All Forum Posts by: Jeff N.

I'm in between tenants on one of my properties. In the living room there is only one good spot to hang a TV and over the years its really making a mess of the studs in this area. In a few more years of tenants I'm afraid the drywall may need removed and new studs put in.

I'm considering purchasing a flat panel wall mount that will fit the size and weight of most retail TV's and installing it myself and making this part of the lease that the wall mount can't be removed.

This rental is in a higher end development so the concern of the tenant not having a flat panel should be slim. Other than the tenant loosing the hardware to secure their own flat panel, do you see any issues with a permanent flat panel mount in a rental of this type?

Dustin, when you mentioned deployed I thought you meant overseas. I have bought from out of state also and use property managers so I can relate.

I was also stationed in Hawaii for a few years back in the early 90's and I kick myself for not purchasing a rental unit back then. Back in 92 you could by an Ewa Beach SFH for 200K. This was back when it was still mostly cane fields. I still go back to Oahu a least once a year on business and would love to own a rental there, but unfortunately I'm priced out of that market for now.

As far as SFH's or multi-family, someone else will have to chime in. All of my purchases have been SFH's. From reading the forums the past year the multi-family seems to have the greater cash-flow. I have stuck with SF's because at my price point, multi-family purchases would be in undesirable areas. All my SF purchases have been in excellent locations with HOA's established to add an additional layer of protection to the area I'm investing.

Dustin, glad to hear your investing your military pay wisely. I'm a Vet also and have been also buying new construction as rentals. This type of investing does not pass the 3% formula you see mentioned here, but I'm a buy and hold investor and as long as I have good cashflow from day one after PITI, HOA and vacancies I'm happy. This usually means a hefty down payment. This strategy is long term and quite boring. If your looking for a career move after you retire from the military you may look more into the fix and flip. This will keep you busy and has the potential for much greater short term gains.

I'm not sure why your mortgage broker told you to wait 6 months. Your credit will take a slight hit for a few months after obtaining a mortgage and the bank your dealing with may have a restriction or grace period on purchasing investment property, especially if you are a green investor it may be a requirement to wait for some lenders. But you can always shop around and find out yourself.

You mentioned about tax advantages while deployed. Your pay may be income tax free, but I can't think of any other advantage this will give you for purchasing RE. BTW, how will you be able to purchase if you are deployed?

Good luck and welcome to BP.

Thank you Cheryl and Dave. I'm currently in escrow on my 4th and haven't had any issue with financing to date, but my credit union will not finance a 5th. I'll check out your suggestions.

Anyone have any luck recently getting your 5 through 10 mortgage? Just curious what has changed the past two years and what banks are friendly to these.

Below is the guidelines Jon posted a few years ago:

https://www.efanniemae.com/sf/guides/ssg/annltrs/pdf/2009/0902.pdf

Over the past decade more states have been permitting the construction of casinos and gaming to increase their tax revenue. Do you feel this will have a negative impact on Vegas growth with more of the population having a casino in their backyard?

I agree with Jon, the proposed method is more the norm. I use an out of state PM also and my tenant checks are made out to the PM and I then receive balance after PM fee, repairs and expenses from PM. My PM uses online software so I can view proposed repairs, photos, repair quotes, etc, along with all tenant and PM email traffic and paperwork.

Works pretty well for an out of state situation.

Dave, if you hold on to the MI rental I would definitely make sure you have a decent emergency fund before even considering to make another RE investment.

By the way Mitch, I have made a few trips back to Hawaii since this post and I have found the perfect solution to those over the Pacific rough flights.

Xanax

I think the plane could literally be going down in flames and it would not bother me a bit.

Thank you for your input. I didn't think I was asking too much either. Unfortunately I have a feeling their definition of "Good Deal" is based on value compared to 2006 highs. Which is another discussion on its own.

I guess I can only assume business is doing well for agents if they don't want to spend a few minutes to analyze deals for a qualified buyer.