All Forum Posts by: Olivia Grabka

@Kristen L Garner.

1. It will depend on the market

2. It will depend on the individual property

Large firms are incentivized to make broad market predictions, but they are rarely proven out. A house on Main St, will likely sell at a discount and a house in an exclusive part of town will still bring a bidding war (as long as it is priced correctly).

Activity will remain steady because the largest generation in our country's history is entering the part of their lives where homeownership makes sense. Their want to purchase will dovetail with the prior largest generation wanting to cash out.

In sum, the housing market will do what it does & Wall St doesn't have a clue.

@William Patrick Farley III.

1. Asbestos shingles are fine as long as they aren't damaged (cracked or chipping)

2. Covering them with vinyl is a good move

Whatever you do, make sure you get a permit; inspectors over do it when it comes to asbestos, they'll stop your project cold and make you air test everything.

Hope this helps!!!

The town/city will turn the water back on if they call

@Lorenzo Sannibale. 1. Income for the tenants has to be 3x the rents, 2. Use Rentometer or something similar to set your rent rate, 3. Use Zillow to market the unit (unless you are using an Agent), Zillow has built in application tools like background checks & credit checks which are essential and 4. Use Rocketlawyer.com or something similar to draft a professional lease that complies with MN regs. Hope this helps, message me if you think I can help further.

@Troy Patt. Everyone's 'box' is different. For us, I will not buy anything built prior to 1910 (I live in New England, finding house built in the 1800's is not that rare). My cut off is 1910, but I prefer to buy built post 1950, building code changed after 1950 making the houses easier to take apart. I have a colleague that loves buying houses from the 1800's because he knows how raise them when the floors are buckling, he knows how to fix the foundation issues etc. In sum, the guideline or 'box' that you set should be predicated by (1) your skill set, (2) your money constraints and (3) your market. I hope this helps!!!

@Cathy Bui. How much money do you need? If its less than $30k and you have good credit, get a personal loan from the bank & use your profits from the rental to pay it off. The cash out refi is your other option, but the interest rate will cut into your profits more than the personal loan option. A HELOC option is available, I know TD Bank will do it, but they do a cross collateralized loan across everything you own.

@Jeff G. Try American Heritage Lending, ask for Marquis Escobar; he's done 7 cash outs for me, all DSCR.

@Arthur R. van der Vant. I disagree with #1, I think as an owner our interests are better served by sticking with lease terms that minimize turn over; turn over is valuable to property managers, but costly for owners (I serve in both roles). The rest is awesome!!!

@Rob Bird. Yes, and in fact most Lenders will agree to evaluate the property based on fair market rents as long as there is supporting evidence and the 3rd party appraiser agrees.

@Sudhir N.

1. Set up an Llc or Corporation

2. Make sure the company has its own accounts & that the only activity in those accounts is to operate the properties

3. You can pay yourself via payroll

You don't need to meet a time threshold, the IRS will treat the entity as the actor and as long as the activities of the entity are consistent with the business you will be fine.

I am an investor & operate a property management business; I have it set up the way I describe here & I have not had any issues.