All Forum Posts by: Ciarraghe G.

I agree with the zoning, especially pay attention to the allowed kitchen size. I'm not sure what county you actually mean by Willamette County (assuming you meant our Willamette Valley, which is made up of several counties) but I looked into this in Clackamas county recently and the kitchen size allowed in a 600 sq ft ADU on a 5 acre lot didn't really allow for a fully functional kitchen, more of a kitchenette or maybe motor home sized appliances. So something to watch out for.

Hi, 

This person is more interested in getting out of the market. He wants to move to Halifax, funny enough, but he's not an investor. If you are interested and want to PM me I can give you more info. It's a nice place. 

Thanks!

Kerri

Hi, 

In Canada is there an Airbnb/vrbo investor's network where people buy and sell these sorts of properties? I have a friend in Shediac New Brunswick who needs help in this area. I'm not Canadian but thought I'd try to get him some sort of direction to point. 

Thanks,

Kerri

@Dennis M. I am a chronic saver/cash hoarder. I started off as a Dave Ramsey follower which is why I've been aggressively paying off my home and rental and saving like crazy and living on "rice and beans" so to speak for years, but in the last year or so I've been branching out to listen to other perspectives and realized I'm actually losing a lot of potential income this way. You're right, a couple hundred thousand doesn't really go anywhere in Portland. It's crazy! I wish I'd bought 10 properties back in 2012, but I was still terrified of debt. 

@Eric Jacobs this is great advice, we looked at other markets a couple of years ago and shied away because of the complications- and now we feel like we're kicking ourselves for not going for it- but it does bring a lot of challenges. I'll read the book, thanks for passing along! 

Thanks Thomas for your reply. 

My husband manages the rentals as his thing, so we could theoretically take on more as he would be the one focusing on that, while I focus on my own business. But yes they could crash into each other, potentially. That is a good point. 

I will look into the possible funds I could put it into. The money markets I found are only at 1.5-2% or so right now and the HELOC at around 5-6%, so I have to make at least 5-6% to make it worth my while. I will ask my financial adviser about options.

It's hard to look at the cheap prices in other markets and think they are overpriced- an average 3 bedroom in my area is going for 350-400K +, if not in the 600K range, and a 4 bedroom is nearing a million- while I look at the midwest and see prices around 100k, that seems like a vast discount from my perspective. If it cash flows well, even if it's higher priced for that market, is it still not a good investment? 

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for advice on what to do as a next step in my investing journey. Sorry this is a long post but I want to give as much info as possible. 

My husband and I currently have 1 rental unit, a townhome which cashflows a bit over $500 a month in the Portland OR area, I have had this unit about 4 years now, so I got it for a great price at a good interest rate.

I also have my own home, and both of these properties have a lot of equity in them, I have about $260K worth of equity altogether that I could get on an HELOC if I wanted to (this is the 80% LTV less current mortgages, actual equity is more).

On top of the HELOC I could take out, I also have about $100K in stockpiled cash and another $100K I could take out as 401k loans. I'm currently paying above payment on these two existing properties an extra $900 a month to pay down the mortgages more quickly, which could quickly be freed up as well, as they both have low interest rates so this is not really the best use of my money.

I have great credit and day job income and qualify for a disgustingly huge mortgage level, even without rents included so mortgages are not an issue for me. I have a great lender as well, who I have a long term relationship with and is very investor friendly. I am a long term hold focused cash flow focused investor, equity is just icing for me. Small fix ups are ok (paint, carpet, counter replacement etc.), but larger ones are probably not something I want to really get into at the moment (full kitchen remodels, full plumbing or electrical replacements, etc.). I am most comfortable with SFR but am intrigued by a duplex to quad unit, but at the same time they worry me if I ever had to get out quickly and quality of tenant potential.

