All Forum Posts by: Steve K.

Hey Rich,

I'm only at 21 units (closing on another 4 next month), but I work a full-time job and also got my real estate license this year, so my plate's pretty full. 

I've been thought about hiring a PM company for a while now but I've decided to keep the management in-house.

I think it's important to start delegating out the low dollar per hour tasks. If you don't have a virtual assistant yet, I'd recommend getting one to help with things like tenant communications and coordinating contractors. They can take care of a lot of the monotonous tasks, and even do things like send leases, screen tenants, add rent charges, pay utility bills, the list goes on. 

Another thing I've done is hired my fiancée to help with things. She works for me several hours a week and it's been a good way for her to learn the business, make some extra money, and help me with my to do list. 

It seems like gripes with PM companies have been a common theme lately. I think the business has pretty thin profit margins and they tend to take on too many units, which results in the quality going down. Even with that being the case though, if you hire someone to do a job that's only 80% as good as you can do it, you are still freeing up your time to focus on other things. 

I think whatever you decide, you should look to delegate some tasks out to free yourself up.

 Hey David,

That's great and the fact that your father is handy is a huge plus! If it were me I would put the multifamily in my name. You wouldn't be able to use a first time buyer loan in the future but there are other owner occupy loans you can use that require little money down. There are conventional loans that only require 5% down now. There are also other loans that your local banks likely offer that only require 5-10% down when you occupy the property. I would reach out to several local banks to get more details on that but I wouldn't get too hung up on it. 

In my experience having mutli-family properties have not been a factor in getting a loan for a single family. I bought a single family house last year using a VA loan and at the time I had 12 units. They used a percentage of the cashflow from those to put towards my income.

As I mentioned before talk to a lender but I don't think you'll have a problem buying a single family down the line if you own a mutil first. I think starting with a mutil family, adding value to it (making improvements if needed and raising rents), is a great way to get started.

The conventional loan with 5% down program is for properties that you intend to make your primary residence. If you don't plan to live there then I would look to use another loan option. The best thing to do is call a few local lenders in your area and explain what you are looking to do and ask what options are available for that scenario. 

If you intended to live in one of the units for at least a year, then this loan could be used.

Hey David,

I like this idea, but a couple things to consider:

1. Do you have a good relationship with your parents and are you comfortable collecting rent from them, addressing maintenance requests for them and things like that? If they can be difficult to work with, then I'd be careful renting to them as it's not worth ruining a relationship.

2. Why do you want to put the property in their name? Why not just purchase it yourself?

3. If you live in the property there are some great owner-occupy loans available, like FHA or low money down conventional loans. You'll want to talk to a few local lenders to get a better idea what you'll qualify for and what the terms of the loans are.

4. You can live in the property for a year and then move out, buy another multifamily to live in, and use another low money down owner occupy loan. You need to live in the property for at least a year but you can repeat this year after year if you don't mind moving. 

5. If you live in the property for two years and want to sell, you won't pay capital gains tax, so that is just another thing to keep in mind. 

6. Buying a multifamily shouldn't impact your ability to get a home loan for a single family in the future, so I wouldn't let that deter you. I'd just make sure the multifamily is cashflow positive when it's fully rented out (as in after you've moved out and rented the unit).

As others have said, start attending local real estate investing meetups every month. That's the best way to find a mentor and that's how I found mine when I first started out. He was an investor and a real estate agent and showed me how to analyze deals and helped me get my first deal as an investor. The easiest way to start out is to "house hack" or in other words by a multifamily between 2-4 units, live in one unit and rent the other units out. 

Are there any meetups in your area coming up? If so, are you going to attend?

@Nathan Hann

Hey all, we'll be having an investor meetup for the Lewiston/Auburn area on July 17th at Fairlawn Golf Course in Poland. Will have a private space in the Sim room and our guest speaker will be Justin Freeman, who is an established investor myself and CPA! As always, these meetups are free to attend and all are welcome. Hope to see you there!

@Dan Weber 

@Nathan Hann

Hello, we'll be having an investor meetup for the Lewiston/Auburn area on June 12th at Fairlawn Golf Course in Poland. Will have a private space in the Sim room and our guest speaker will be Matt Rodrigue from M.R. Qualified, who is an investor and private money lender. 

I hope you can make it!

@Nathan Hann @Dan Weber