All Forum Posts by: Christopher B.

A HML... haha one would think someone living in such a large glass house would not be casting stones with so much aggression.

This is typical real estate agent BS, especially the jerk attitude. This "gentleman" is just upset that his profession is going the way of the dinosaur and he becomes more irrelevant by the day. 

This is the correct mentality here. Great post. 

@Aqeel Salim

Not going to lie, I am a little jelly right now. Kudos for making it happen. Having some international STR's has always been a goal of mine.

@Monte Blunk little late response here but I have used both QB and Buildium for my rentals. QB is great, very powerful. I still have the construction side of my business in QB. However, I switched my rental books over to Buildium earlier this year and am happy with it. I have a smaller portfolio like you and Buildium does everything I need it to do for accounting, and more. When I switched, I had intended to aggressively grow my rental portfolio, though that goal has changed I still don't plan on switching back. Here is why I made the switch:

1. I use Buildium to manage my rentals end to end and wanted everything in one place, no back and forth
   • residents pay online via Buildium and the rent is automatically logged in my books for example
2. I wanted my business systems and processes in place now so I can just feed the machine as I grow
   • easier for an employee to learn just Buildium vs multiple softwares
3. Saves money
   • I am already paying for Buildium, why keep another monthly QB subscription? 
4. Easy to use
   • While I know how to use QB, Buildium is easy and intuitive to use plus has great support
5. I spoke with a guy here on BP that managed a portfolio of over 100 units and he used Buildium only for his accounting and was happy with it. I figured if it can work for a portfolio of that size, then it can easily handle mine. And it does

Good luck

I just started new construction for the very reasons you mentioned. Labor is in short supply in this market, especially for rehabs. I have subs that will not even touch rehabs anymore. I've got a handful of projects I'm committed to end this year and when finished will seriously evaluate my interest in doing anymore rehabs for resale going forward. Just not sure it's worth the hassles to me anymore. 

I don't know anything about it from an investment standpoint but I used to go to some fun parties there when I was a student at UT. 

@Shawn Swisher haha that is awesome. It never ceases to amaze me how little some agents know about the product they are peddling. 

@Chaz Allman The house hack is absolutely the best way to go when getting started in this business. Honestly, when people refuse to even open their mind to that idea when they're struggling to get started it makes me wonder if they will end-up making it in this business at all. You've got to be willing to make sacrifices to start any business, and a short-term living situation where you save tons of money isn't a hard sacrifice imo. The duplex mentioned was my first purchase. I BRRRR'd before that was coined here on BP and it was a big boon for me getting started.

The detached garages out there. I own one and actually went and looked at a house earlier this year in North Knox that had one. When searching the MLS you can filter by garage type though I am confident agents don't always enter it correctly so there may be some out there that wont show-up.

Make sure to keep an open mind. You immediately dismiss the multi but there may be some options that could work financially and keep the wife happy. 

For example, what about a house with a detached garage that has an apartment above it? Rent the garage. These are more common than you think. I own one in fact. 

Or. There are older properties that have been converted into multifamily. Now there are other considerations there that is beyond this convo but my first duplex was a quasi conversion. Had a 1000sf 2/1 on one side and a 1700sf 3/1 on the other that I lived in. Was a good setup. I essentially lived in a house that had an apartment attached to it that paid for everything.

Another example. Down the street from one of my properties is a duplex. Behind the duplex on the back of the lot is a house. Live in the house, rent the duplex. Best of both worlds.

Short-term sacrifice for the long-term gain. You will save a good chunk of money by having your renters pay most if not all of your mortgage. Also, banks want to see a couple years of landlord experience before they will apply 100% of your rental income to your DTI. So it is good to get that clock started as well.

Just some ideas.