All Forum Posts by: Max Ferguson

If there is nothing major broken, don't waste your time. A lot of things can be considered wear items which you can't charge for. If they are nice, pay rent on time, and don't give you a headache I would just return the full deposit. 

It is also really hard to define how much they would owe you since you accepted the condition of the property on the day of close. Did you take pictures during the final walkthrough? Was anything majorly damaged from that point on? 

I generally would say start in the state you live in, but if you are in CA I would be weary. I agree with most others, seems like Ohio is hot and getting hotter right now. Don't limit yourself to just one state in this search, you have a couple factors that are very important to think about as well. Low taxes, Landlord friendly states, HCOL VS LCOL area, Cashflow vs Appreciation, actual finances of the deal, etc... 

Personally, I am only in Colorado simply because I chose to live here. While definitely not the best state for deals on paper, it should appreciate heavily due to location and zoning. I will try to build my portfolio in CO as I love the architecture, nature, etc... but may need to branch out to other states to scale in a more efficient manner. While acquiring interesting properties would be fun, in the end the boring stuff generally makes more money. 

There are a ton of factors to mull over but you're definitely in the right place!

Good luck on the journey!

I attend a couple where I live, one is very established, one just started to get big. Having a designated speaker for each with a good topic/slideshow, making time for a networking portion of the meetup, and having snacks/drinks accessible are all great ways to insure recurring attendance. Make sure to post on facebook and Meetup.com if you haven't already. I am thinking of starting my own one day, good luck!

It would be the best financial decision to purchase another property instead of renovating first. Don't string yourself out too thin, however, if you have proper reserves it will be far more beneficial than renovating your Live-In property. Now if the 1958 home is in dire need of updates, go ahead, but it sounds like you can live with the outdated house and put that money to work in a different property. 

With this being said, there are a lot of bad deals out there right now, so double check pro-formas, do proper due diligence, and the next investment will be a cake walk. Good luck!

@Elliott Back did you decide to back off on Leadville? 

I am considering a short term rental up there, looks like str's have picked up a bit in the last couple of years. Population is still stagnant around 2.7k but could see a vast influx of people as Summit county becomes unaffordable to the masses. I've never had a problem with the elevation difference when visiting from Colorado Springs, but that is something to consider that I didn't think about before. Ski cooper also continues to grow and leadville had quite a few new restaurants the last time we were there, interesting to see where the city will go from here. 

Building could take far longer and would be much more of a headache in my opinion. Buying a property to be "turn-Key" could happen as early as a few days after closing, where building could have various setbacks, more additional costs, and opportunity cost of waiting instead of having a unit that is already cash flowing. There are factors that could make your situation different but for what I am seeing, I would focus in on something already built.