All Forum Posts by: Sergey A. Petrov

It sounds like you might be in compliance with egress but someone overlooked the ingress requirements :)

STRs, thus far, have been outperforming LTRs. Location matters. From an expense perspective, budget 20-30% for management, factor in all utilities (your guests won't be paying them and all utilities tend to increase once you go STR), add some dollars for misc supplies, linens, toiletries, furniture replacement, etc. Some of the minor items may be included in your management fees depending on the provider and their fee structure. Your insurance may or may not increase

For now it is a personal expense. Do track it carefully and separately though. It’ll go into your cost basis when it becomes a rental. Your CPA will know what to do. Unless you are a tax pro, I’d strongly advise against trying to navigate this on your own

If you are holding and renting, you refi once the rehab is done, pull your cash back out and it is no longer part of the equation since the cash is back in your pocket. If you flip and sell within 2 years, you’d certainly want to be positive.

At the end of the day, coc is just a metric. The more cash you have tied up in a property (whether it is a rehab or a higher downpayment at acquisition) the less your coc but your cash flow might be higher. No one metric defines overall performance of an investment. I look at a combination of net income and value 

Leave your retirement accounts alone, they are there for retirement. For your first property stay close to home, buy a primary residence with a 5% downpayment (or 3.5% FHA), live there, get a roommate, convert it to a rental later and buy another. Once you have some property ownership and investing experience under your belt, start looking at out of state or whatever else your heart desires.

here is your parcel based on that legal description. Looks like there are, naturally, various easements for access, etc. Talk to your neighbor and get on the same page 

watch your DTI. while it may sound like an easy "equity tap", it'll drive your ratios through the roof, potentially disqualifying you from real estate mortgages/loans...

That depends on where you are. Your post is tagged Seattle but then you also say you have 10 acres so I suspect you are outside of the city. Buying in Seattle most likely won't help you with your DTI, at least immediately, since barely anything cash flows in Seattle as a long term or even a mid term rental. A short term rental, as others mentioned, will need to show up on your tax returns so there is some time there as well. Building a legal DADU will again depend on where you are as local rules vary.

If I were you, based on the very limited available info you provided, I’d build a DADU just to dip your toes into being an investor and a landlord and then see if you enjoy that experience (or if you are in a more remote area, buy an existing cabin near you and short term rent that). It’ll be close to you so it’ll be easier to manage…Once you have some investing experience, you can look at all the other available options.

@Jonathan Shaw you may not be able to. When the property is jacked up, the pilings are added, and the foundation is re-leveled, there is a very good chance you’ll have more interior damage than what you are seeing now. That’s just part of re-leveling the foundation. Depending on how much it is off by, windows may crack, doors may no longer close, more sheetrock may crack, etc etc etc

What does that $50 include? Check the filters to make sure they don’t need to be replaced and/or have a bunch of long hair stuck on them and need to be washed? Check ph levels and rebalance with appropriate chemicals as needed (this on its own may require a licensed tech)? Fish out junk and gunk if any? Refill the water back to its appropriate level? Wipe down and disinfect the surfaces including the lid/cover? $50 for all that sounds reasonable.