All Forum Posts by: Kevin Pillow

 Full transparency: I showed all the gulf front condos this week including the big names: tidewater, majestic, Emerald Isle, grand Panama and tidewater etc. They aren't cash flowing. The best options is buying a townhome that needs to be renovated or a beach house that is on the west side or laguna beach. Condo tends to jump the quickest in prices during an appreciation based market. I think condos will be good options when the market settles down. In addition, condos require 25-35% since they are non-warrantable. You can get away with 15-20% down on townhomes or beach houses!

Be sure to budget for higher utility expenses (think about how you use AC or water when you go to a hotel), repairs due to wear and tear as well as cleaning expenses.  

Does it say if 70 or 90% of renters find their rental through the mls or an agent? You might find out you can use a PM and actually make more money. After almost 3 weeks you should definitely already have a tenant. So it comes down to advertising (quality or location) or price. If you think it’s priced right you pry need a PM as your advertising isn’t working.

You’ve already lost almost a month of rent. That’s more than the 8% many PMs charge fi you find someone tomorrow. 

Dumb luck.  There is a petrochemical refinery in my town.  I asked a realtor how much they charge to rent to contractors.  She said $1000 a week.  I put 4 beds and appliances in a house in this town and charged $840 a week.  A year later I had 3 STRs, a year after that I had 8 STRs.  Now I'm up to 23 with 83 beds.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $290,000
Cash invested: $25,000

Like many military investors, we typically buy properties in each duty location (if possible). We paid $290,000 (10k under asking) on a VA loan where we lived for 3 years with the plan to fix it up over those years and rent it out. It rents for $3000 every month, and with an appraised value of $375,000 we refinanced using a 1st Lien Position HELOC strategy to pay down the balance MUCH faster while have equity accessible to take advantage of opportunities.

The $25k we added includes a DIY en suite upgrade, and a contracted addition of a bathroom and additional bedroom to convert it from 4be/3ba to 5be/4ba.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Military moving / House Hack Strategy

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

MLS through a buyer's agent

How did you finance this deal?

VA Loan and refinanced into 1st Lien HELOC

How did you add value to the deal?

Added new bathroom in rough-in area which added an additional 70 square feet, added new bedroom to ample existing space as a mother-in-law suite, and refurbed the en suite.

What was the outcome?

$3000 per mont gross rent with $400 in cash flow.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I highly recommend our agent (Karen Jennings), our property manager with Action Management (Craig Jungjohann), our insurance with Farm Bureau (Matt Guzinski) and our HELOC refinance with First Savings Bank (Anthony Rushing).

I don't recommend going directly to Anthony Rushing, but I highly recommend signing up with Michael Lush's Replace Your Mortgage program to get all the ins-and-outs of the strategy. I have an affiliate link if you want to request it from me to let 'em know I sent you. DM me

I am currently looking to invest in STR as well. From my research, you have to be very careful on the new local government regulations. Lets say for example in the Smokey Mountains, there are working on limiting STR permit to a certain number per person. Also find out if you need to pull permits for short-term rentals. The current LTR we had for our townhome cannot be rent for less than a year per HOA rules. Another things I am considering is also if I can put a team in place, such as the handyman and the cleaning crew. They are the "superstar" for your STR, especially investing from long distance.