All Forum Posts by: Justin Smith

Thanks everyone!

Robert Kiyosaki says to pay yourself first. Does anyone do this, say, to maybe a mm account for further investing in the future?

I'd be really interested to hear how everyone separates their checking/savings accounts as far as for rental properties and also for saving up for the next investment? Do you prefer a single account for each property and one savings account for all your properties? Or multiple savings accounts for different things? Thanks for your responses!

Shaun Caldwell did you follow through with this? We have done multiple rentals by the room. They can be more management intensive than a single family rental but they cash flow much better.

Thank you everyone for the responses and the encouragement. We will keep treading forward!

I am almost to my two year anniversary of being a landlord. Many days are awesome and I love it. Many days are also challenging. How many years of landlording does it take to come to a place where you feel comfortable doing it? It is very much a struggle for me, worrying about my families finances, and sometimes I feel like it'd be easier to cash out on our equity and only flip houses, and not depend on other people to stick to the lease for us to make ends meet. Do you ever reach a point where you are just comfortable- financially, mentally, emotionally? Or is there always a tiny bit of anxiety?

There is definitely demand for 3-4 Br homes, much less for 2 br. I assume that's most places. I think we would have no problem getting decent tenants in. We are in the middle of checking zoning/permits, etc. Thank you!

Hey everyone, first time poster, long time lurker here. Quick intro for me so you know my situation- I am 27, a high school teacher and coach. My wife and I got married in 2010 and bought our first home for 74k, a 4 Br/2 ba, 1,215 sq. ft quaint little home close to a small college with the plan of renting it to college students someday. Fast forward to now, we live on the other side of town and college kids are paying $350/room. This allows my wife to stay home with our 3 babies, so we are super grateful for that. At the same time as we were moving houses, a realtor brought us an investment opportunity that seemed too good to be true. A 4br/3 ba mobile home on an acre that rented by the room for $575/month (all expenses included). It was for sale under appraisal value- 80k and had appraised for 94k. So we went for it, and it was awesome. Cash flowed around $1,000 every month for about 6 months, but then all the tenants got laid off (Engineers on weekly contracts) when a local nuclear energy project was complete. So now we have it under a one year lease for $750/month to a family, barely cash flowing at all. Tried to sell and couldn't. But there is another foundation on the property where there used to be another double wide, already has septic, water, electricity. So after much deliberation, we have decided to put another home on the property to try and increase the cash flow. Insurance and taxes are next to nothing when adding a mobile home, less than $300/year total. So the question is... even though mobile homes don't appreciate, is this something we should pursue? We could get a really nice looking 3/2 mobile home for under 30k, or should we build a small home instead? Looking at around 70k for a nice 2/1. Any thoughts/advice would be great!

Hey everyone, first time poster, long time lurker here. Quick intro for me- my wife and I got married in 2010 and bought our first home for 74k, a 4 Br/2 ba, 1,215 sq. ft quaint little home close to a small college with the plan of renting it to college students someday. Fast forward to now, we live on the other side of town and college kids are paying our line of credit off on the old house as well as our mortgage on the new house. This allows my wife to stay home with our 3 babies, so we are super grateful for that. At the same time as we were moving houses, a realtor brought us an investment opportunity that seemed too good to be true. A 4br/3 ba mobile home on an acre that rented by the room for $575/month (all expenses included). It was for sale under appraisal value- 80k and had appraised for 94k. So we went for it, and it was awesome. Cash flowed around $1,000 every month for about 6 months, but then all the tenants got laid off (Engineers on weekly contracts) when a local TVA project was complete. So now we have it under a one year lease for $750/month to a family, barely cash flowing at all. Tried to sell and couldn't. But there is another foundation on the property where there used to be another double wide, already has septic, water, electricity. So after much deliberation, we have decided to put another home on the property to try and increase the cash flow. Insurance and taxes are next to nothing when adding a new home (less than $300/year). So the question is... even though mobile homes don't appreciate, is this something we should pursue? We could get a really nice looking 3/2 mobile home for under 30k, or should we build a small home instead? Looking at around 70k for a nice 2/1.

Last summer, my family had outgrown our first house and we moved to a larger one with a yard for our babies to play in. We kept the other house and are renting it out to college students by the room, and each month we use the cash flow to save up and also to pay the mortgage on our new home. So from my experience I would say it is a great idea, even if you are only increasing your equity in the old home, especially since you have enough for a down payment on the new house. It seems like a safe way to try out being a landlord, maybe just do a shorter lease at first (no more than a year) in case you don't enjoy it, then you can sell after the lease is up. I also love having lived in the house before renting it out because you know all the details about it- how old appliances are, what the bills run, etc. Let us know what you decide! Good luck!