All Forum Posts by: Maya Torres

@Matt Higgins Thanks for the extra boost in confidence over finding a renter. Lol. Small things like that mean a lot in these times.

@Matt Higgins I had to pay when I registered a few months ago so it’s already paid for. I would’ve continued no matter what. My circumstances are probably better than most. I’m a full time MBA student and my husband is military. We have his income to fall back on. Of course, we have two mortgages and tons of bills to include supporting his parents so we’re not in the clear but we’re gonna take it one day at a time. Not to mention two kids. We are strapped. But I have nothing to lose by pursuing a career as an agent (investing full time is the ultimate goal). I have tons to gain knowledge wise even if not income wise right away. So for us it makes sense.

I definitely felt better about the move after speaking to a reputable property management company I was introduced to at an investor meet up. And we’re in a big military city so I have faith that we will find a renter.

@Matt Higgins You're right. This is doom and gloom. But at least you warned us. I personally haven't been in the RE game very long. Own two properties and 2 tenants. Both are able to pay April's rent (one is a nurse) and the other already warned me her husband was laid off due to travel restrictions. I told her I'll work with her to the best of my ability but my husband and I have a mortgage to pay too. My second property is the SFH that my husband and I are moving out of and have to find a tenant for. You know what..I could buckle. I could cry. I could say let's not do anything until the situation is better. I'm working on my RE license here shortly. I could say let me hold off because RE isn't doing so hot right now. But we spoke with a reputable PM company. We're gonna move. We're gonna move forward with our lives and take it one day at a time. We're gonna pray that we find a tenant for our SFO and we're gonna do life and take it as it comes. At the end of the day I answer to God and he always takes care of us even if it doesn't look how we want it to look. No sense in worrying or wracking your brain. Just take things one step at a time with a level head. I'm aware that some people aren't believers but God has the final say. Not our government or this economy. But if you choose to take God out of it, still, worrying that life will never get back to normal is just healthy. You will get through it. We will all get through it.

@Caleb Heimsoth Do you think that telling someone not to buy rentals ever again is the answer here? Lol. Cause he’s not gonna buy anymore rentals because Caleb said so. Maybe try to be a little more helpful. If he wanted out of the real estate game he probably wouldn’t have asked the question.

@Karen O. Good to know! Thanks so much. My duplex is rented for $875 currently. But to cover our SFH that we're about to move out of it's looking like $1750-$1800.

@Jason Allen I agree with you 100%. Why? Because you’re not saying give your tenants a break and let them live rent free. You’re basically saying, work with them if possible whatever it looks like. Don’t jump down their throats because they don’t have extra savings. Don’t force them into debt. If it means letting them break their lease early so they can go live with relatives, let them do that. But people manipulate and twist these words so much it’s ridiculous. They wanna pounce on you the moment you say anything of the sort. I personally am so SICK of the grocery stores and banks comparisons. It doesn’t have to be all that dramatic. We are landlords. We operate how we operate. We don’t have to compare ourselves to grocery stores and banks. I’m sure people that are going to the grocery stores have to decide between steak and ramen at this point anyway. Figure out a way to work with a deserving tenant (no not letting them live rent free) and still get your mortgages paid. Simple. We’re all affected by this in some way. Let’s ride the wave together and lessen the sting as much as possible.

@Anthony Wick I forgot to mention something that is super nerve wracking is having to rent out our single family home here in the near future. We didn't intentionally buy it for that purpose but we have to move so it is what it is. I don't like the idea of SFH's. It's not my preference. I like the idea of having multiple rents coming in for one mortgage. If my SFH goes vacant nothing is covering that mortgage other than reserves or another tenant! That can be quite daunting but like you said, we will get through it!

@Anthony Wick Hi Anthony! I am one of those people who is strapped! Lol. And I have no problem in responding. I’m also not a heavy investor. Not yet anyway. My husband and I bought our fist property 3 years ago. It was a duplex that we house hacked for a little over a year and then moved out eventually into a single family home live in flip. We had a good amount of reserves in there initially but being new to the game ..things that we should’ve factored in we didn’t factor in and now we’re pretty low on reserves for our duplex. However, in the 3 years that we’ve had it we haven’t had any issues with vacancy. It is literally minutes away from a large Naval Base. One tenants rent covers 90% of the mortgage. I manage it well and we do have our own savings fund. Our highest cost thus far has been turnovers. The price we have to pay for military tenants. I’ve recently transitioned out of the military and will be pursuing investing full time while we still have my husbands stable military income. But in transitioning there have been some financial challenges and once we feel secure enough with our reserves and our personal savings, we’re gonna be looking for at least a 4-plex to purchase. So although we don’t have much in reserves, we also only have 1 investment property (plus our current home which we’ll be renting out here shortly due to other reasons). So yes..there are newer investors like us who probably don’t have much in reserves..but they may have a lot more properties. Who knows. Everyone’s story is different. I would hope that people are making good financial decisions and not purchasing more than they can handle just for the sake of expanding their portfolios. It’s a marathon not a sprint.

@Eric Whitman Did you read my post in its entirety? If you did, I’d like for you to tell me where I told Heather to let her tenants live in her units for free. I’ll be waiting.

@Samantha P. Hi Samantha. You’re definitely past the security deposit issue. It is what it is. We live and learn. I think at this point you want her out. In my opinion, cash for keys. There are still people out there with jobs and in need of a place to live. I wouldn’t let this Coronavirus scare you into thinking you won’t get your unit rented. I asked people to share their experiences in another thread and they did. You should check it out. The other option of course is just dealing with this until you can evict. But she will milk it and make your life so hard until she is forced out. Unfortunately. Keep us posted! We’d love to know how it all turns out and hopefully well!