All Forum Posts by: Michael Wither

I own a few single family residence rentals, and I am in the process of transferring them to the LLC that I opened to hold my properties. I've heard that it's better to have a commercial property insurance policy for the LLC that covers all of the rental homes in it since A) it may be more cost effective than having individual normal home insurance policies on all of the homes and B) it will name the LLC as the primary insured party which technically will be the primary insured since the homes will be in the LLC's name. However, I've had a very difficult time finding any insurance carriers that will provide this type of coverage. Is this unique to Texas where I own the properties and the LLC? Does anybody have any recommendations of insurance carriers or agents who can help with this type of insurance or something similar to it?

@Melanie Johnston Thanks for the review. I had a very lengthy phone call with Evolve and discovered many of both the pros and cons that you mentioned. And their low rates makes more sense now; they were the property manager that estimated annual gross revenue of $36k while others were estimating $50k-$80k, but your explanation makes sense now. I'll have to take that into account if I do decide to use them for STR in the future. And your referral is greatly appreciated as well!

@Will Barnard, @Amy Aziz, and @Justin Windham, thank you for the welcome!  

@Melanie Johnston What a beautiful house!  And I'm glad to hear your property is doing so well.  My real estate agent actually recommended something similar to what you're doing.  I told her I don't want to furnish the place, but since I'll be closing and starting to list in January which is right around the peak of high season, she suggested listing it on Zillow as a long term rental with short term availability.  That way, if I can get a premium for renting it for a month or two in Jan/Feb, I can always fly back to Scottsdale to re-list once the short term tenants leave.  

I also noticed that Evolve was the Airbnb host of your property. That was actually one of the property managers that I 'interviewed' when I was looking for STR property managers for the first house I was in escrow for but that I eventually backed out of. Are you using Evolve? How do you like them?

Thank you all for your replies!  I'm excited to see where BP will take me in my investing career.  

@Melanie Johnston Yep, I've read a lot about the booming Scottsdale market which has attracted me there (along with a few other economic features of the area). I was actually in escrow for another SFR in Scottsdale that I was planning on renting out as a STR but it fell through. For the house that I'm currently in escrow on, I plan to rent as a traditional long term rental simply for ease. I plan to self manage it (with occasional trips to Scottsdale) and don't want to incur the upfront cost of furnishing the house to list it as a STR. Let me know if you have any other thoughts about my strategy. While I'm interested in the STR prospect, I've also had my doubts. Furnishing the unit can cost thousands of dollars and it's an upfront cost that I can't finance. (Or can finance with credit card offers but am less inclined to take that route.) I've also found it harder to estimate STR rental income. For example, for the past house that I dropped out of, I reached out to several STR property managers and they gave me annual income estimates ranging from $36,000 to $80,000. That's quite a big range! And that difference is the difference between a 10% loss and a 20% positive return for the property.

@Yvonne Chou Thanks!  And good luck with jumping into the So Cal market!  It definitely is a bit intimidating to jump into but once you make the dive, you'll find that it is well worth it and only gets MUCH easier and far less scary after the first one.  Even though it is very expensive, there are some huge pros about the LA market in my opinion.  There is definitely no shortage of renters so I've been able to very easily find high quality tenants at great rental rates for all of my units.  I've also seen incredible appreciation on my properties after just a few years in the market.  And I'm fairly certain that LA will continue to see real estate appreciation in the coming years.  (Especially with the 2028 Olympics coming to LA.)  Feel free to bounce any investment ideas, strategies, or thoughts off me.

Hi BiggerPockets! My name is Mike, and I'm a real estate investor and soon-to-be real estate agent based in Los Angeles, CA. I currently own 2 properties in LA (the first was purchased as my primary residence and is now a full time rental, and the second is my current primary residence which I'm also renting out bedrooms in while I live in one room - aka house hacking) and am about to close my third deal in Scottsdale, AZ. 

I'm looking to expand my real estate portfolio, both in LA and outside of LA . I'm hoping to meet fellow investors, and bounce investing ideas and questions in these forums. 

Mike