All Forum Posts by: Josh Young

@Andrea Finkelstein

I would call the police and a tow truck company everyday until the problem is fixed, if people are trespassing and littering that needs to be stopped. You might need to get surveillance cameras to help, but I would stay on it aggressively until you get it under control.

@William Strom

Generally speaking condos can have higher HOA fees compared to Single Family Homes, so this can sometimes translate to less appreciation, but that can also mean a lower purchase price, so you can sometimes get better cash flow on a condo. Sometimes the HOA can cover capital expenses like roof and exterior, so that can help cash flow as well, but the HOA might increase the dues when they have to pay for capital items. I will add that the rental prices of condos tend to be more similar to multi-family housing than SFH and in the greater Phoenix MSA a lot of new multi-family units have been built in the past couple years with more on the way, so rents have softened.

@Elvin William 

I think you will find that very little will change and the Seller will still pay the commission for both agents in the vast majority of transactions. Listing Agents will just not be allowed to advertise the co-broke that they are offering in the MLS, but they will still offer it most of the time, it just won't be advertised in the MLS. However, when they don't offer it or they offer something that is less than the Buyer's agent charges then the Buyer can just write in the offer that the Seller is to pay "x commission" to the buyer's agent. I have already seen the new forms/addendums that will be used here in Arizona, the common one for this will be the Seller Compensation Addendum.

The one thing that might happen in your discount buyer agent scenario is you might get a buyers agent who agrees to a lower commission and then the listing agent is offering a co-broke that is higher than he agreed to, well now that buyers agent will only be able to get paid the lower amount he agreed to and the listing agent will keep the remainder, so listing agents could end up getting paid more.

As far as your question on what to pay an agent, I view it similarly to hiring an attorney, there are discount attorney's and they might be okay for some people in some circumstances, or if you know the proper procedures and deadlines then maybe you do it on your own without an attorney. Or just hire the best and have the other side pay their fees for you.

@Laura Au the property looks nice, but I think it's overpriced. I would recommend lowering the price to avoid vacancy, every month of vacancy is equivalent to an 8% loss in revenue.  The price for a long term (longer than 30 days) furnished rental in this market is 10-15% higher than the unfurnished rate. I'd say you would be at $2200 unfurnished, so that would put you at $2500 furnished. The fact that Zillow says you have only had 5 contacts in 89 days confirms the fact that you are over priced. I also don't see any of the terms listed in the write-up, I would add more details about length of lease, utilities, tax, fees, pets, etc. I manage other furnished rentals in the area and would be happy to answer questions for you if you want to reach out.

@Bain Craddock

Some of my clients have used a company called REZIO for plans and permitting, I would recommend reaching out them, they have dealt with this before and will be able to help you.

@David Schuster

Nice job on the first rental, sounds like you did a great job and are getting cash flow and appreciation. You need to calculate your return on equity to see if it's time to leverage that equity more, you also want to calculate your blended interest rate of the original loan and the the HELOC to see if that's the best rate or if a cash out refi would be better.

If I were you I would look at doing the same move again and buy another primary residence and turn your current house into your second rental. Buying a primary residence requires the lowest down payment and will get you the lowest available interest rate.

If you don’t want to move again then your next best option might be to buy a new or almost new single family home in a fringe area like casa grande for $300k. These have the highest rent to price ratio and have minimal cap ex since they are new.

Another option would be to buy a short term rental, but that is going to be more expensive and is more active than long term rentals.

@Trey Campagna I just sent you a message. Call me anytime on my cell 802-274-8121 

@Trey Campagna without knowing much about your situation I'd say the first thing to do is to use a VA loan to buy a primary residence with as little money down as possible and the lowest interest rate available. Don't buy too expensive of a home and you will be able to do it again next year and turn your first into a rental. I am helping a client who is also a Veteran to do this exact thing right now; at first he wasn't sure he wanted to move twice to make it happen, but when he realized he was going to basically get a cash flowing rental property for free(no money down) he realized it was an easy decision. This is a strategy I've done myself with 5% down payment conventional loans. Let me know if you want to chat, I'd be happy to help you run the numbers.

@Kyle Bouldin that sounds like a good plan. Pinal County has a lot of rural horse properties that could work for what you are wanting to do. Some of my clients have used a company called Rezio for Architectual, Engineering, and Permitting, they are great to work with and handle the whole process. Pinal County is big, are you looking in the Apache Junction area or Casa Grande area or somewhere in between? Prices can vary a lot depending on where you are looking and the location of the utilities. I'll shoot you a message with a lender too.

@Zachary Luchs

Step 1: Get Pre-Qualified by a Lender.

Step 2: Find an investor friendly agent who also owns rental properties in the market you are interested in, a good agent will also either manage properties for you or will have a relationship with a property manager that they can set you up with. Having a knowledgeable agent help you analyze the deal is a critical step.

Step 3: Have the agent write the offer for you based on the analysis that you have done together.