All Forum Posts by: Ken Virzi

@Alexander Felice I will have a mortgage so I need it. I am trying to think it all through and I like to attack the argument from all sides. Sorry if I am coming off wrong it is just how I evaluate things, I have not ever needed insurance in my life for car or house etc so I was actually looking for insight that I do not have. Rental properties are a new thing for me. 

Are you saying the liability portion of your insurance costs you $500 a year or the entire premium is $500 and includes $180k in property insurance?  I just got a quote and it seemed crazy high so I am trying to figure out if I am missing something or if I should cut it down tremendously.

@Alexander Felice right I get that. But a huge majority of the insurance quote I just got was for the property. In fact over $800 of a $1328 premium are for the property. The problem is that they want to cover the property for $500k when it is a $50k property. Yeah I don't think so.  Plus how often do this entire building get wiped out? NE Ohio has had a tornado and a couple of fires over the last 50 years, so not sure there is much of a risk.

@Brent Coombs I am not talking about PMI here.

When buying a $50k old property, most things that will go wrong will fall under CapEx expenses. I understand liability, but when it comes to the actual property it seems to be that making a claim is a long shot, the deductible is usually large enough to cover repairs due to problems that nature occurs. If there is leaking or the roof blows off, it seems that insurance companies won't pay for that. If there is leaking they will say it is a faulty roof and on me. So I guess I am wondering why insure the property itself, seems like a waste.

So my natural bent would be to go as cheap as possible to simply satisfy the loan requirements. I guess I am a skeptic that thinks between the deductible and the claim fighting that I won't ever get any benefit from the insurance itself. Instead I tend to focus on my CapEx reserves and savings. Am I missing something here? I am just now moving beyond one property in California to a duplex in Ohio. Looking for insurance right now and just want to make sure I am not missing something. Thanks.

 Good advice Swanny. I have enough for personal survival, but $10k per place seems high. I do have $15000 in reserves total but that would include the condo and the two duplexes (well one under contract, the other agreed). Of course if the one not under contract doesn't happen I will have more cash and less units so I should be very safe at that point.

Hello, I am from Los Angeles, lived overseas for 7 years and then moved home and was looking for a good deal for me to actually own my first property. I knew what I could afford and wasn't looking to invest but to actually just get a property. I was tired of all the booms and busts of the stock market and I wanted to have a property that would be there even it dropped it price. I wanted the certainty of owning something instead of a piece of paper.

I knew what areas I could afford and that were tolerable to buy. I found a couple gems of neighborhoods that surprised my agent, and we definitely looked at a lot of random properties. I eventually made an offer on a nice condo but did not get it. I then settled on making an offer on two different condos in a different city. One said no and the other said yes. One thing that was appealing to me was that there was a section 8 tenant in there and the rent was high enough to cover the mortgage and HOAs and then some. I kept thinking I couldn't lose because the numbers were so good. My mortgage would have been less what I could have got for rent. The complex and area wasn't the best, but I would be 7 miles from Manhattan Beach and share the same weather with those $3 million houses. 

Well, I ended up getting a new job that took me to other side of the country and so I never actually moved into the place. The section 8 tenant has been in there the whole time and I have raised the rent slightly since taking over. This was a little over a year ago. I became an accidental landlord but there was a part of me that was more than happy to let that tenant keep paying off my condo for me.

I am a natural saver and after clearing out all my money for the downpayment a year ago I found myself with a good chunk of cash again. I started thinking about investment property and as I was doing research I found BP. It didn't take long to dive in, listening to the podcast like crazy, reading up about certain areas, and even calling a few guys from the site to pick their brains. 

I recently found my first deal through the marketplace and one of the guys I had talked with on the phone prior (thanks Jorge). At the same time I found another duplex in the same neighborhood that had good numbers too and so I made an offer. I am in the process of getting my loan for the second place, and waiting to sign some papers with the first deal. If everything works out I will have 5 units in Ohio and my original unit in LA. These two new purchases will wipe me out, but my goal is to start saving again and hopefully get a couple more in another year.

I am bit addicted and see myself expanding my portfolio annually. The only thing slowing me down is my cash is gone. Hopefully once I prove myself and grow my network other options such as partnerships will start to come to fruition. 

I am happy to have found BP and hope to be a part of this community to become one of those guys that newbies call just like I have done already myself with some of you. 

I just reached out them I'll let you know how it goes.

The numbers look good but guessing there is a supply of rentals and a lack of demand form renters. Just curious if anyone has any insight on this? Any other warnings would be appreciated, I am getting tempted.