All Forum Posts by: Ryan Swan

1) House hacking / co-living is probably the single best strategy for low down payment buyers right now. More inventory, lower down payment, and less competition compared to the MF space. 

2) Adding any Airbnb strategy to MF or house + casita can pump the cashflow up dramatically. 

3) Investors with deeper pockets are exchanging from other assets, paying all cash, or putting more down to achieve positive cashflow that eludes more budget conscious investors. I think this point is the key which leads to a lot of head scratching from my clients "I can't make the numbers work on this deal, so who is buying this??" Well, people who are flush with cash or equity from the last 2+ years of crazy appreciation in real estate and the stock market. 

4) Some investors are OK with buying low to negative cashflow for the first 12-18 months while they stabilize the property, increase rents, and fix deferred maintenance items. Once stabilized, then they can even place new tenants X months from now at a likely higher rental rate.  

@Bob Okenwa as guardians of the forums, sometimes it's our duty to deliver the hard truths to people looking for advice! (especially if they've only been in phx a few months)

Big congrats on getting a VA offer accepted in this market. I'm honestly surprised Linda accepted it....she must not have had anything else on the table.
If you do any long term rentals, I wouldn't go off of her pro-forma. $1450/month for a 442 sqft 1/1 in that neighborhood? 

Have you really assessed the Airbnb demand for 3-4 units in this pocket? Will travelers feel safe here and want to leave you 5-star reviews? 

I think Bob was being nice when he said it was "a little rough" back then. 

Not trying to burst your bubble, but you're spending a lot of money on this building! 

Ask them how you are supposed to actually pay taxes on AZDOR.gov if you don't have a tax license and aren't required to get one.

Even Phx's own FAQ's agree with the tax matrix
"A person who has three or more residential units rented or available for rent in the State of Arizona
must pay tax to the city of Phoenix on the units located within the City."

Do you own three or more residential rental units within AZ? If no, then you don't owe any taxes to Phx. 

Personally, I would do nothing knowing that I was following the tax matrix correctly.

It used to work really well but their bank connect feature has gone to $h!t lately! They try to put the blame on the bank side (authentication), but it still hasn't been resolved in probably over a year. All of my synced transactions show up as doubled, tripled, or quadrupled in my ledger. I have to match the first one, and then manually go through and "ignore" the duplicates one by one. As @Kurt Lane mentioned this is the manual method...I agree that their auto reconciliation feature never worked quite right to begin with. 

I have other accounting software that syncs and reconciles with the same bank just fine, so this is strictly a Buildium issue. 

@Sarah Stevens a few years a go I was helping BP clients buy a handful of fourplexes every year using FHA financing. Now, it's almost impossible to make the numbers work. Another point you need to be aware of is the FHA self sufficiency rule that applies to any 3-4 unit building (but not to duplexes). For a 4-plex the basic calculation is that your total housing payment (P+I+T+I+HOA+MI) must be greater than 75% of the gross rent. Even if you found a property where the numbers worked, you'd be competing with lots of cash offers, 1031 exchanges, and 25%+ down conventional financing....unfortunately FHA and VA offers usually go on the bottom of the stack.

Pivoting to a house + casita strategy, or just a SFH home that you can "hack" up and rent by the room, is a better way to invest your time and money right now. As you mentioned, this also opens up the option of using a low down conventional loan product vs FHA. I have quite a few clients that are doing very well with both strategies. In fact, we just closed another SFH for a BP client that is renting by the room and has already bought his 3rd property in under 2 years. All of them are cash flowing very well.

Hi @Melissa Servello welcome to BiggerPockets! I actually fell into real estate investing about 18 years ago when I bought a home off of College and Apache to live/rent while I went to ASU. The home was always rented and also rented for a $ premium compared to other parts of the valley. Since then I added more homes and a small multi family property (all in Tempe). I could probably write a short book and how to successfully do student rentals in Tempe. 

There are pros and cons to a SFH vs Townhouse/condo. For college students, I would lean towards the townhouse/condo route.

1) HOA dues often cover exterior maintenance and landscaping, so that's a couple big things you and your son don't have to worry about. Also eliminates any issues with code enforcement if the boys forget to mow the lawn or spray for weeds.

2) Smaller yard / patio = fewer problems with noise complaints (which Tempe has really cracked down on).

OP = original poster 

@Dick Rosen based on the information OP provided he would follow the matrix and answer NO to questions Q1-Q5. Then he would get to Q6 and assuming he only has the one rental in Phoenix, he would also answer NO. By that process I believe he does not need a tax license and does not have to remit any taxes due to only owning one residential rental in Phoenix. 

Looks so good! Now you have the most useable basement, along with the fanciest mailbox in all of the Coronado District.