All Forum Posts by: Ryan Bray

Nice

We invested in anchorage for a few reasons, none of which apply to your situation. I think Allen"s advice is spot on. It might make sense for you to buy a little duplex or something down the road but renting for a year is IMO great advice. 

We cash flow on a 4 bed townhome in the umed area of anchorage and are looking to get another similar unit right now. The ROI for our situation roughly breaks down into thirds, 1/3 rental cash flow, 1/3 appreciation, 1/3 tax benefits of owning an investment property. We have pretty high income right now and are deeply vested in technology companies because both of us work for one. Financially, Anchorage RE investing is a hedge and a tax dodge for us.

I have family in Anchorage and love taking our kids into the outdoors and it doesnt get more outdoorsy than the Alaska wilderness. Hotels, rental cars, part of our flights are all tax write offs now. With 3 young kids, going anywhere is a big expense so this helps us afford visiting AK every couple of years.

Good luck!

Hey Kerrie,

We use All Star Realty in Anchorage. http://allstarrealtyinc.com

Ask for Pat (owner). Maybe I'll get a discount if you tell her that I sent you. Ha! :)

-Ryan

Nice Greg. I have a rental unit and an Uncle in Anchorage. Spent some time up there last summer and got some good info from BP... We are trying to buy another unit up there right now. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or I can put you in touch with my team (RE, lender, prop manager, etc). 

If property taxes go up, so will rents eventually. If 1031s goes away, there will be less liquidity in RE markets and... rents will eventually go up. If minimum wage increases... rents will go up. Pretty much all of these government programs will eventually increase rents. People have to live somewhere and owning a home is quickly becoming unattainable in much of the USA. The fed has added ˜25% to the money supply this year already... Basic economics shows that printing will inflate asset prices. 

Regardless of what the federal government does, I think we are looking at a Japanese type economy in the next 20 years. Stagnant everything, harder on the working class while the rich stay rich, and rents just keep going up. IMO, it's a great time to be a landlord, regardless of what happens with 1031 transfers. I'm redirecting any extra money we get into savings for more rentals. I want to break the cycle for our kids so they can do whatever jobs they want and live comfortably in 15-20 years.

Figured i'd update status on this old thread. The property is rented out and now we're looking to invest in another property in Anchorage. It was a brutal experience but we are blessed with a great RE agent and got it done. 

Curious if anyone has thoughts about the foreclosure market. :)

Thanks Shelby. We got it done. Closed on 2/21, a day late due to an additional HUD asset manager/HOA dispute. I wired the funds on 2/14 so it was a pretty nerve wracking 7 days...

We ended up having to de-winterize for the appraisal, which was ridiculous, and had tons of issues with the third party appraisal manager from Chase as well as the third party asset manager used by HUD. But in the end we bought a big townhouse with low HOA dues for ~$50k under market value. It ended up costing an extra ~$6k in closing costs but I think we did OK. 

Now we just need to get it rented out... Property manager got the keys over the weekend and is happy with the unit. They replaced the locks, shoveled the driveway, took photos, and are listing it today. Assuming we get a decent tenant in there, I'm happy with the deal and will be looking to do it again next winter. :) 

Full steam ahead!

-Ryan

I'm in escrow on my first investment property in Anchorage right now. It's a HUD foreclosure. It's been interesting so far, to say the least.

1. I highly recommend working with a good local team and stay away from national lenders. Chase and Better.com have caused me nothing but problems and IMO are not worth the interest rate savings. I'm highly doubting Chase's ability to close our loan on time.

2. While coverage is probably leaves some things to be desired, I got a really good rate on homeowners insurance from Liberty Mutual (who is the agency on my primary residence). The difference between Liberty Mutual, Geico, and State Farm was vast and differed depending on the type of policy.

Thats about all I can offer for advice...

Good luck!

@Greg H. Thanks... Appreciate your insight. Conventional investment loan.

Hourly update... lol. Apparently the water wasn't shut off at utility, and the HOA seemed confident we can turn the water on for an inspection, so it is only a matter of de-winterizing which my agent has now arranged on my behalf. Pressure test is not on the table anymore, mainly due to lender's inability to communicate.

My realtor is just trying to work with what we are getting from Chase and trust that the underwriter, appraiser, etc are competent enough to see that this is a good deal.

My realtor thinks we can still make it work and meeting the ridiculous appraisal requirements imposed by Chase is less risky to the deal than switching lenders.