All Forum Posts by: Matt Lord

I'm about to start my forst BRRRR property. My system is buying small-ish row homes and using the brrrr method while personally doing the rehab work.

I have a very strong construction background. When I worked as a site superintendent building SF’s we were given a folder for each house from my office with everything we needed. It was a very efficient system. I’m going to put something similar together for myself to keep me organized throughout the rehab. It’ll basically be a checklist and should work for any property since I target the same types each time.

So does anyone have a rehab checklist that they’d share? I’m sure I’m not the first person to think of this. If not I’ll share mine when it’s complete

Quick question:

Who here agrees to pay a buyers agent fee? I was shown a few properties with an agent this past week. She seems to be a “OK” agent. I have not worked with her prior to this.

I had her start to prepare a cash offer on a property and she disclosed that her/her office charges a $500 buyers agent fee. I understand she needs a salary and has to pay her bills, but she’ll be making 3% on the sale already. But she’s asking do an additional flat fee on top. I haven’t heard of this practice before. This is in PA btw.

Thanks

I have a new question to add to this:

If I take a loan from a friend or family member, may I treat it as a mortgage and deduct the interest?

I have access to a 7 year loan at 4%. After which I’d have to refi into something longer term. If I use this I’d have enough cash available to purchase about 8 rentals in my target area. It’s a decent amount of $ available. So it’s basically a very cheap hard money loan that’ll get me started building my portfolio quickly.

I worry that I’ll miss out on some tax benefits without using a normal mortgage. I also have concerns about asset protection and how to structure this. Finally, rates are pretty cheap right now on conventional 30 yr notes. They may go up drastically in 7 years when I need to refinance.

Thoughts?

I know this will probably vary wildly. But I’ve been analyzing deals like crazy the past 4 months. Only purchased one so far. But ready to go nuts buying in 2020.

Most of my target properties in my area should net about $300/month in cash flow. That's based on a ARV of $50,000 or less. I'm mainly targeting properties in the $30,000-35,000 range when possible.

So what's everyone's target net cash flow and ROI? What's the lowest you'd go when deciding on whether to purchase or not?

I’ll be following this.

Seems to me if you want one account for the business, having an online rental app would alleviate the issues mentioned above.

The service I use allows for online payments. Tenant can set up auto payments and I can elect to not accept any partial payments. It also keeps a record of each transaction for each property.

Aside from that, I keep a separate P&I spreadsheet on each property that automatically dumps everything into the master business profit and loss spreadsheet. Took a while to set up but it’s very simple and so far very effective for me.

I’d do exactly what Robert showed in his sketch. It’ll do what you want done while keeping you within budget. And is easy to do. I’d also open up the areas around the kitchen/dining and living rooms. If those are load bearing walls, you could just do an opening in the wall looking into the other room(s)

Awesome. Thanks for the insight.

@Camerron Cheatham

I bought and read about a dozen books since June. My favorite one was the first one I purchased. It’s also how I found BP.

It was Brandon Turners book: The Book on Rental Property Investing.

This one started it all for me and lead me to dive into other topics as well. It was general enough to cover a lot of strategies but specific enough to get the wheels turning. Highly recommend it.

I also love all of his podcasts. I’ve gained a ton on info from those.

@Natalie Kolodij

Wonderful. Thanks for the information! I’ll see you at the Sizzler!

I'm a few months into my first rental property. Everything has been perfect. The tenant is great. Shes a young kid right out of college with a good stable job. She asked if her cousin can move in with her in a few months once she graduates from college and finds a job. I have no issues with this. What's the best way to go about adding the cousin to the lease? I have a roommate addendum from one of the BP books I purchased. So I assume I'll just use that. But the real question is how to handle the situation if one of them moves out. 

This would also apply to any future properties I purchase. I really don't care if 2-3 people want to split their living costs in one of my units as long as they all meet the requirements. But how do you hold each individual accountable in the lease? Do you have them all sign 1 lease and share the financial obligation? Or do you have each person sign a separate lease? I guess none of it really matters until one roommate wants out. What if one leaves and the one that wants to stay can't afford the rent? I'm sure this is an easy issue, I just don't know the answer.