All Forum Posts by: Josh Young

@Justin Brin we have plenty of properties under $400k in the greater Phoenix MSA that are in good areas, so you will see good appreciation, you can get break even on cash flow, and we have a lot lower property taxes than TX.

@Chas Ney the first thing you should do is go buy a new primary residence with a 5% down conventional loan and turn your current house into a rental. If you want to get a good interest rate on the new purchase find a property that you can get the sellers to buy your rate down, or buy a new build, they all offer to buy the rate down, or accept a higher rate and plan to refinance it in a few years.  Here is a post I did on this strategy, I hope this helps: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/1096979-how-i...

@Brie Schmidt thanks for your reply, you are absolutely correct that knowing your state and local laws is a very important fundamental as a Property Manager and as a Landlord. Having Landlord friendly laws is another reason why Arizona is such a great place to invest! 

@Alecia Loveless you need to calculate your return on equity and then calculate what kind of a return you could get in another investment. Like others have said, adding leverage might be wise. Here is a post I did that might help you (scroll down to calculating ROE):

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/1108744-how-t...

I have a clause that I write into my 12-month leases that says: "The Tenant(s) may terminate this lease’s length by delivering to the Landlord a written sixty (60) day Notice To Vacate and an early termination fee of one (1) month’s rent. This notice and fee must be received by the Landlord at least sixty (60) days before Tenant(s) vacate and stop paying rent. Additionally, to initiate an Early Termination Of Lease all rents owed to the
Landlord by the Tenant(s) must be paid in full and current."

I had two different Tenants use this clause this year and it really turned out to be a win-win, the Tenants were able to get out of the Lease which saved them money because one bought a home and another moved in with their new fiance, and I was able to collect the extra fee and the 60 day notice gave me time to find a new Tenant at a higher rate and have zero days of vacancy. 

I have seen some posts of people asking about letting Tenants out of a lease and different discussions on this topic, but I believe this is a win-win that can help everyone and it's spelled out in the Lease, so there are no questions as to what happens if the Tenants want out early.

Does anyone else use a similar clause and/or have a similar experience? Or different?

@Parmesh P. I would look into putting a larger or second air return vent in, this will help you circulate more air through the system and could have a big impact and will not be very expensive. The other things that are not very expensive are sealing up existing duct runs, adding insulation, and weather stripping/sealing around all doors and windows.  AFTER you do these things if the problem isn't solved the next step would be either adding a mini split or installing a bigger unit, but like your AC guy said the bigger unit would currently be limited by the current duct work, and that means the air return is too small, so I would start there.

@Greg Wasmuth I sent you a message, but wanted to follow up.  I'm an investor, agent and property manager and I cover Coolidge, I'd be happy to help. Message me back and we can schedule a time for a call.

@George M. the utilization percentage doesn’t necessarily tell you enough. Some people might only have one credit card with a low limit and that could make their utilization percentage high. You need to look at the whole picture and compare the amount of debt and monthly payments relative to their income. Think about it like an underwriter calculating the debt to income ratio.

@Benjamin Sulka they were all SFH, sometimes I wish I would have done a small multifamily, but at the same time I don't know if I would have qualified for the financing at the time. Sometimes you are better off just buying what you can afford at the time, I see people saving up for the more expensive property and it ends up appreciating in value faster than they can save.