All Forum Posts by: Mackay Oakey

 Do you screen your tenants personally? Do you self-manage? I feel like it would be great to trust a property management company on all of this, but it would be hard not to step in if you could do a better job at screening bad tenants (eg screening HUGE future problems).

 I'd agree with John's simple take here. If the deal makes sense and the returns make sense, go for it. You've clearly been here before, so if you're hesitant, maybe it's with good reason?

I would definitely pull up Excel and do some of your own calculations to figure out how things will look. Otherwise check out the BP calculators if you're having a hard time getting started.

The replies above provide great detail to this question, thanks everyone.

@Sanjay Bhagat, if you're looking for more info on syndications the best place to go is PassivePockets. You can find education, deals, and forums with many investors who have participated in those deals to chat with. LMK how it goes.

 Very interesting, best of luck selling off your under-performers.

Do you know if many investors have issues with renting with Section 8? It seems like the standard worry is that your place could get trashed but lower-income renters, have you/those you know had good experiences?

This is great advice. When I first started learning about REI (4 years ago) I had these thoughts constantly. I figured "this has to get better, right?"

Eventually I realized that you really just need to look for a deal that fits your criteria. If you can find that deal, pull that trigger. The second best time to plant a tree is certainly today. It's always going to be easy to look back and wish you would've invested in year X.

What are your REI goals in 2025? Are you looking to buy your first investment? Use PassivePockets and invest in a large syndication deal? Do you want to sell off some of your units? Get into glamping?

I'll share first: I plan on spending the first bit of the year saving for my next deal--I'm looking for a SFH somewhere in the midwest to long-term rent. Still open to market ideas (so if you have any ideas, please share!) but mostly considering Ohio or Indiana at this point. Open to any advice here too

The way I see it is you're comparing two options, to HH or not to HH. If the marginal cost increase in buying a house that can be house hacked (a house with a basement, a duplex, etc.) is less than the rents you expect to bring in from renting the additional space, why not do it? Not to rely on speculation, but it should get better over time (hopefully) not worse.

If the marginal increase between the two options is only a few hundred bucks and that isn't worth a few hundred bucks to you, then maybe not worth it. Run the math and see what you think.

Have you read many BP books? Small and Mighty is an especially great book for exactly this. I'd definitely recommend that first (Chad Carson is the author).

I would definitely say Costco soap and Costco toilet paper, but it probably depends on the type of unit.

Is it a luxury unit? Probably go with some nicer-smelling soaps (but even then Costco TP should be good).

If it's a cheaper STR, definitely the cheaper options.

 I'll check those out, thanks Sam! Do you personally believe it's best to invest in C/C+ locations in Columbus over Cincy or Cleveland?