All Forum Posts by: Kristin Solbach

Thanks everyone... it has been a few weeks of search and showings and we are actually under contract on a home in San Antonio, TX! We will get a couple bookings in till the end of the year and then plan on renting it MTR. Thanks for the tips @Mindy Nicol, I do think MTR would be easier to manage for me allthough I do have time for a part time job, I see where you are coming from with repair costs and all and STR sounds like it can be a pain (I followed a few groups on facebook and have read horror stories :D ).

What a process but it feels good to get the ball rolling! Aloha to you all for now, Kristin

Has anyone used an All in one loan for a property? We are in the process of buying a second home in San Antonio/TX and are really interested financing it with an in the All in One Loan but the loan officer tells us we can not deed it into an LLC and could only purchase it in an "Inter Vivos Revocable Trust”. A quick search suggests that the trust wont give us as much protection as the LLC and we are looking for any suggestions on how to protect ourselves better. 

Thanks so much for any tips in advance,

Kristin

 Aloha Ed, it is Tax Alchemy. Its a 12 month program and the cost seg ist just one part of the package. They have different tiers based on your income and tax amount. There is a lot of information in the program and a big focus is on real estate but other strategies are addressed too... If we would have a bigger down payment I think it would be super easy to just go through their network of realtors as well but it is what makes us hesitate the most. Hope this helps, Kristin

Thanks to everyone that joined the conversation... ahhh, as always lots of conflicting information but that was to be expected. 

@Michael Baum, I did like the area too and had a good time there. The sandbags also concerned me and I would be looking in other parts of town for sure. Sedona is pretty but also even more expensive, so I didn't even consider it. Do you have any insight on the Boise area or other ID areas? We did visit Boise earlier this year (its driving distance from my inlaws which makes it nice) and really liked it there too. Clean, friendly, activity rich and lots of employment driving growth as far as I found. 

And yes, @Andrew Steffens, @Ashish Acharya, @Account Closed, I truly would be interested in giving STR a shot but I do worry about being far away from it as well as new regulations being put into place (like here where we live they are in the process of pretty much eliminating any STRs completely). The main reason why I would want to ensure it can cover itself as an LTR in case.

So much to learn, so much to think about... I appreciate all the food for thought! Kristin

Thanks so much everyone, this is all great advice and information. o.k. going to get the loophole out of my head then.

As we are based in Hawaii I have been trying to find a market that is "closer" to us, especially since I would want to self manage an STR and the time difference to the East Coast is pretty substantial.. So far I looked in Idaho, specifically Boise and Nampa but property prices are a little high to have an LTR make sense and while Nampa has better Cost Seg estimates than Boise it also seems a lot less desirable for both STR and LTR. Maybe @Michael Baum has a little more inside on the markets in Idaho. I just recently listened to you BP episode.

I have also actively been looking in the Flagstaff area with the Short Term Shop agent over there after talking to Avery, @Luke Carl. I flew over there a couple weeks ago but property prices in Flagstaff are higher than in the Boise area which makes it a lot harder for us to push into the market. Still looking but not much out there. 

@Nathan Gesner do you invest in Wyoming? Its good to hear converting your STRs to LTRs worked there and good for you to have less hassles this way. 

@Savannah Holzer Texas might be interesting for us and if anyone has any experience there any any favorable markets to suggest I would so appreciate it. And I will also be checking out Branson, MO @Gary Nelson and thanks for the reminder of ALL the benefits.. that long term view is important. 

I so appreciate you sharing your experience @Heidi Kenefick. I am so happy for you that you made it work and it sounds like you did a bunch of learning along the way too which you will benefit from greatly over the next years as well. Way to go! North Carolina sounds like a great market and if its not in the coastal areas I would feel better about any hurricanes too. 

Thanks a lot everyone.. still hopeful to find that STR this year. Aloha, Kristin




 

First time investor here that is feeling pretty stuck.. we want to get started in one way or the other with lot of different approaches and advice out there. We hired a tax advisor and were told to get an STR this year to help offset our taxes with the STR loophole... One Cost Segregation Study is included in our package with the Tax team as well and the tax savings would actually help us to get started investing of course. We only have 30-40K down payment and are hesitant about 2 things:

1) Investing into a property purely for STR... we would want to ensure it can still pay for itself as an LTR if need be PLUS ideally we would not invest more than 350-400K. Is there a market out there in which this could work?

2) Using our HELOC to supplement the down payment.. we do have some bonus payments coming at the end of the year we could pay it down plus the tax savings could help us pay it off, so maybe it would be worth it in the end?

Has anyone invested in STR for the loophole reason? Any advice? Any good and bad experiences welcome. 
Thanks a million, Kristin

Thanks so much David, this is very helpful indeed allthough unfortunately PNC doesn't offer HELOCs in my state (Hawaii). I appreciate your insight and I am so glad to hear your investment journey is going well. Kristin

Hello David, I am looking into getting a HELOC and was trying to see if anyone had experience with them. Are you still happy with their service and with your HELOC? Thanks so much in advance, Kristin

 I would be interested to learn more about Reno if you dont mind sharing. Thanks a lot in advance, Kristin

Hi Jimmy, I am looking at investing in Columbus and would like to connect. 

Thanks a lot,

Kristin