All Forum Posts by: Matthew Becker

Even 10,000 units seems like a lot.  That seems like a lower demand area than any place I would ever invest.   I invest in college towns and resort towns mostly with a summer lake warm lakes and ski hill within 30 min with little to no vacancy.  Some people think these places are to expensive but it does not matter what something cost it matters what he ratio is.  A house that you buy for 1M is a good deal if you can get 10K a month in rent.  I think that is a much better deal than a 100K house that you get $1000/mo in the midwest that won't appreciate.

So to me 10,000 seems like a crazy amount.  But I have run zero vacancy for the last 25 years as of Aug 1 unless I build something then I have lease up in the off season.   

How is there 10K of properties for rent in San Antonio.  Everything I read says we have a housing shortage.  I live in North Idaho and we do have a shortage.  If that is true I would probably sell and buy in a place where there is less competition.   I always try to find better markets to buy in but once I dive in I can't find a better place than where I am at.  

I have several vacation homes and several local STR's my wife and I run. One thing most host don't do is stock the kitchen up well. I believe people should have everything they need to cook with and nice kitchen items to use to cook. Coffee, Tea, creamer, snacks plus all spices and condiments. I generally list my property low for a month just to get some booking and 5 reviews. You have fixed cost so it is better to get some bodies in there so you can get market rent later. You can also put it on furnish finder and try to get a medium term rental until busy season. Give large discount for a medium term tenant and max out on the busy season with short term. Depending on where you live this is not a great time to rent in my area. We are very busy April to Nov and slow Dec to March. Right now 2/3 of our places are full with people staying for 30 days or more. Last thing thougt of is have a little box of books and toys for little kids parents always appreciate it. Just toys for kids under 7. Cards and board games for older kids but they will all have tablets or phones unfortunately. This of course is all based on who your market is. I have a 2BR on the front range in CO and half of the time it is just parents and few kids. I was surprised how many small families we get.

What is good appreciation?  Are you doing value ad that creates appreciation or is the market appreciating across the board?  There is a reason you can buy a duplex for $120K.  I guess it can't go down much more than that so the only way is up unless you are in Detroit.  Wait Cleveland is pretty much Detroit.  Just on the other side of the lake.  I was just messing with you.  I would never buy in places that has a population that is shirking.  I am an old man and I have learned to not crap where I eat.  This is not myface or spacebook or any of those awful social media outlets where people are a**holes to each other.    It is just an investment forum to help people out.   So don't start off by calling a guy out personally.  People with no skin in the game are telling you it is not hte blue mans fault even based on what you told them.  Man up say you are sorry and be at peace maybe you guys can do more deals long term or fight more and accomplish nothing.  My wife had a soccer tournament so I was bored today or I would not even be reading this stuff.   good luck to you all.  

"Keep it small and Keep it all" and old drunk guy once told me.  Good advice 

Do the rivers still burn in Cleveland?  Cash flow is good there I assume because it is a crappy place and you can buy something for less than what the framing package would cost you.  I can't imagine you would get much appreciation.  You should want cash flow and appreciation.  Never buy in a market that is in a population decline.  I don't know you guys but even if you think James has a bad reputation you probably should not lead off with that if you are trying to find a solution.  Plus the real estate world is small.  You don't want to burn bridges if at all possible.  You should just apologize and get a beer or get a beer and fight but this is a lot of wasted BS over $5K   

If you are looking to be an investor then I would suggest you don't be an agent that is a poor mans game and it will make it way more difficult to find deals.  You have to disclose you are an agent and people statistically don't like or trust agents.  If you want to invest private deals which are generally the best deals then being an agent will kill that deal before it gets going.  I have people who work for me that are agents if I need one.  I have just never became one because of disclosure.  Find a rich old guy who has made a crap load of money in real estate.   Tell him you will work for him for nothing and do what ever he needs you to do.  Learn from him.  Then chase down deals for him and take a piece of each one.   I had a kid do that to me 2 years ago.  He has bought 3 houses in a 18 months and is building a 10 plex which will net him about $250k in 9 month when he refinances it.  He will own 1/2 of about 4M in real estate after 2 years and is already under contract on 2 more developable projects. Good luck.  It is a great time to buy.   Also I would consider being a new agent in a market with no inventory and no buys will be a grind with little pay.  Interest rates are not coming down anytime soon.  

You can sell your property into an S corp take advantages of the gain and then depreciate it all. You basically sell to your self but still own it. So you will cash flow. You could also do a cost seg on the $500K sale which depending on what the dirt is worth you can take a large deduction year one of renting it. If you need cash for remodeling new home do a LOC on your owner occupied house before you rent it. Then you can use cash and pay off with cash flow. Keep loc and use it like a savings account and invest into more real estate.

If you want to take advantage of selling it and take advantage of a great interest rate you can do both. Sell it into an S Corp at market rate, that you are the owner of, taking the tax free gains because you owner occupied it. You don't need to use a title company and pay fees, you just need to proper paper work and quit claim deed. This is very simple. Then you can depreciate the property and rent it off setting a good chunk of your income with depreciation. You could also bring in a partner to buy out 1/2 of your equity position. Then you own 1/2 and they would own 1/2. If you need cash to buy your next house get a HELOC in place before you move out while it is owner occupied. Ignore Dave Ramsey he made millions telling people how not to be stupid like he was. Do not pay down aggressively with cash flow, reinvest. At your equity position and rate of 2.5% you should crush it for a long term investment. Rent will go up and you payment will be the same. Even if rent does not go up you will still be able to cash flow well. With one property you can self manage even from a distance.