All Forum Posts by: Shawn Massengill

I was under the impression that by following the 3-Property Rule, I could identify 3 properties at 150000+ and as long as I close on 2 of those to match my sale price, I have completed the exchange. Is this incorrect?

Hello Everyone,

Long time lurker and I have learned a lot from this place! 

However, we are about to make some moves and are hoping we are making the right decisions! We (Spouse and I, 41/45) bought our first rental in 2007. We added 2 more between 2007 and 2012. They have all 3 been rented continuously with only the standard upkeep issues to deal with. We have built up some sizable equity because of this.

That being said, we are now in a position to relocate and have chosen Florida for many reasons. I landed a great job a couple of years ago that allows me to work remotely and make an excellent salary, also my wife will be re-entering the workforce after taking a few years off with our last child.

We are now under contract on that first home and will be closing in 2-3 weeks. We are 1031 exchanging this property and are in the process of identifying properties in the Orlando area. 

Now, this is where all the options start to confuse and overwhelm but here is what I have been looking for:

We do not want to go nuts but we are looking to buy 2 properties with the proceeds from the sale in Utah and will have about 125000 per property to put down. We want the mortgage low to maintain cashflow and want to limit the pain of moving to a new market, so we are targeting Tenant occupied properties in the 150000-200000 range.

Is that a good strategy? Would you employ a different strategy? Any thoughts are welcome!

My thinking behind this is that we are planning to 1031 all our rental properties over the next year or two. We will be relocating our Primary Residence in mid 2020. We want to build a cashflow base to expand on as we progress. I am looking at these new properties in Orlando as 'seed' properties and plan to leverage the equity to expand/upgrade after about 5 years. 

My goal in reaching out to the forum today is to gather other opinions, let you poke holes in my logic, and hopefully come up with the best plan moving forward. I realize I am far from an expert in this but have had success with rentals, built a lot of equity, and now want to leverage that equity to expand my rental profile.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to reading and responding to any thoughts/ideas this community may have.

Best Regards,

Shawn

Should we bother? Prices are dropping through the floor....FURNISHED!

My family lives in Knoxville, which would make this a summer place for us and a rental the rest of the year!

We live in Qatar but our from the USA. We have no Tax presence, always 0. We don't make ALL that much money, but wife and I together pull in about 100k a year, Tax Free, so Probably half of that is invest-able.

We have one property, bought as a security blanket in case we ever had to move back. We have owned it for 3-4 years now, Paid off, Pulling in around $1000 rent a month before taxes/insurance.

We are also considering a self-directed IRA route, since we don't have much liquid at the moment but are eager to get another rental underway! Our Current IRA would only get us 50K or so but we are planning to use Real Estate as our Retirement.

What would you guys do in my situation? We plan to remain Tax Free over here for quite some time.

Thanks,
Shawn

Well, I should have prefaced this a bit...lol

For us, this is our Main U.S. House...a safety home of sorts in case anything kicks off in the region and we need to leave. We picked it as something we would live in ourselves (good schools, good location, close to family..etc.) So, technically not an investment home.

But, with our high level of disposable income and our plans to stay 5 more years in Qatar, I though that investing in RE might be a good avenue...especially with the falling prices of homes.

So, with that kind of income, what would YOU guys do as far as Real Estate investing?

(BTW, Investing in Qatar is not an option...they do not allow non-qatari investors)

Ok, here is my background:

My wife and I live and work in Qatar and have since 2006. Our family income is around 140k, with housing provided here and no other debt (besides the house mentioned below) we keep about 100-110k of that as Net income. We also have no Tax burden at all.

I just purchased my first investment home Aug 2007 and had renters move in almost immediately, we get $1100/m with $88 of that going to the management company. We paid $225000 for the house, we financed 168k of it at 6.35%/15yr.

Here is my question, with our current family income I can pay the house off completely by June 2009 (This has been my goal but have been re-thinking thigs), is that the right move? If not what should I be doing instead?