All Forum Posts by: Marcus R.

@Yankel Raskin Check out airdna.com for the local market review of how Airbnb properties perform.  Also keep in mind that the blocked off calendar might be that the host has blocked off the dates and doesn't necessarily mean it's booked.  Love your ambition and I hope you figure this out, keep pushing forward and focus on progress not perfection! 

@James Carlson Love the creativity!  I'll keep this in mind in 2021 when it's time for my next deal.  I think this does have a lot of promise, especially if you find a property located near one of the hospitals.  I'm very interested and currently researching more on medium term nursing rentals. 

Thought about doing the same.  This is very helpful, thanks @Kathy Henley!  Happy New Year! 

@David Chen Welcome to the club!  I'm a new RE investor myself.  You may have already done this but I'd suggest revisiting your mortgage lender options.  Who's your lender? The 5% rate seems a bit high.  You may be able to get something in the 3.75% - 5% range.  Check out Key Bank.  I recently purchased a property with them in October at $413K, 5% down, with a 3.5% rate, so a somewhat similiar situation.  Key Bank also has a medical professional laon which allows dentists, doctors, and physicians, etc... to purchase with no money down.  I don't think 1%-1.5% will make or break a deal but it is about $200-$250 a month which could help you build reserves or cover other small capex items. 

Yo @Angie DeNardo! Welcome to Denver! Denver is also a great city for STR on Airbnb (has to be your primary residence). Wouldn't make it a permanent long term strategy because of the ever changing laws but for now it's great and something to consider if you're looking to juice your returns. It could also be an option if you decide to go to the top of your price range and grab something with an awesome location.

@Rosa Esquivel We never ended up purchasing in the area as I bought a property locally in Denver instead.  We were interested in anything near the UMMC as well as in Audobon Point. 

Well said Mike, all great points above.

A quick and easy rule I used to follow on this site to vet someone's credibility was to see the ratio of their likes to posts.  Ideally I wanted it to be above 1 and the higher the ratio the better as it means more members tend to find their thoughts helpful (By definition I would not listen to myself).  Eventually, if you hang around the site long enough you quickly pickup on who the great ones are!

Economics degree and MBA.  Wouldn't change a thing!  If you obtain an MBA from an affordable program then I think it's well worth it.  It has helped me negotiate stronger compensation packages and the ability to work remotely which have enabled me to invest in real estate.  

@Eric Sipe 

Agree with all the above!  Like Kevin said it makes it easier to get financing and you can also borrow against it to use it as capital reserves.  PLEASE take it one step further and instead of just contributing, make sure you know what you're investing in and how much the fees are for each. 

If you wanna have some fun with it call up your 403B provider and ask them why they recommend "their" fund instead of the lower cost better performing index fund...

@Justin Reyes Do your analysis and trust the numbers.  I did an early 401K withdrawal of about the same amount earlier this year to purchase a property.  Some of the 401K providers have calculators on their website to see how much an early withdrawal is impacting your retirement savings so I used that to determine my decision.  

One thing to keep in mind that I think many aggressively assume with their 401K that they'll automatically be taxed at a lower rate. You very well might still be in the same tax bracket or higher in retirement. There's advanced strategies like capital gains harvesting or IRA conversion ladders that become available to you but I think these often get overlooked.

In summary (using some rounding here), an early withdrawal of $25K would've cost me $185K at the retirement age of 65 assuming a constant 6.5% return and I was hit with the 10% early withdrawal penalty (ouch). BUT I used that money to purchase an undervalued property that ultimately appraised for $175K. By doing so I was able to purchase a property worth $175K that will most likely meet or exceed a sale price of $185K at retirement age in addition to ~360 payments of hopefully positive cash flow. From there some of that cash flow is then continually placed in a Roth IRA to buy ETFs and bonds to generate tax free capital gains, interest, and dividens that is continually reinvested along with positive cash flow. Even with the 10% penalty this was still the more favorable option with my numbers.

This is an enormous time horizon and many things can change so only time will tell if that was the right decision.  Not saying I'll do this every time but given my time horizon I thought it was a good idea to take a more aggressive strategy instead of a more conversative one.  I wish you well, good luck!