So my thoughts on my options are:

--Take out both HELOC's and 401k loans and sit on that cash in a money market or similar vehicle along with what I have already to wait for the crash (whenever it arrives), using my personal and rental cash flow and redirecting the extra I'm paying on those existing mortgages to pay off the HELOC and loans quickly

--Use my HELOC and stockpiled cash today to go into another, cheaper market somewhere else in the US, and buy up 3-8 more properties, either leveraged or outright. The Portland market prices are just ridiculous and the market is showing a very slight relative cooling, but as of May, inventory was still a 1.9 month of supply and prices are still rising, up another 1.9% from April to May, so I don't think there are deals to be had for someone like me doing this on the side, I just don't have the time. The other Oregon areas such as Salem, Eugene, Bend, etc. do have some great deals on paper but they are also longer term more unstable from a job market or tenant quality, so true deals are harder to find. Eugene and Bend have great AirBNB market potential but I worry about cleaning/turnover services being reliable and they are too far for me to drive to on a whim. I've lived in all of these areas at some point so I do know the areas pretty well and like them all.

--Take out the HELOC on the rental and my stockpiled cash and pay off the mortgage on my main home in full and call it a day until the crash comes along when I will have likely saved up more money and have equity in my home, but of an unknown amount.

--Become a hard money lender somehow

--Figure out how to get in on an apartment building somewhere (although I'm currently trying to build a new business and don't have time to simultaneously learn another one).

--Other creative thing I'm not aware of?

I have a financial adviser but he's a stocks/bonds/etc. person, and I don't want to increase my holdings in that area of finance any further, so I don't really know what kind of person to look for, for advice of this nature. I appreciate any thoughts you all may have. 

Be sure to take some time to really drive around neighborhoods in these areas, as the east side of the river is still really hit or miss with pockets of drugs and otherwise trashy/ sketchy areas. Just be sure you really get a good feel for the specific neighborhood.

Bob Bochsler I've thought about that and think it's an awesome option for her, but haven't been able to find enough detailed information on it to get my arms around it, how do you prevent the new buyer from selling and therefore forcing you to take the whole remaining gain in the year they sell?

Thanks everyone for your advice, I will get in touch with you Randy by PM. I am a CPA so the taxes I can explain to her, she's just averse to the idea that she has to pay taxes at all, the fear of paying 40k for taxes on the sale of the rental is enough to keep her from having the ~ 160k remainder in her pocket or using that money to get her own home habitable. I am just looking for all of the options to help her feel like she gets a choice in her future. She is very stubborn and emotional but reality is that she is just simply incapable of taking care of her home, and cannot afford caretakers to help her, so I'm feeling she needs to downsize. She's currently on 5 acres with animals and a 2 story house, it's just too much for someone who is in her physical condition ( needs a cane, 2 fake knees, quite overweight). I appreciate your insights!

Hi, I'm not sure where to put this post, I'm looking for either some advice or a Portland Oregon metro area real estate/financial advisor for seniors for my grandmother. She currently owns a rental property, and a property with acreage that she occupies. The rental is in ok shape but needs to be renovated fully, the renter in there owes her about 7k in back rent, as my grandmother has been mismanaging it for years. In my opinion it usually costs her more money than it brings in on average, but she thinks she can't afford to live without it. The property she lives in herself is in complete disarray and quite literally falling down around her, she is also a hoarder with pets so the place is a disaster and needs to almost be rebuilt from scratch. The two properties as is are probably worth around 500k, with renovations of maybe $150-200k between them she's probably sitting on $800k of value. My thought is that she should sell as is and buy a little apartment in a 55+community, (she's in her late 70's). Or buy a little house on a tiny lot and hire help. Her fears are that she will pay taxes if she sells, that she will run out of money without the rental income, that she'll hate her life if she moves, that she'll miss her friends. I fee if she invests the amount above purchasing the new property properly it should last the balance of her life ( her family usually lives to around 90-100 so it's a lot of years statistically left). Is there a better option? Should we figure out how to have her renovate first so she can get more value and how would someone on Social Security do something like that? I've considered trying to buy and flip the properties myself as they would have good profit but I'm afraid to undertake that as I'm more of a buy and hold investor and after the Reno cost these would be under water for rentals. Also it would require a very large private/hard money loan as I don't have a spare 200k laying around. If some is or knows a good resource to help out with this and guide us along the way I'd appreciate the referral as well, I'm happy to pay for someone on her behalf. Especially someone who is experienced with the emotional aspects of it all. Thanks, Kerri