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All Forum Posts by: Keith A.

Keith A. has started 25 posts and replied 218 times.

Post: Going without landlord's insurance. Have you done it?

Keith A.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Texas
  • Posts 236
  • Votes 392
Quote from @Sofia Komrskova:

That sounds like a bad idea. I know insurance rates have gotten rough these past years but if you don't have insurance all would take is one house fire for you to take a massive loss. Are you having trouble cash flowing with your current insurance ? If so maybe it's time to sell and reallocate. 


 cash flow is still fine with the high rates. I'm more just tossing the idea around in my head should things get worse in years to come.

Post: Going without landlord's insurance. Have you done it?

Keith A.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Texas
  • Posts 236
  • Votes 392

I have a handful of SFH rentals in northern Texas. Insurance is awful. I go with the highest deductible possible. My agent is currently finding best rates with Travelers. Seriously contemplating going a few years without any landlord's insurance.

Have you done it? Did you keep some coverage in case of major lawsuits? Have you done it and it bit you in the rear? 

Logically I can't make a solid business case to cancel them, as the cash flow is fine vs losing it all with a tornado. But I certainly am tossing the idea around. 

Post: rental saturation in high-demand housing markets?

Keith A.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Texas
  • Posts 236
  • Votes 392
Quote from @Rick Pozos:

Hey @Keith A. Both sides of the aisle are to blame.

Reagan (81-89) was in office during the worst real estate bust I have seen in 86. Took away accelerated depreciation, S&L crisis, oil issues. 

Clinton (93-01) tech bubble and crash. Real estate was still pretty down.

Bush jr(01-09) Great Recession in 08 that continued into 2012

Obama (09-17) Helped keep rates low, real estate skyrocketed, but based on low interest rates. Started the basis for inflation. People bought a house for 100k and now its worth 300k. Started a feeding frenzy. Rates should have gone up slowly in 2015, but didnt

Trump (17-21) Helped bring accelerated depreciation again. See 1986 for what happens when accelerated depreciation goes away. He kicked it down the road to phase out in 23, 24, 25. Started giving away free covid stimulus(free money). People not paying rent or mortgages and its ok??

Biden (21-present) Continued to give away money. Really caused inflation of everything, not just real estate. 

Everyone thinks their guy is better than the last one. He isn't. There is a reason that every 4 or 8 years the other party wins the election. People get tired of the person in office. Plain and simple. 


 yes i've lived thorough decades of both parties, and will be voting this party OUT of office this time. I'm over it. 

Post: rental saturation in high-demand housing markets?

Keith A.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Texas
  • Posts 236
  • Votes 392
Quote from @Rick Pozos:

Things are slowly changing. It has taken over a year and a half for interest rates that moved up quite a bit to really make people notice. NOW people are realizing that houses are not going to take 3 or 4 days to sell. Rentals will not be rented in 2 or 3 weeks. That makes people nervous and will cause them to lower prices. Even those lower prices might still not be enough.

I am not doom and gloom. I just bought a new personal residence, but it is a light rehab. I create some value from that. 

People just need to realize that the easy days of real estate are going to be gone for a little while. Dont worry, they will be back in a few years!!


 I'm thinking they will get better in 2 years as well... after we vote. 

Post: rental saturation in high-demand housing markets?

Keith A.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Texas
  • Posts 236
  • Votes 392

This market is odd. Rental prices in my area are all over the place. From strange high prices that don't make sense, to too many properties dropping their already sensible prices due to not leasing. I'm in the north Dallas area. Anyone seeing this in their otherwise "good" RE market? I'm listing a property soon, but looking at comps I think I am going to have to list it for LESS than the last tenants that signed 3 years ago. I have no problem doing this, but it will be the first time in 20 years that I've decreased rent from tenant to tenant. 

Post: New REI, looking at Detroit and Dallas

Keith A.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Texas
  • Posts 236
  • Votes 392
Quote from @Melanie Nelson:

@Bruce Lynn we will actually be in Dallas next weekend! 😀 We were looking at that area because we visit family fairly often, and one of my uncles is a REI and knows the market fairly well. They're very similar in a lot of aspects, weather aside. I just don't see us living there because of the heat (and politics), so Dallas would always be an out of state investment for us, whereas Detroit we would actually consider moving to and could at least drive to a property to see it in person or check construction progress. Not ruling out Dallas at all though! It's still doable with the right connections


And yeah… the idea of renting out the ADU illegally scares the crap out of me too, and I don't know that there's really space to legalize it as a studio unless we utilized space in the garage. I suppose we could get creative and rent it out as an office or workshop for someone though, or charge higher rent in our main house by calling it a 4bd 3ba instead of a 3bd 2ba.

Before you invest in REI I would highly recommend you research why you can't live out your investment dreams where you currently live but are willing to invest your life savings in Texas. Here is a hint - it's the politics.

Post: Tenant Refusing Entry for Showing to Prospective Renters

Keith A.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Texas
  • Posts 236
  • Votes 392

ugh, California. Texas standard residential lease states something similar to this: 'if landlord or agents are denied or not able to access the property after first attempting to contact tenant, lanlord may charge tenant a trip fee as stated in paragraph 15.'  We also have a section that states if a tenant does not want a lockbox on their door they can pay a months rent to have it left off.  Not sure about california laws other than they are incredibly unreasonable for landlords. Hopefully your lease has similar verbiage and you can offer her a way out by making her paying for each showing that is denied and her paying for keeping a lockbox off the door.

Post: Who is investing in their own physical health?

Keith A.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Texas
  • Posts 236
  • Votes 392

Make your health investment return you $$! That is what I do. My favorite side hustle (other than rentals) is waiting tables at a fine-dining restaurant (and I am almost 50 yrs old). My properties tend to take care of themselves, so I needed something physical to raise my heart rate and keep me moving. Waiting tables was the ticket! The money is around $60 - $70 dollars an hour so it's like your getting paid to do cardio for about 5 hours. By the end of each shift I am sweaty, feel great and made some extra cash. 

Post: Is direct mail dead?

Keith A.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Texas
  • Posts 236
  • Votes 392

The 15 mailers I get a week asking to buy my properties go directly in the trash. Even the ones that look hand written. 

Post: marketplace? zillow? boosting listing worth it? marketing a rental

Keith A.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Texas
  • Posts 236
  • Votes 392
Quote from @Greg H.:

I have found that Marketplace works the best in smaller communities. The boost cost is minimal and I have seen increased traffic when using the feature 

You can get your property on Realtor.com without using an agent by using Avail. 


 Thanks Greg, I'm doing the Realtor.com/avail thing, all though I was a little freaked out at first about having to supply a picture of my DL and such. But I guess it helps prevent scammers.