All Forum Posts by: Persa Z.

I had MULTIPLE guests in my MTR who have basically lived off of freezer meals for their survival with their crazy work schedules. I originally didn't have a microwave, and after 2 different renters asking me for one, it was silly not to have one. I bought one on the spot on the 2nd mention. I'll never do another MTR without one from the start.

@Mack Lengel is spot on. For "creative" deals to work, there often needs to be equity involved. His example is a good one.

Another option, you mentioned that you already have a parcel zoned for multiple units. Another idea is to partner with someone to bring in financing for the second unit as a private lender, and you do the design/build/construction management, then after it's built you also take care of the furnishing, listing and renting of it, and they receive payments over time until you can refinance them out after it starts bringing in income and it can qualify for a bank loan. 

Hey friends,

I've tried finding a statistic that has a cited source on "percentage of real estate investments that fail" and I'm coming up with a blank.

I'm thinking it would be hard to capture this data from anything other than tax returns, and even then, how could failure be defined? I imagine the amount of writeoffs and depreciation one could take on a a property will make it "look" like a failure when in fact it is an investment that does produce returns for it's owner.

I've seen some bold "95% of real estate investors fail" articles but none seem to cite a source.

Would love to hear if anyone's seen a good place to find this information!

Hey @Zach Bremer! I sent you a message in your Inbox :) Not sure if you've gotten started yet but would be happy to join in.

Hi Ken! 

Welcome to BP! 

Being a new investor is exciting and inspiring, and there are many routes to choose.

House hacking is a great start, since you help reduce your living expenses and start learning how to analyze deals from the first property you buy.

Although I'm not a realtor, I'm familiar with Boise and love the area. If you decide to move to Idaho I'd be happy to show you around! 

If you haven't yet read the Househacking book by BiggerPockets, I highly recommend it!

@erika collins I don't think you need to wait; but it helps to begin a relationship with lenders before you make the investment moves. I have gotten to know investor-friendly lenders through BP and the smaller banks tend to have closer relationships with their underwriting departments. They can take a look at your books for the investment properties if you purchase ones that cash flow and can use that to offset the debt if you took any out on that property. You should still be able to finance a primary with the right folks. Banks want to lend right now.

@Melvin M. I'm familiar with the area and have friends there struggling to find housing. The residents in the city have been putting pressure on the local authorities to begin regulating STRs. There is some movement on this (see this article, for example). It might be worthwhile to see if your aunt or someone there locally can help you make connections to find out more about what is being considered before you make a big investment in getting it running. Knowing more details can help you assess whether it's worth pursuing in the short term. 

Thank you both, @Joe Splitrock and @Riley Lucchesi; seems like I should give that lock a try! Interesting to hear accounts of other folks having issues with the lock I have; I see complaints on Google but it's always hard to know how common the problems are. Remote lock management seems to come with its own bag of possible issues. I think I'll set up the Encode lock at home and do some hard testing on it before sending one to be installed. 

@Joe Splitrock It's a Yale Assure with a Yale Wifi Bridge, connected to a COX router. The WiFi bridge reports strong wifi and bluetooth connections - it appears it's the lock itself that has lost its connection to the bridge. Googling around, it seems this lock with the August module does have these issues. Last time I paid the handyman $85 to go troubleshoot it, and it turned out that popping the batteries out and in "reset" that connection to the Wifi bridge. It's gonna get quite expensive to keep doing that. I'll be sending a different lock brand and getting this one back in my hands for further troubleshooting to figure out whether the lock itself is a dud.

Thankfully I had a backup plan and had created backup codes. I dislike that while I can't communicate with the lock, they are basically "forever" codes until I can delete them.

@Nancy Bender thank you for sharing your experience!