All Forum Posts by: Mark Caiazza

@Christopher Stafford I would be extra careful in the Minot area. Kudos on you for looking to house hack with your VA… that is absolutely the best way to get started! Unfortunately, I don't think there are any hot areas in Minot right now. The area is saturated with 2/1's for rent and not much demand. Rental rates (and BAH) have plummeted over the past 4-5 years.

Don’t take my word for it and don’t take your agents word for it… go to some of the property managers around town and get the actual data. Find out where people are renting and what they are paying. $900 seems high for that property. They overbuilt during the oil boom and now you can find a newer 2/1 with amenities for sub-$800. Go walk some of the apartment complexes and see what your prospective tenants may be looking at before they see your property (you may be surprised what they can get for $900). 

I didn’t want to post this to be all negative, but more importantly, I don’t want you to get PCS orders in a few years and be under water and stuck with an underperforming property. I would do a little more homework on the market and get some confidence in the numbers. Also, seems like a red flag to me if the agent is telling you he can get the current tenant to sign another lease if you buy the property. Good luck, don’t get discouraged, and reach out to me if you have any questions.

Congratulations @Phillip Moreno on nearing retirement and kudos to you for getting the plan in place 4 years in advance. Like @Dan H. , I would use the HELOC as a short-term solution to get into something that won't finance traditionally, fix it up, and then secure long-term financing at a lower rate. This is a good general rule, but there's additional details needed to assess your specific situation (is the San Diego property still your primary residence, will you rent out that property, what type of rental are you looking for, what are your current loan terms, how much cash do you have, etc). A HELOC on a primary residence will have better terms than a HELOC on an investment property.

Also, to clarify some of the previous comments, according to the VA website, the borrower is not allowed to extract cash from their equity using an IRRRL.

Good luck on your first rental!

@Yasmin Shakhshir I agree with @Ray Fisher, there is more to be concerned about when the property is occupied. I have purchased both vacant and occupied properties and I would rather it be vacant so I can vet my own tenants. I luckily haven’t had any issues with the properties where I inherited tenants, but I would rather buy it vacant and have complete control. Just make sure its not vacant for a reason that you can’t fix (bad neighborhood, undesirable area… next to airport, pig farm, flood zone, etc). Have a proper inspection done

Mitigating vacancy boils down to two things, make repairs or reduce the rent (assuming you're marketing properly).

Do your research and understand what renters in Centerton expect and check out some comparable rentals in the area. If you have trouble renting it out conventionally, maybe have a backup plan to make it an Airbnb or furnished corporate rental. With Walmart HQ and Tyson in the area, there may be a demand for that type of property pushing West into Centerton. Good Luck!

Hi @Anthony Van Guyse,

I hope your trip to Bentonville is proving fruitful. There doesn't seem to be a huge presence of investors here on BP located in the NWA area. I don't have a ton of local knowledge of that area, but I can share with you my recent experience purchasing an investment property there. Like you, I took a short trip there to scope out the area and gauge the REI potential.

I'm a remote investor (active duty military) currently located in North Dakota, but I just picked up a long term buy & hold SFR in Rogers AR in October. It's a 3/2 in West Rogers (just south of Bentonville). The house is nothing special… a 1700 sq ft brick house in a B-class neighborhood built in the 1990's with 1990's décor.

After purchase, I found the rental pool seemed much smaller than some of the other markets that I’m in. There didn’t seem to be much interest in renting this house. I only had 4 interested renters in a month and a half timeframe. Luckily, one of them easily qualified and signed a lease. I’m hoping the lack of interest was due to the time of year just before the holidays. I’m sure the 1990’s wallpaper and laminate countertops didn’t help.

The Bentonville area seems to be the hot spot with the desirable schools and proximity to Walmart HQ, but you will pay a premium. You can find some lower priced properties East of the 49 in Rogers, but the neighborhoods aren’t quite as nice and the inventory is a little older. Centerton is West of Bentonville and has some new construction/schools going up… It just seems like a lot of farmland right now, but may be in the path of progress. Take all of that with a grain of salt as I am by no means an expert on the area.

Good luck with your trip… I’ll PM you some of the professionals I used and how they helped me out.

@Todd Powell Maybe my school of thought is because I haven’t experienced any insurance related nightmares yet, but I do not require tenant to carry renters insurance. However, I highly recommend it during lease signing and educate them that the landlord is not responsible for their personal items in the event of a disaster.

@Todd Powell Maybe my school of thought is because I haven’t experienced any insurance related nightmares yet, but I do not require tenant to carry renters insurance. However, I highly recommend it during lease signing and educate them that the landlord is not responsible for their personal items in the event of a disaster.

@Brad Penley, Keep it and try to self manage as previously recommended. You can always hire a property manager if you find out remote landlording isn’t for you. Get a HELOC (primary residence HELOC terms are usually better than investment property terms) so you can access that equity when you are ready to buy your next one. Don’t underestimate the value of your debt service... we may never see anything close to 3.25%/30yrs again. Good luck with your decision!

@Andrew Schrader, I don’t think you need to scrub with TSP twice if you’re going over the walls with Kilz and paint. The previous recommendations are spot on. After everything is cleaned, scrubbed, replaced, and painted, an HVAC filter air freshener will give it a nice finishing touch for less than $5

Hi @Sharon Rosendahl,

Melissa Dascoulias with Dahlquist Realtors is fantastic! Very responsive and investor focused. She understands the difference between an investor and primary home buyer. I will be closing next week on a duplex in Great Falls that she found for me. I live in North Dakota so everything (showings, communication, document signings) has been accomplished electronically. Good luck!

@Sarah D. I have done this numerous times with no issues. However, like @Patti Robertson mentioned military folks are a different story. My tenants have always been military members that are trying to secure housing before they arrive and they usually have their military friends come look at the house. I always require every tenant over 18 fill out an application, send a copy of their drivers license, pay stubs, and I do a full background check. Maybe I have just been lucky, but the previously mentioned requirements seem to have weeded out the "professional tenants" in my experience. To be honest, I haven't personally met any of my previous 5 tenants. Good luck!