All Forum Posts by: Angie B.

Have you tried thumbtack.com? I have found some local contractors with reasonable quotes through there recently. 

@Tom Keith - I always thought the Lowe's equivalent to Allure Ultra was SmartCore.  Is that the same thing that you are referring to?  Here's a link:  http://www.lowes.com/pd_534153-28573-50SLV501_4294...  

It comes out to about 2.79/sq foot, so a little cheaper than Allure Ultra.  So far all that we have tried is the regular Allure, which has been good so far, but I would not be surprised if there is some peeling with water at some point- especially in bathrooms or basements.

Hi @Arthur Zaragoza - we live & invest in Kansas City using precisely the model you describe. 70 to 75% LTV is what you will see for investment properties, and we have found banks that will do loans for as little as 50k (would probably need to appraise for at least 72k). Good interest rates, for example we've recently done 30 year fixed at 4.25 or 4.375%. Have to wait 6 months to a year after purchase to cash out refi- depending on the lender. Timing it shortly after spring is best for comps. Keep in mind rehab to prove increase in value- we've bought some really great deals that didn't need too much major work, but then when we hit appraisal time it was hard to prove a huge increase in value in 6 months time, because we hadn't put on a new roof or remodeled the kitchen. But one we bought recently, was a 3/2 in the northland for 55k (probably put 6k into it) and we should be pulling out 52K to reinvest somewhere else. So not too shabby (even though we thought it should have appraised for more)! We are cash flowing $350 after financing, but we manage ourselves, would look more like $250 if you paid property management I imagine. Also we did the rehab ourselves since we live in town, so that cost would be higher too. However I believe Kansas City is a great market, even for out of state investors. I think you would be hard pressed to find a SFR that cash-flowed $500 or more if you had a mortgage, especially as a long distance investor.

You might try Argentine Federal or US Wide Financial (out of St. Louis).  We've used US Wide for some of our KC properties and are also considering working with Argentine Federal in the future.  I would also suggest Bank Midwest in Kansas City, but I think we had trouble with them because they won't work with you if you have more than 4 loans.

I have downloaded several apps to my phone recently, but before spending a lot of time playing with them all to see which is the best fit, I thought I would ask the forum...

I am managing our own rental properties, and for each step in the process, I have a checklist, for example "Tenant Screening Procedures" or "Move-Out Procedures".  I want a separate workspace for each property, but I want to be able to grab one of those lists whenever needed to insert onto a property workspace so I can check each item off.

What do you suggest?  Workflowy?  Podio?  Something else?

@Jon Holdman 

  Please see my post above- it wouldn't let me tag you when I quoted Anthony for some reason.  Thanks in advance for your help in understanding this!

Welcome @Lesa Childers !  We also self-manage for now and like to have properties within 20 minutes from home, preferably in between my husband's current job and our house.  It definitely makes things easier- for us that means Clay County primarily, although Platte County would work too- we just don't find as many great cash-flow deals there.  My only knowledge of Johnson County is that sales prices are very high, compared to surrounding areas, and considering what you can get for rent.  But that doesn't mean there is never a deal.  Midtown is probably similar.  My sister and her husband have a duplex in Waldo that cash flows really well.  Persistence in looking and patience in waiting (or making) the right deal is key!  I think in more difficult areas, like Johnson County, you might really have to do some marketing (yellow letters, postcards, etc) to get some deals.  And definitely check out the BP podcasts- I think I'm on #45.  We've flipped for years and now do buy and hold, so we've had a decent amount of experience, but we are still learning a lot from those podcasts, and some of the great blog articles here on BP!

Okay, I played around with it a bit, and decided to set up one business for our LLC overall, and then each property as their own business. I think it will work best for us that way. I connect our business bank account with our main LLC business acct, and then when I go to assign transactions, I can just choose to move it to whatever "business" aka property I want and then it prompts me to select the proper category to file it under.

@Steven Hamilton II 

 and anyone else who is familiar with Wave Accounting...

I am just setting it up.  We currently have 6 rental properties, and will be adding more.  Knowing how Schedule E is setup on my taxes, I have to keep track of each property's income and expenses separately.  I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to set that up in Wave.  Should I set them up as separate businesses?  Or create separate income and expense categories that include the address of the rental?

Or should I just get Quick Books?