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All Forum Posts by: Josh Young

Josh Young has started 15 posts and replied 343 times.

Post: Need help weighing pros and cons of next step of my investing

Josh Young
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor / REALTOR® / Property Manager
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 353
  • Votes 394
Quote from @Baron Wheeler:

Thank you both for the feedback.

The wife and I talked last night and think we figured out our predicament. 

The house we live in has a 180k loan and we bought a 60k lot to store our trailer in since trailers are not allowed at our house. Total mortgage for both of those is $2400 a month. We can sell our house and come away with around $500k and get rid of the debt and move back into our current rental and use the funds from the sale of our house to invest in 2-3 more rentals and the numbers work out to be making a profit instead of barely scrapping by.

Now we just need to do some more number crunching to figure out our market and the best way to reinvest the 500k after we sell.

We would like lower risk. We followed the Dave Ramsey plan for years but have drifted from that to a point but still don’t want to push the debt envelope and get into a bind. We are more of a slow and steady with lower risk.

This sounds like a pretty good plan, if you lived in your current home for 2 out of the last 5 years then it will be a tax free gain, that is extra helpful. Your biggest savings in this move is that you will be reducing your housing expense by moving into a smaller/less expensive home.  I know you don't like debt, but debt in rental properties can be good debt, I like to calculate the return on equity when I'm trying to figure out what the best decision would be, here is a post I did that might help you: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/1108744-how-t...

I would be cautious about investing for cash flow in year one unless you can get appreciation as well, as prices appreciate so do rents so your cash flow improves over time. If you invest in a place that has good cash flow in year one, but it never appreciates then you will regret the decision by year 3 or 4, and like @Becca F. said: your returns will be diminished by increasing expenses. To get appreciation you usually need population growth and job growth, you have both of those in a lot of Colorado, not so much in most of the mid-west.  We also have good growth here in Arizona and prices might be a little less than Colorado and taxes a little less too. 

If you sell your primary and move into your rental I would encourage you to take $400k of the money and buy 3 rental houses in an appreciating market (CO or AZ) and put just enough down so they cash flow break even in year one and then hold the other $100k for reserves. And if you buy new builds your cap ex / maintenance & repairs will be minimal for a few years, this will give you time to increase rents. These purchases could be $330k each and 30% down, with builder incentives to buy the rate down you can get them to break even in year one and it will only get better from there, rents will increase over time and refinance in a few years. If you are worried about market volatility then just buy them one at a time with 6 months between each purchase.

I hope this is helpful!

Post: $200k+ corporate salary, wanting to house hack to get ahead

Josh Young
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor / REALTOR® / Property Manager
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 353
  • Votes 394

@Mark Smith If you are worried about cash flow and the chance of losing your job then you want to put as little down as possible and save as much cash as you can for reserves, living in the property as your primary residence should help you with this. Don't buy in a shady/high crime area, I know it's a limited inventory for small multi-family properties in good areas that are affordable, but there are a few.  The other option would be to buy a house and rent out the rooms, this should cash flow better and you will have more options to buy in a better location.  Do you currently own a home that you will be keeping as a rental or will this be your first home?

Post: Starting out/ House Hacking

Josh Young
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor / REALTOR® / Property Manager
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 353
  • Votes 394

@Jessica Sudyn don't worry about the PMI, you will likely be refinancing in a few years. Put as little down as possible and save your cash so you can have extra reserves and buy another home in a few years. Here are a couple posts I did that might help you: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/1096979-how-i...

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

Post: How do you determine the value of vacant land?

Josh Young
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor / REALTOR® / Property Manager
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 353
  • Votes 394

@Antonio Bodley it depends, maybe a few years and the entire state and then try to find similar characteristics such as town size, parcel size, utilities access, zoning use (residential/commercial) etc. Then try to narrow it down from there.

Post: How do you determine the value of vacant land?

Josh Young
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor / REALTOR® / Property Manager
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 353
  • Votes 394

@Antonio Bodley you will need to find comps by either searching in a bigger area and/or searching further back in time and/or searching for bigger/smaller lots. You will likely need to make bigger adjustments with any of these comps, so you will have a bigger variance than you might like, but you need to use some sort of comps.

Post: How many REIs are there anyways?

Josh Young
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor / REALTOR® / Property Manager
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 353
  • Votes 394

@Joshua Amezcua there are lots of investors, but that doesn't mean you are in competition with all of us/them. I would focus more on the market and remember that high tide rises all ships. Also, it sounds like you have a strategy already, don't switch to BRRR or 30 day flips, just keep doing live in flips, so you can be patient doing the work yourself and get owner occupied financing.

Post: Update on the best Flat Fee Listing Services

Josh Young
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor / REALTOR® / Property Manager
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 353
  • Votes 394

@Sandy Land I just sent you a DM, I don't normally offer a flat fee, but I'd like to learn more about this piece of land you want to sell. Message me back if you want to connect. Thanks.

Post: How to gain weekday bookings in Sedona

Josh Young
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor / REALTOR® / Property Manager
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 353
  • Votes 394
Quote from @Louis Louisius:
Quote from @Josh Young:

@Louis Louisius

#1 - Increase your minimum length of stay.

#2 - Lower your rate during the week.


 but won't this decrease my ability to book weekends?? 


 If you were having trouble filling the weekends then maybe, but you said the weekends are booked, so let your busy weekends help you during the week. People won’t mind staying longer if they see value in it because you are giving them a discount on the weekdays that you make them book. Some will still only stay for the weekend but pay for the extra night if they see value in it.

Post: How to gain weekday bookings in Sedona

Josh Young
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor / REALTOR® / Property Manager
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 353
  • Votes 394

@Louis Louisius

#1 - Increase your minimum length of stay.

#2 - Lower your rate during the week.

Post: Best resources to learn how to value homes? (theory, not specifics)

Josh Young
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor / REALTOR® / Property Manager
  • Gilbert, AZ
  • Posts 353
  • Votes 394

@Michael Devinsky with residential SFH it's all about recent comparable sales, but there are more general guidelines rather than hard rules, so it becomes somewhat subjective. There was a good episode of BP On The Market about comping, it aired April 27th