All Forum Posts by: Nicole Heasley Beitenman

But doesn't using it hurt your credit? I have about $125k of sellable equity between two properties I'd love to use to either fund down payments or fund the entire purchase and then refinance out, but I don't want to put $20k-100k or more on a CC and find I can't refinance out because I tanked my score 100+ points. 

I spoke to Melio, which is similar to Plastiq, and they said, "If it is for paying the title company to close, then it should be fine. However, it is not okay if it involves a credit card payment going to an escrow account." I'm assuming the declined transactions have something to do with how the payment it set up because it appears that some folk are still using this method.

What did they say you did wrong? According to Melio, "If it is for paying the title company to close, then it should be fine. However, it is not okay if it involves a credit card payment going to an escrow account." Not sure how that's supposed to work. 

When I was starting, I found a resource in FF that suggested pricing $300-500 above LTR rates. I started at $500 over LTR rates and bumped it up $50 in between each tenant until I felt like I hit the ceiling.

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

How creative! Personally, I'm not willing to deal with the headache of constant switching, especially since my market allows me to flip to STR to fill awkward gaps. If I didn't get a switch initiated in time for an STR guest's arrival, I could put myself in hot water.

I wonder if this tactic could still work if you set rent at $2300 utilities included or $2000 with utilities billed separately through RentRedi/Tenant Cloud/Whatever You Use? Then they're still paying the bill but you don't have to deal with multiple account switches every year. That's how I billed my LTR tenants for utilities without actually putting the accounts in their names. Leases stated that rent payments were applied to utilities first and rent second.

Have you gone to any local meetups? 

I'm getting $1,500 a month for a 1BR/1BA in Youngstown. I'd expect Cleveland to fetch a bit more even with more saturation. When I first started about a year ago, Furnished Finder recommended pricing $300-500 a month above LTR rates. I took that advice and priced $500 over LTR rates. Then I bumped rents up $50 between each tenant until I felt like I hit the ceiling. 

Hit up the "Resources" section of FF. There's plenty of gold in there!

@Ryan Arth Tags on here are often hit or miss for me too. Thanks for the mention!

Quote from @Alex L.:

Quote from @Calvin Thomas:

Quote from @Alex L.:

Quote from @Calvin Thomas:

Quote from @Thurben James:

Just curious how people feel about investing in Youngstown Ohio. 

 Don't invest in to dumps.  This is not 1803, and Youngstown Ohio is past its prime. Just listen to the song Youngstown by Bruce Springsteen.  

Ah, yes. The best investing advice always comes from 30-year-old songs.

 Pretty sure one can just Google Youngstown Ohio and know that the place is crumbin' down (get it?).

Any investor looks for places which have a bright future, not one's where their downtown is closed due to crumbling and unsafe buildings.

https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/gas-explosion-in-youngs...

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2022/03/12/what-buck...

https://ysu.edu/center-working-class-studies/renaissance-who...

https://www.propublica.org/article/these-companies-got-milli...

As Bones would say, it's dead Jim.  Don't blame me, I didn't kill it, it's been dead for a while.. 

One downtown building that recently suffered a gas explosion doesn't constitute the entire metro area, but no matter. You won't hear any complaints from me. Better that out of state investors keep their fingers out of the area all together. More pie for me. 🙂

LOL! Agreed. I'm loving this thread 😁 Using Springsteen as market research. Unbelievable.