All Forum Posts by: Steven De Lange

Hi Al, 

It depends on where your stance on having a legal separation between personal and business lies, and your future goals. 

LLCs allow you to keep your personal assets separate from your properties. Whereas an umbrella policy, though providing liability coverage, do not. 

If you are going to continue to purchase more properties and to build your portfolio, in my opinion, the LLC is the best path forward. However, if you are settling in with a few investment properties, you could go the umbrella policy route.

Hope this helps. 

Welcome Glen, 

Thank you for your service! Welcome to the amazing world of real estate investing. 

I bought my first investment property in 2022 in the height of the craziest market our area has ever seen. Bigger Pockets was the catalyst for making that huge jump, and has kept me going and motivated. I bought my second property last year, and hope to make it work for a third this year. This community does make a difference!

This forum and site are amazing. If you every need anything or have any questions, feel free to connect with me. Having a community and folks that were willing to help -- made the biggest difference for me. 

Good luck!

Hi Robert, 

Thanks for asking this question. This is something I am curious about as well, as I am looking at investing in student housing in the future. 

I did some research and it looks like the best way to go about it is via online platforms like Craigslist, SpareRoom, Roommates, and Facebook Marketplace. I also found similar sites to SpareRoom like Roomster.com, Kangaroom.com, and roomies.com. 

Hope this helps.

Hi @Stephanie Baron

My wife and I have a very similar story, let me answer your questions with what we did!

* What would you recommend I do to make sure that I am reporting the rental income appropriately?

You normally report your rental income and expenses on Form 1040 or 1040-SR, Schedule E, Part I, when you do your taxes.

* What do I do to ensure that my property is safe legally from any lawsuits?

We require our tenants to get renters insurance - to make sure any damage on the inside is covered. And we have a separate LLC per investment property, incase we get sued, they can only sue that specific property - rather than me personally or any of my other properties. 

* Should I change what kind of mortgage I have since it is technically no longer my primary residence?

This is a great resource for this question: https://www.greenbacktaxservices.com/blog/expat-taxes-explai...

* Do I need to have an LLC or S corp before claiming this property as an investment property?

You don't have to, decided to do so, because we felt like that was the safest option and to not carry the liability personally, however, it is not required. 

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions!! 

Where in Europe are you? I am from the Netherlands and hope to either move there at some point - or own a rental where I can go for several months!

First: Thank you for your service @Dana N Johns!

Secondly, welcome to the Bigger Pockets community!

My wife and I have been investing for about two and a half years now - we have learned a lot from many rookie mistakes we made ourselves, haha. 

We have two LTRs and we did a fix and flip in our hometown: Myrtle Beach, SC and are goal is to buy three more properties this year.

Where are you in the investing process right now? Let me know if you have any questions, and if I can help you in any way. 💪

Please let me know what questions you have! Would love to help you getting started on your Real Estate investing journey. 

 @Vaibhav Pandey

I think we made the right decision for a couple of reasons:

1. The investments I have now are near my primary residence, so I was able to check in on the progress when we were renovating - and till this day I can swing by if I really have/ want to. Just the idea of it being nearby gives me some peace. 

2. I believe you can invest in every market, everywhere are deals to be found. So unless you have an area where an expert can help you building a team, you should be able to invest in your own location. 

3. Myrtle Beach is the one of the fastest growing cities in the country, so there is just a lot of opportunity for any type of investment here. We are known for STR, but we have found that househacking, MTR and LTR are successful too.

Let me know if you have any questions, and stay connected! Looking forward to read about you Real Estate journey. 

@Vaibhav Pandey

My wife and I looked at St Louis, MO as well when we started and ended up deciding to start in our own hometown in Myrtle Beach first. two main reason: 

1. We read everywhere: You need to have a good team in the area you are investing (Real Estate agent, property manager, project manager/ contractor (if you do any rehabs). For us, to build a team like that on our first investment was too big of a step. 

2. We saw a lot of cash flowing properties in St Louis, but it seemed that the neighbourhoods were very much hit and miss - and we decided then and there, if we have not visited the place at least once, we will not invest there. 

Let me know if you have any questions! 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Sale price: $336,000

I bought a 135 year old home in down-town Conway, SC with the intention to live in it while we fixed it up, and rent it out as a STR once it was ready. The house is very charming, in a very quiet area at the end of a dead-end street, yet within walking distance of a vibrant downtown area with stores, bars and restaurants.

I learned that the upkeep of the house would be a pain and for from ideal for a STR. We ended up selling with a profit!

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We thought it was an ideal house to STR - and it would have been just based on the location, and perhaps the experience of staying in an old home.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

An open-house - and we were able to negotiate the price down by $41.000

How did you finance this deal?

Fannie mea

How did you add value to the deal?

Refinished the original floors (massive value increase), fixed the heating and air system, painted all rooms, cleaned up the yard for curb appeal

What was the outcome?

Sold the home within a week - making money!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

a 135 year old home needs a steward, someone who takes care of the home - at the time as a fairly new investor I misjudged the situation - the "location, location, location rule" does not alway go up! haha

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Sale price: $336,000

A "You live and you learn" experience!

My wife and I bought a 135 year old home in down-town Conway, SC with the intention to live in it while we fixed it up, and rent it out as a STR once it was ready. The house is very charming, in a very quiet area at the end of a dead-end street, yet within walking distance of a vibrant downtown area with stores, bars and restaurants.

We learned fairly quickly that a home this age comes with a lot of liabilities, being badly insulated, more prone to animal infestations (palmetto bugs, bats, squirrels, etc). Homes this age do not have a sub floor - in our case, It had the original Brazilian pine floors from 135 years ago! and often we had to deal with flooding in the crawl space.

We decided that the upkeep of this old home would be much more of a headache (for it being a rental) than we anticipated or wanted to deal with and ended up selling the home as a fix and flip, making money off the deal!

So we successfully did a Fix and Flip, although that was not our intention!!!!

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We thought it was an ideal house to STR - and it would have been just based on the location, and perhaps the experience of staying in an old home.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

An open-house - and we were able to negotiate the price down by $41.000

How did you finance this deal?

Fannie mea

How did you add value to the deal?

Refinished the original floors (massive value increase), fixed the heating and air system, painted all rooms, cleaned up the yard for curb appeal

What was the outcome?

Sold the home within a week - making money!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

a 135 year old home needs a steward, someone who takes care of the home - at the time as a fairly new investor I misjudged the situation - the "location, location, location rule" does not alway go up! haha

Welcome @Ian Stromski!

House hacking using a VA loan is an absolutely amazing way to start! I'd use that cash as much as possible when you can add value to the property and can "recycle" that money again for your next property, so that you can keep expanding!

Good luck, and looking forward to reading your progress! Let me know if I can help or answer any questions :)