All Forum Posts by: Steven Clough

Greetings to the Montana investors! I live in Lake County Montana and have a single rental (second unit on my primary residence property). I've had a SFH rental previously and I'm looking at meeting other investors in the area. I know there's a Bozeman REI meetup, but are there any others in Missoula or Kalispell? I'm interested in possibly partnering with other investors and learning some of the ins and outs of investing. I'm very handy with renovations and repairs (my father is a GC and I'm a mechanic). I've had a lot of hands on construction experience and can do a lot of the hands on work needed on properties. My definite weaknesses are with deal analysis and raising capital. If anyone is interested in meeting or working together on deals, feel free to get in touch.

@Jesse Froehling I'm definitely down for meeting up and getting better aquatinted with the town. We've been up there a few times now, but we're still learning our way around.

I'm not too worried about the current investment property. It's been a heck of a learning experience for me. I consider myself lucky that it wasn't cash flow negative! It's going to allow me the opportunity to grow and do better with the next investment.

@Penny Clark the current rental isn't in a very nice location and it's probably $200 below market rent, but the house is in dire need of paint inside and out and new floors throughout, both of which I can't afford. In addition, my wife and I are moving out of state and don't wish to keep the rental here given the rather poor quality neighborhood. Thanks for the advice though! I'm always open to input and options!

Forgive me if this isn't in the correct forum!

Ok BP forums, I'm in a bit of a conundrum trying to accomplish this transaction. Bear with me as I do my best to outline what's up.

My family and I are trying to relocate from CA to MT. Long story short, the house we currently live in is owned by my in-laws. We have no official equity in it and as such aren't counting on getting any cash from the sale of it (though we may, depending on how much it sells for.) We own a SFR that we've been renting out for 5 years. It's the only property we own. We want to buy a rural property in Montana that will be combined primary residence and business use. My wife is a trainer of dogs for various sports and working jobs, hence the rural property to have room to conduct her business. I've spoken with my tax accountant and 1031 facilitator and both say that I can use a 1031 from my rental into the portion of the property that will be for business use. I will need to have the primary and business use portions of the property appraised to establish the value for the exchange.

My SFR rental is valued between $180-205k (haven't had it appraised yet), the mortgage owed is $120k. The property we're looking at is listed for $400k. I have no money to put down other than what I get from the sale of the rental (unless we miraculously get $ from the sale of my in-laws property, which again I'm not counting on.)

I'm told by both the facilitator and CPA that I will need to pull two separate loans on the same property (it's not subdivided), one for the primary residence side and an investment loan for the business side. Does anyone have any experience with such a transaction? Does this sound correct so far? Any advice on how to proceed? I really appreciate any and all input. Thanks!

Steve

My name is Steven Clough, I'm an aircraft mechanic specializing in the restoration and rebuilding of WWII aircraft. I currently live in Lodi CA, but plan on moving to the Missoula Montana area in the next couple months. 

I've had a small single family rental for 5 years that has provided minuscule cash flow. The only way it has produced any at all is because my wife and I have self managed and I've personally done all the repairs. Discovering BP through podcasts, I've realized many of my mistakes and am looking to seriously ramp my portfolio by selling my current property and exchanging into something with more favorable cash flow. I have an interest multi-family as well as self storage real estate purchases as I really like the idea of more than one tenant in a single property!

I have a tendency to read posts a lot and search for answers to my questions in the forums as opposed to asking questions that have already been asked, translation: I'm an introvert, something that I need to overcome to get anywhere in this business! 

I'm here to learn and grow to reach financial freedom as quickly as I possibly can!