All Forum Posts by: Kyle Andrade

@Joseph Dimasso

That’s awesome Joe congrats! I actually grew up in the Bristol/Warren area and I can say that it is an awesome place to live and rent out! It’s definitely increasing in popularity and I find a lot of people want to live there.

As for my specific deal it appraised at 340k. I was able to put no money down because of my VA loan and was able to lock in a rate of 2.625.

@Joshua Hurte

Hey Josh, whoever told you that you need a few years of property management experience to use your VA loan is flat out wrong and I'm curious as to where he's getting his information from. He might have just been "looking out for you" and didn't want a first time homebuyer to get himself into a rental with no management experience. But it's not rocket science! The only catch yo the VA loan is it does need to be your primary residence. I'm pretty sure you can still use it you just might need to give them a good reason why you are moving from the area you are living now to the potential house you are looking at buying using your VA loan.

@Abbie Gibson congrats on the duplex! I actually grew up in the Warren/Bristol area. It’s definitely a great place to live!

@Chelsie Ritarossi thanks for sharing Chelsie that’s great to know! What have you found is a good rent price for that area if you don’t mind me asking? I think my units are a bit low but they do need some updating and I plan on doing that upon tenant turnover and increasing rent.

I have two 1 bedroom/bath 600 sq ft units (first floor)

One 2 bedroom 1 1/2 bath 1100 sq ft unit on the second floor

One 1 bedroom/bath 550 sq ft apartment on the third floor

@Brian Brady it came with tenants already in place on a lease. One piece of advice I would give is try to find out as much as you can about the tenants before closing the deal and don’t just go off the sellers word! Two tenants are good but I am running into issues with my 3rd floor tenant. I had a feeling they were going to be the problem child out of the bunch and I was right. I found out that the person on the lease is subleasing the unit to his “brother” but there is actually 3 people living up there with 1 child ( lease says only allows 1 person). I am paying an attorney that specializes in evictions for this one just so I learn the proper process and I can use their documents down the line in case I run into this problem in the future. I would find out if the place you are looking to buy is managed by a property management company and give them a call to see if they will give you any info on the tenants. I called the company that used to manage mine after we closed and found out some interesting info that I wasn’t aware of prior to closing.

Just a bump in the road and it comes with this sort of investment but nevertheless I it’s a good learning process!

@Scott M. I would haft to agree. After doing a lot of research on a number of different software I can see that they all come with their pros and cons. Thanks for the info!

@Cherilyn Jorgenson ive been looking into cozy and I think I may give this one a try. Thank you!

I just closed on my first 4 unit rental property and I have been looking online for the best property management software that I can use to keep everything organized and provide a one stop shop for all the information on my rental. I know a lot of them offer services as far as tenant screening, background checks, and even provide rent payments to the owner through their software.

Was wondering what other professionals use as there are a lot of products out there with different features and what their experiences are with them. I only have the one rental so far so I don’t need a $500 software unless it’s really worth it and would be better in the long run seeing as I do plan on growing my portfolio in the future.

Thanks for the suggestions in advance!

@Bradley Scruggs thank you, and that's awesome! Curious as to what you mean by VA Funding? Did you find another way besides the VA loan or is that what you are talking about when you say VA funding. From my understanding you can only have 1 VA loan out at a time and I had thought you wouldn't be able to use a FHA loan after you already bought a place with something like the VA Loan. Look forward to hearing from you and your approach on REI! Always interested in chatting with like minded people! Shoot me a DM anytime.

Thanks @Anthony Thompson !!

I am definitely preparing for the challenges to come with managing tenants. I have been doing a ton of research on write/wrong ways to do it, property management software, and I think it will be a lot easier in my case since I will be living on the property as well. The rents are at $3300 for all 4 units including mine since I will be paying as if a tenant was living there to insure I start building up my reserves for the property and I dont plan staying there for the long term so I can get a feel for how the property would operate fully rented. The only downfall is that heat/hot water is included but there were brand new systems installed in the past 2 years so they are pretty efficient. Once I finally move in then I will be able to get a better feel for the operating expenses when it comes to utilities but i am expecting at least $200 cash flow after everything based on what the previous owner said he was paying for heat!