All Forum Posts by: Nick Littleton

Looking for a referral for a real estate attorney in the Nashville area who knows Davidson County codes well, does leases and also does litigation. Thank you!

Hey all,

Starting to look to get into my next deal, and primarily looking out of state (specifically in Jacksonville, FL).  I know the "rent by the room" or "co-living" strategy is primarily used for house hacking, and you, the owner, are typically the landlord (and in some situations one of the tenants can take over at a discounted rate of rent). However, I am not looking to move to Florida just yet.  Just curious if there are any property management companies out there that anyone knows about that offer that service, even if it is at a premium.  Specifically treating each room as it's own unit, with it's own lease, with a shared common space/bathroom(s).  I haven't seen anything definitive with a google search, or really on the forum search either.  I looked into Padsplit, but they are wanting close to 15%, which would be a reasonable charge, especially for the extra work, but it is only to use their platform, not for management.  Management would be an additional charge on top of the 15%, so I'm hoping someone out there knows someone or a company that offers this service.  

Thank you all in advance,

Nick

@Chris Seveney We ended up lowering the price down to compete, and we upgraded some amenities in the house for ours to stand out a bit more (IE fancy blinds, a permanent TV wall mount, an oversized washer/dryer, and a sliding glass shower door).  We have received more inquires about it now, but nothing has stuck.  I really like @Jose Fernandez 's idea, thank you for that suggestion. If nothing sticks within the next week or so, we might have a Move in special deal if the lease is signed before February.

@Marcela Hoag I like that idea a lot! Unfortunately the house isn't close to any hospitals, and I am trying to cash out refinance the house so I need someone on a 12 month lease to help the financing.

I know it's December/January which is not an ideal time to neither sell or rent. Private landlords in the neighborhood that we invested in are renting their SFH at $2950, but they listed them in August/September. We finally had our house built and are trying to market it for that same price, but have had 0 bites so far. It also doesn't help that another investor that purchased 14 houses cash in the same area is undercutting everyone else and renting for $2550 through a property management company. So now that everyone knows the backstory - what would be some strategies that any of you have utilized to stand out and stay competitive? We have come to the realization that we will more than likely have to drop our initial price in order to stay competitive, but is there anything else or other marketing strategies that anyone else out there has used to say hey, pay more here, it's worth it because of X Y or Z.

Besides dropping the monthly rent some these are some other ideas we are thinking of, feel free to comment on any of these ideas.  We've toyed the idea of including internet and/or cable in the rent, but then that could get messy unless you pay for the most expensive package available, which doesn't sound ideal.  We have also thought about advertising that we are private land lords as opposed to a large property management, but we also don't want to get taken advantage of. We are currently just marketing online, but are going to purchase a for rent sign and print some flyers off to pair them with the rental application - has this been an effective method for any of you?

Any and all advise is much appreciated, and my wife and I both thank you in advance.

 Yes, local to the property.  Eventually we will end up going 3rd party after we acquire more properties, but not quite wanting to give up that 10% yet.

That is awesome, thank you Curtis, very helpful.  

Hey all,

We have a lease drafted up (it is actually from bigger pockets) but we were warned from our lawyer that there are a handful of COVID provisions/addendums in Washington state that it might be out dated or out of touch.  We also have an uncle who is an investor as well, he told us that he hasn't changed anything to his leases and not to worry.  The lawyer's fee to draft an updated lease is $850, I'm just curious if there are any other WA state investors that have run into this issue, if the lawyer fee is worth the time/effort because we are ignorant to a specific law, or if the lease that we have already is fine.  Thank you all ahead of time

N&T

Hey all,

I have my first rental finally built that we paid for through private lending and equity through our personal house. The goal here is to have a lease signed, put a renter in there, and cash out refinance the property to pay back the private lender and most of my own money... a BRRR if you will, but in a roundabout way. However, my wife and I have not been landlords yet and a fellow investor/friend of mine told me I might have trouble finding financing if we don't go through a professional property management company since we are inexperienced. Have any of you out there run into this problem and if so what solutions have you come up with? Are there any lenders out there that are friendly to fresh property managers?

Thank you!

N&T

Thank you @Andrew Garcia! I appreciate the input

Hey all,

Looking for general advice. My wife and I are currently living in our primary house, and we have been trying to think of creative ways on how to house hack our primary to lower our DTI and scale faster. We probably would have house hacked before buying a primary residence, but that was before we started educating ourselves with real estate investing. Short Term Rentals are allowed where I live, as well as DADUs. My thought process is to cut out a piece of our property (we have 10 acres) that is surrounded by trees but close enough to the house to run power/plumbing and build a DADU/tiny home with 2 bedrooms to rent out on AirBnb/VRBO.

However, this would cut deeply into our reserves and our "investing" savings that we have created, and would take some time to gain that back. The whole idea would be to use our cash to build it (ideally little to 0 leveraging), and turn our primary into a cash flowing house hack/STR.

I love this train of thought, not the lack of money, but the idea of lowering our DTI to be able to qualify for more/larger loans and scale faster. However - I also think I could achieve this by just utilizing the same amount of money as a down payment, ideally shooting for 4-5 bedroom house (more beds more heads), buying another property that I could run as a STR, and now we have an additional appreciating asset. I am torn - and I don't know what direction to go. Looking for advice from people out there who are more experienced that I am. Thank you all in advance.

Nick