All Forum Posts by: William Huston

second thought i have been thinking of going black appliances..  

The cabinets are brand new with real wood mahogany doors 

Hey All, 

I just got my townhome back from insurance rebuild and instead of selling it i have decided i will go ahead and rent it out for now for the cash flow. 

My question is the kitchen is a Mahogany tint cabinet set. Which appliances should i go with for a rental.....

I am questioning between a basic white setup or pay a little more for stainless?

I also need to purchase a set of washer and dryer also for the unit. 

I am fairly new to the investing scene and not nearly as experienced at it as others but I personally have taken things a little different regarding transportation. I read many years ago from others recommending to purchase a rental and use the cash flow from it as your car payment amount, but at the start i couldn't invest in a rental right away, so i took the approach with the apartment i was renting. I was initially in a 1/1 787sq ft unit paying $1,000/month and working my W2, but i decided since i couldn't afford a rental at the time that when a 3bedroom unit opened up in my apartments, i talked to management and switched, because it was only $1,400/month and decided to get a roommate. Initially i got 2 roommates, but i was unhappy with having 2 and to many times conflicts occurred, so i got rid of 1 and rented the 3rd room out for $800/month and because we were both into computer gaming we setup the 2nd room as a computer office. This put an extra $400/month in my pocket to not include the splitting of utilities and internet resulted in me paying around $550/month less in living expense. So i used part of this gain for my purchase of my car and it added no additional stress or financial impact to me over living alone and not owning the new car. 

Now I lease my trucks, about 12 years ago I got into a killer deal on a leased Ford F150 V6 $99/month. ya it was not the fanciest of trucks, but it was an extended cab pickup truck for $99/month to drive... 

My most recent lease is a 2020 ford ranger im leasing for $249/month with $0 down. 

Also is there any specific reason you need a truck? I only ask this because i have a plumber friend of mine who got into smart money management recently while running his own plumbing company and downsized from his big full size van he was running before getting like 12-14mpg and recently purchased not joking you a 2020 Chevy Spark for his business and bought a 4x6 enclosed tiny trailer that he spent a weekend custom building multiple long like 4ft long sliding drawers that go like 3/4 the length of the trailer insides which he stores all his stuff organized, then on top he has 2 large pvc pipes with caps to allow him to transport large bundles of pvc pipe and such.. He left just barely enough room between the back doors and the drawers to fit his normal water tank size he has to transport. He was shocked how well the little car has been doing for him pulling the trailer since he switched over. The car is rated for like 5,200lbs towing and he is getting around 28mpg now over the previous 12mpg. So overall huge drop in his monthly expenses, plus the car was steal of a deal to pass up on.. He paid $8,300 out the door for the car brand new.. 

I apologize, i forgot to add that i owe around 30k on this property still.. 

The cash flow on the property is very good still, but it dropped overall from 3 years ago, because 3 years ago the taxes on the property were only $270/year and now with the rebuild the estimation on taxes is near $1000, so nearly 400% increase in property taxes after the rebuild. Also the HOA increased from $235 to $325/month due to the increase in insurance cost from the claim of rebuilding 83 units from the fire. Also the rental rates in the area dropped due to over 700+ homes were damaged or consumed in the fire and a large portion of business burned down, closed, or went out of business due to the drop in people ultimately living in the area, because over 700+ homes of people had to relocate taking their income with them, so the area kinda has been going through a sour period of people not wanting to live in the area, but things are improving slowly and house values have increased insanely over the last 3 years. In 3 years it went up 100k in value.

Prior to the fire, the property rented for $1250/month, HOA $235/month, Taxes $22/month and value on property was $128k

After the fire, the property est. rent is $1135/month, HOA $325/month, Taxes $84/month and value on property is $230k

Hey All,

So a few days ago i reached out on this forum after being absent for the most of 3 years because my rental property had burned down... long story short 3 years later i just got the keys to my newly rebuilt townhome rental. After putting the numbers out there, i was asking for advice on selling it to maybe fund a new primary residence i could house hack or keep it and turn it into a rental again...

