All Forum Posts by: Grey Stone

 1) Absolutely! I have a separate account for each door and this helps me keep things fairly organized. I print out sheets of checks and I carry one sheet for each door. This helps me soooo much at the end of the year for taxes. If I had 1000 doors, this might be ridiculous, but it works very well for me now.

2) It really depends. I think this is more relative to property type and location. For most, I set aside $150/month.

3)Landlord Liability Insurance (carry with the mortgage) up to $500k per property and an umbrella policy. I also do this because I live in California.....a very litigious state.

4) No LLC, just good insurance.

*Bonus, you might want to consider estate planning. I think this usually gets overlooked. Don't use it as a reason to slow you down, but as a reason to push forward faster.

I think you're making the right choice in selling it. I'm sure over the years you have learned more in REI and may be better positioned to pick up good deals. Sell it, take it as a lesson and find something with a great return. Good luck!

 I do care. That is why I posted a reply. It's like watching kids in "Mean Girls" passing around a rumor book.....I should just look away? It is obvious 99% of investors and realistically most people would agree, if you are using a service or product you should pay. A home is no different. Just seems petty and divisive to post this. I don't care if it's 20 years old. I read it and replied. If you felt that it is now inappropriate, why not delete it....and if you claim it is not inappropriate, why would you bring up when you wrote it? These are rhetorical btw. I come to BP to learn and network. So yeah, I have an eye roll when I see people post this on BP. Also, I'm not wasting time posting to you again, because well.....why? 

If purchase prices drop (fmv), you are not forced to sell. As long as you feel confident it is a desirable property that will be rented for a good margin over the costs of holding the property, you should be fine. If the tenant stops paying, but you have reserves to get through an eviction, etc. You should be fine. If tons of homeowners lose their homes, they still need a place to live and will become renters. In theory, rents should remain stable and there may be a larger tenant pool to choose from (depending on the quality of your area). You should be fine. If you find a property that has a great ROI, think of reasonable worst case scenarios and if you think you will still be fine, take the leap. I am only looking at properties priced atleast 15% below FMV, with atleast a 20% spread on true cash flow, in "good" locations and am maintaining reserves. Are these super easy to find? no.....is it impossible? no

 Excellent advice! I went to a J.C. then transferred to University after getting my Associates, too. I lived at home and worked, so that I could pay my tuition every quarter. And help from parents definitely helps:)

It depends. Do you want to go into the military for a career because you find joy in that? If so, that's awesome and you have two options. You can go in with a degree and start in the military as an officer, or you can go in and let the military pay for college and pay you to go (bonus!). The military rewards education with more career mobility and access to higher paying jobs. My husband served 8 years in the Air Force and has worked for them, as a civilian for 14 years. When he went in he didn't have a degree. Six years after he got out, he stayed working there and he went to college. They gave him credit for many of the courses/training he received and finished his B.S. in IT in about 2 years. Almost immediately after, he started getting selected for interviews that he wasn't getting call backs for before (even when they didn't require a degree). He has gotten 3 big promotions and big pay raises each year. So essentially, if you're going into the military a degree is worth it! Recently, he was selected for a Master's program and the Air Force is paying for it:) On the opposite, I have my B.S. in Accounting. I own two businesses and make most through real estate. I feel my degree was a complete waste of money. The information I learned, I would have learned on my own. If your sole purpose is to make money, degrees are not necessary, but can be valuable. Do your best to stay out of debt and go to a school you can afford with transferable skills and get REAL skills. IT and anything tech is great. My husband can easily take his skills almost anywhere in the world and get a good paying job. And use the campus as a networking opportunity! If I could go back, I would have taken the money and bought more real estate with it in 2010, 2011. Whereas, my husband should have gotten his degree much sooner. So yeah, it depends...

I'm not even sure the point of why you're posting this article. With everything going on, why post something so divisive. Who cares? 

Yes! But I would start small if you have not worked with lower income tenants. Lower income does not make a person bad, but the screening is different. The red flags are different. In my area, they make it very attractive to work with people that are homeless because their is a strong stigma against what it actually means. I used to think all homeless were mentally ill, druggie, and filthy. And it really is not true. There are people out there that have just fallen on hard times and need help. Many of the people that I have met on HIP are living with family or working with domestic violence non-profits. And again, the red flags are different. There are plenty of people I cannot work with because it does not fit my guidelines for how I run my business. I would strongly recommend starting with a sfr, duplex or partnering with someone that has experience before going into a large deal. There's a lot of money being poured into programs like this in California and you can do very well with this niche. Good luck!

I think this is a great idea, if you are experienced, have a strong process and can scale. If people will buy turnkey, there is also a market for this. I do not believe in out of state investing, but if I did, this could be a good idea. The biggest fear people have  with  out of state investing is repair costs and vacancy. Your business would eliminate both fears. This could also be great for new or hands off investors. If you are able to thoroughly screen tenants, routinely inspect the property, you should be fine. I would think this would be heavily dependent on location and possibly rent style. This could work excellent in a corporate rental category where you charge higher rents, so that you can charge a higher fee to the property owner. The more I think about it, air bnb rental arbitrage business model is kinda similar to this. 

When I first started, I was told numerous times to get an LLC.....and now, I completely disagree in most situations. If you plan on keeping it as a traditional rental and using a mortgage, I absolutely agree making sure you carry adequate (maybe even a little extra insurance), so you can sleep easy at night. LLC's are not necessary. They will not stop you from getting sued. An LLC will not pay out a settlement. In my state LLC's are expensive to maintain and for it to work properly and provide protection specific rules must be followed. Best place to get advice would also be a local attorney and accountant that must specialize in working with RE investors. On the other hand, if you plan on buying rentals and using them other than as a traditional rental an LLC may be a good idea. For example, if you are using the property as an assisted living facility. Good luck!