All Forum Posts by: Nazz Wang

Haha I love how much room for imagination your left with your post title. Almost kind of poetic...

A lot of podcasts and posts have been on starting with little or no money in REI. You can try to search bar on the site and it will give you a lot of great information.

in 2007, I went to a class by a nonprofit neighborhood services agency for first time home buyers and they went over exactly the same thing. The agency required home buyers to complete this four hour class prior to applying to any local government incentive programs. You will be surprised. One of the best questions asked in my class was, "what do you do if your house gets shot up while in escrow?", aka if someone in the car with a machine gun drove by and shot 200 bullets into the property while it is in escrow, do you still close on it. The second favorite was, "if you walk into the house for final inspection and realized the previous owner took the chandelier, what do you do?" It is really quote entertaining to meet different kinds of people, and we can't assume everyone is on the same page regarding common sense.

@Seth Wilson I liked Seth's idea. A probation period is brilliant. I never thought of that. 

@Account Closed Are you managing the property yourself or using a property management company? If you are using a PM just delegate. It is easier to have a company deal with the old owner, not as personal.

Agreed @K. Marie Poe, @Marcia Maynard always has a comprehensive way to deal with tenants. She is like this super landlord with a land lording encyclopedia in her head.

Is the tenant paying rent? If they are paying on time all the time, I would just ignore the neighbor complaints, as they are undocumented and might never have happened. Neighbors can always call the cops to complaint, so there will be documentation, and will stand in court. Parking on the lawn, huh, I would probably get a photo of it with a date and bill them a fine on the next rental statement with the photo. See if they do it again or not. If they are a pain in the neck and never pay on time, I would try to do cash for keys, offering 1/2 rent and telling them to move out in 1 week or 2 because my niece is moving in in two weeks. Last resort for me would be eviction.

This is what I would do if I am you, not legal advice or financial advice.

Depends on your numbers. If you were to rent out your primary, how does the cash flow look like? If you are losing money, sell your home (wait till after 12/31 so you can keep the taxes for another year), downsize to rent a place with half of what you are paying in mortgage now, and take the proceeds to invest. If you are having great positive cash flow or are breaking even, refi 80% ARV to a conventional 30, cashout, rent out your primary, and downsize to rent a place with half of what you are paying in mortgage now. Reason being, 1. I would never buy a property that didn't at least break even as a rental. The smaller return has to come with way higher potential for appreciation. So if your property is losing money, that neighborhood is not a rental type of neighborhood, so get out. But the hefty capital gains taxes is tricky so try to delay paying it by selling it after the end of year.

2. If your current primary is a good rental hold on paper, congrats. Now you have a cash generating machine to fund your other purchases. Do a cashout refi or take a 2nd cashout mortgage, and use the equity to buy other properties. Money you get from a refi is tax free until your sell your property so you will be able to use all your equity during the growth phase of your investing. Some principle as a 401k plan, the more you use for seeding in the beginning, the faster your investment will grow. 

Yep, the prerequisite is to learn to do your numbers really carefully and really well.

A couple I bought in the last few months. Some are better than others, but in general I am happy with where I am at.

3 bed 1 bath for 22.5k, no rehab needed, rented at 995 a month.

2 bed 1 bath for 26k, spent 800 in repairs, renting at 735.

I rent, always. Why? Because I don't see the point in spending the money to buy in the places I would want to live. I like to live in cosmopolitan areas where the price / rent ratio is way far from breaking even. I would rather spend the money buying rental properties to cash flow than to just own my own four walls. If a property can't break even as a rental, I don't buy it. So I can't buy in the places I want to live. I would however consider buying one to flip though.

Plus, it takes me forever to fix anything in my own home. I am so burnt out from remodeling rentals that I don't want to work when I come home. So, I call my landlord. Works for me.

@Jay Hinrichs 

Hi Jay, I would love a copy of your book if you are still interested in sharing. Got to this post a bit late...Thanks a million!

Nazz

[email protected]

@Arvin Daeizadeh 

Great idea! You are right on. Thanks for sharing that idea. This is the way I have always done it and had never had any problems. The only thing is any commercial big bank where this is convenient also has expensive other financial services. So I always transfers money to my other better bank for my own banking. An extra step but Wells Fargo is everywhere. 

I have them deposit the check in my checking account. I send out a bill every month by the 17th, detailing how much they should pay, my account number, due date and simple instructions. I check my account on the third. If the money is not there they are in trouble. This works particularly well in roommate situations. I differentiate the properties by slightly different rent amounts (eg 1795 vs 1796) and told all my tenants to deposit entire rent amount at once.