All Forum Posts by: N/A N/A

Thanks Mike. I agree with what you're saying. My particular problem is I became a landlord by default...twice. It's a couple of long stories...a combination of ignorance and life happening at the same time. I am not looking to buy property in the area where these two homes are located I just don't want to get caught holding the bag if the market drops. I also don't want to sale the homes just yet becasue the market has been appreciating between 8 and 10 percent for the past 4 years, at least. A problem with the area where these homes are located is it has a history of boom and bust. Also, I am not physically in the area and there are no REI clubs there...it's a smaller town.
Let me know what you think. I'm not expecting yout o have the exact answer for me, I'm just thinkg out loud and trying to get different perspectives.

Thanks

-Madison

That is exactly my problem...I have no idea how to predict where or when a housing market will shift for better or worse. I know a lot, if not all of it, has to do with jobs in the area. What clues do you look for in a local economy telling you to sale your properties or buy more? I have looked on the states DOL web site, but I can't help but think the info/predictions might be padded by somebody with an interest in the state.
Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

-Madison

Oh. In that case how do seasoned investors get the word out that they are in the market?

MikeOH, what is a bandit sign?

That was the plan...to invest in more RE. I am pretty thrifty and so is my wife, so spending the savings on junk wasn't even a consideration. So, would the whole monthly payment (the interest, taxes and insurance) for the house be tax deductible? This year it wouldn't really help us out, but I was wondering if we could carry the deductions over to next year?

Good point. I was just reading an article on that very issue this morning. Is there really a significant savings between conv. and interest only? I have read that you will only save approx. $200 a month with a principle of $200k (which is about 10-20k more than what I want to spend)....the higher the principle the more you save. I have not found an ammortization calculator that does interest only loans. Do you know of one?

I have not ran into this problem yet, but I was having trouble finding the right wording to put into my lease regarding the penalty for smoking in a non-smoking unit. Assuming there would be no physical damage (burns in carpet, etc.) there is still the smell of smoke in the unit which can obviously deter any future renters. For one, I don't even know how you would get rid of the smell. Without having my lease in front of me right now...I put a clause in the lease that says something to the effect of if the renter does smoke in the premises they will be charged for the professional cleaners needed in order to remove the odor. How does everybody else handle this?

-Madison

Does anybody have an opinion on using an interest only loan on their primary residence? The logic behind this is that by using an interest only loan you will be able to use the savings to invest elsewhere and be able to write off the interest to save even more....or so I have read. In my situation, we will probably not stay in the next house we are going to buy for more than 3 years. So I was thinking we could just refinance at the time we did have to start paying principle or sale the home. I would love opinions on using this strategy versus using conentional 30 yr fixed financing.

-Madison

Rehab is right. You need something in the lease that clarifies situations like yours. My lease says something like...if the damage is caused by the tenants misuse, abuse or neglect they are responsible for the reapirs.

Thanks for the input. It helped. i'll have to check on AK's laws on app. fees. All good ideas though.