other creative financing at this point in the market where rental margins are thin. I think 30-year mortgages on a buy-and-hold investments are still a safe bet though. Just my personal opinions.

I use Cozy for the tenant background and credit checks, and for collecting the security deposit and monthly rent.  It works great.  I haven't used it for advertising or maintenance requests.  

I vote keep the Long Beach house.  

Among many reasons listed by others above, here's a small additional one:  your trips back to Long Beach from AZ could then all be tax deductible if you're checking on, or dealing with, your rental property.  

I manage a short term rental in Arizona owned by a family member and I've received several requests from nurses and medical staff from the local hospital for stays of weeks or months. Apparently it's common for medical staff in rural areas to rotate on short-term contracts.

I also had an inquiry for a group that was assigned to keep an eye on wildlife during the construction of a road nearby, for several weeks.  These are people with housing allowances to spend who just want to clean, comfortable, furnished places instead of a hotel room.  

What I'm trying to say is, yes it can be successful!  

If you want to pursue the matter with the content that you found, you could try to track down and contact the production company (probably an LLC somewhere) and inform them you're seeking a "licensing fee" for use of your property (especially artwork) in their video. Who knows, they might actually respond to you and maybe you'll get a few bucks from it.

Otherwise if you want to avoid or monetize the situation for the future you could write on your Airbnb listing that commercial film and photography are not permitted on the premises without written permission.

Then list the home on Peerspace or Giggster for film/photography use, at a much higher rate of course, and with right of refusal of any uncouth projects.

(P.S. I've never worked with any erotic productions but I assume their m.o.'s are similar to those of main stream content)

@Alejandro Ortiz  

I'm practically your neighbor here in Crestline.  

So far I'm happy with a rental in Oklahoma but keeping an eye on Arizona too.  My brother has done well investing in Las Vegas but my personal opinion is the best time to buy there was a few years ago.