All Forum Posts by: Phillip Stephenson

Hi Elizabeth,

How do you go about locating the properties you purchase. Did you find them when you were living in the cities or did you search remotely? How did you find your right team? I can certainly see how military personnel would be ideal tenants.

Thanks for the response.

Chuck / Ryan,

I will certainly get in touch with you and pick your brains.

Kerry,

I am certainly looking for the full service experience you had with Jeff as I hope to make this as painless as possible.

The UK is lovely place to be. I was there visiting family in London/Basingstoke just under a month ago, also hoped over to Paris for a couple of days which was amazing. Would love to do a couple years over there just for the ease of travel.

Glad to see that doing this business remotely hasn't stopped your growth as my wife and I have no intention of returning very soon.

Phillip

Hi Kerry,

Thanks for your quick responses. It appears that you are well versed in buying from a distance.

Were you able to find a realtor that specialized in acquiring properties for rental? I would ideally like to find a person/company that could work with me through the entire process of finding, acquiring, renovating (if needed), marketing, leasing and managing from there on. That may be wishful thinking as I didn't find any companies online that market themselves in such a manner.

How do like owning rental properties? Any advice on things to look for when buying your first rental property?

Thanks again for the help.

Phillip

Hello All,

My wife and I are looking to buy our first rental property and hoping to get some advice or guidance on the process. Our desire to purchase a rental comes from wanting to generate some income separate from our current employment. Also, we have always been interested in owning real estate as we are fond of tangible assets.

Currently, my wife and I live and work in the Cayman Islands but we are originally from the DFW area. We are interested in the Central Dallas area as we know it is stable and continuously growing. Ideally a property that is small and easily manageable would be best as we need to be hands off and use a management company. Maybe a condo/townhome would be best, not an expert but I imagine they are bit easier to maintain. Our #1 priority in a rental is the ease of owning it and the learning experience it will provide. Earning cash is something we can be patient with until we are fully comfortable with the ways of being a landlord (or maybe not comfortable and we will sell it and move on to another dream).

Basically we want to take it slow and easy. Below is a list of our financial parameters. We have left a significant amount of buffer so that even if the whole thing goes belly up we can still continue our lives without worry. Also included below is a monthly projection (could be completed wrong) we created just so you can see our financial thinking on it. Let me know your suggestions, criticism or advice.

Financial Parameters:

Purchase Price: up to 125,000

Down Payment: However much is needed for reasonable financing. I assume 25 - 30%

Area: Central Dallas (Uptown, Downtown, Oaklawn, etc.)

Time Frame: We are very patient and in no hurry.

Monthly Projection:

Projection for monthly budget based on purchase price of 112,500 with 25% down plus 4% closing and 5,000 in renovations. P&I is average over entire mortgage period. Numbers assume 1 month of vacancy and rent of 1,250.