All Forum Posts by: Shannon Allaire

Thanks for your take @Michael S. I appreciate your insights here.

Michael, I appreciate your report-back here. Do you mind sharing why deals in HSV aren't working for you right now and why you're selling more than buying? What do you think is happening with the bigger picture to create these conditions?

@Pauline Sabado B-ham has seen population decline, but people I know there advise looking outside the city proper. Jefferson County's population has remained more-or-less stable since 2000: https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-counties/al/jefferson-c...

@Conner Olsen: Thanks for this info. I feel like I'm missing something here, though: if @Joseph Turner gets a cash-flowing turnkey, why couldn't he take out a HELOC to at least partially finance the purchase of the IP, and then pay back the HELOC as the IP cash-flows? Why does the HELOC pay-back need to be "long-term?"

Thank you @Walter Jones Your response tells me I have a lot to learn about the property tax rules of the cities I'm researching. 

Hello BP, I am beginning to research turnkey rentals and am wondering how shrewd buyers estimate what the property tax will be for a 2023 SFH purchase whose tax records show the tax on the property before it was flipped. Example, I'm looking at a house in Memphis whose 2021 property tax Redfin shows as $338. The house was bought in 2022 for $50k and now the turnkey company (who likely flipped it) wants ~$130k for it. The turnkey company is also estimating the annual property tax to be about what it was in 2021 ($338.) Is it correct to estimate that if I buy the house for more than 2x what it sold for that the annual property tax would remain the same as it was pre-forced appreciation? Any advice here? This isn't a critique of the turnkey company—I'm looking for advice/info on how to think about this.

Hi @Slim Geransar BP Member @jaychangre (Jay Chang) posted a market study spreadsheet you can replicate in order to evaluate markets that could work for your for out-of-state investing. I've found it immensely helpful. Can't find the link to the spreadsheet right now, but maybe you can reach out to  Jay. 

 Hi. I house-hack in Oakland, CA. Interest rates are way up, which makes buying anywhere more expensive now. Consider your purchase over the long-term: You can use conventional financing now and get a rate of ~6% and then refinance to a lower rate after rates go down. You'll have to pay ~6% for however long it takes for rates to decrease, but at that point you'll have racked up equity in a home; you'll never get that time back. I refinanced from 4.5% to 3.1% 4 years after my home purchase and lowered my monthly payment by ~$400. Good luck.

Hi Brianna, 

I house-hack and rent out 2 of my 3 rooms in my Oakland, CA SFH. While I am hands on, which I read is not what you want to do, I can say a few things about my experience renting by the room:

1. I can generally get more rent for each room than I would by renting out the whole house.

2. If someone is late or doesn't pay rent, the other roommates are likey paying, so if this happens I am never out a whole months' rent.

3. There's more to manage. Each renter has their own lease, their own communication styles and expectations, etc. One downside to renting-by-the room is that I'm managing several doors.

4. Filling vacancies happens more often than it would if I were renting out the whole house on 1 lease. This is a pain. 

I have spoken with local property managers to ask how they would handle my house—how would they manage 3 doors in one house? Usually, they say they would require the house-mates to all be on one lease, and that they would not facilitate this. They want me to figure it out and then they want to manage the house once it is under one lease. Only one local PM was willing to facilitate this. 

I hope this info is helpful. Good luck on your search for an OOS turnkey rental. 

@Brian Garlington Thanks for your reply. I get where you're going by asking "what do I want." It's taking me a lot of hard thinking to figure out the answer when the pseudo-promise of long-term appreciation hangs over my head; meanwhile,  my house sits in hell-zone of constant noise and "visitor" traffic.

50% of people I ask about this say I should hold the house because the Bay is so hard to get into, and prices will go up over the long-term. The other 50% say I should sell because home prices are very high now in the East Bay, and that I should get out before the neighborhood gets even worse. And you're right, it's all about where I want things to go.