Anyways.. so someone mentioned that i go about investing wrong.. that i should keep loans on the rental high enough that i can afford them or break even on passive income, because most of the profit is made from refinancing them and pocketing the difference from appreciation.. 

So he told me.. refinance it, take the money and purchase my house hack primary like i want. This would maximize my returns...

In my mind ive always looked at deals for most cash on cash passive income as key.. but now I'm being told I've been going about this wrong.. help me out, because now I'm starting to second guess my investment understanding.. 

Property: 

Townhome 

2/2.5 w/pool

purchased 49k in 2009 @ 5.25%

current value 230k

estimated rent $1135/month

HOA 325/month

Hello All, 

I am trying to figure out the best plan of action on getting my property back into a rental. The property is brand new rebuild from insurance forest fire claim 3 years ago. The property prior to burning down had an old pair of washer and dryers from the previous owners i bought it from, i just left them in when i rented it out and only ever had to have the dryer serviced over a 5 year period of renting it out. 

Since its brand new and rent has gone up from $895 3 years ago in the area to now estimate $1250/month, im curious if i would hurt myself not purchasing a washer and dryer pair to install in the units washing area.

Its a 2/2.5 Townhome

I am not fully understanding your 5% statement, can you speak more on this..

Also i thought HELOCs no longer had tax advantages anymore, so you cant write them off on your taxes..  

My Long Term goals are to have solid investments for passive income, so I can get out of the rat race and quit my W2 job and pursue full time real estate investor. 

This is the last remaining house in my portfolio of 5 I had previously. Ive learned a lot over the years and made lots of mistakes and it took lots of time to overcome some of those mistakes and clean up my portfolio. Previously i had 5 properties, 4 rentals and 1 personal. These were all properties i bought while in the military active and turned into rentals when moved due to orders. 3 of the properties tanked in value from the previous real estate crash and it took many years of loosing income renting them out to hold them until they were valued for more then their loan amount, so as the market got better around the 2019 year i sold them as soon as i could break even on the properties or make small profit. There were bought in 2001, 2004, and 2006 just before the crash. Then i had my remaining house in Colorado that was undergoing rebuild from fire and personal house i purchased in 2017. In 2019 i sold the 2017 house, because it appreciated over 130k in value in just 2 years between cleaning it up and spending about 8k in repairs personally after purchasing the property as bank short sale. Ive been staying in an apartment since 2019, because ive not found any decent deals to purchase since then and also was expecting a correction in the housing market, so just been waiting. So this last house is finally done being rebuilt and im going over my options to set myself up for success in the future. 

 The Colorado Property:

Purchased for 49k @ 5.25%, but i owe right around 30k currently. I tried to refinance it in 2020, but couldn't due to house not being rebuilt yet. So their is the possibility of refinancing it, but the interest on the loan is so minimal since im already nearly 13 years into the loan that i almost feel the cost to refinance it right now isn't worth it. Currently I'm paying $278/month on the mortgage+taxes due to the new jump in taxes. 

Regarding if i need the money since i already have the 150k, i dont really need it, but i feel i could earn more in the near future on stock investment until the real estate market corrects itself. When i sold the house in 2019, i stuck the money initially in my Ally Savings, but ultimately invested it into the SP500. That money is currently up 28.8% since putting it in the market, which i feel is ultimately the bias in my decision on selling it, because even through the SP500 is at an all time high, i feel it would take me 10 years of renting it out to make up the same gains i made putting it in the market with real estate being so bubbly right now. I feel a correction is going to happen in 2021 after the election switchout and new policies take place since biden stated he is going to remove most of the tax bills trump passed. 

Hello All, 

I am trying to determine if I am going the best direction with this property I own in my portfolio. My ultimate analytical understanding is its best for me to just sell it and move on from the property. 

I am located in Florida, the house in this discussion is located in Colorado. 

The property is a 2/2.5 Townhome which i purchased in 2009 for $49,000 with VA 0% down loan. At the time it was my primary residence while stationed in the military and when i received new orders in 2014, I turned it into a rental and rented it out until 2017, which the property along with 81 others caught on fire from forest fire and burned down.

Finally in January of 2021, the property has finally been rebuilt after many hang-ups and turned over to me.

Prior to the Fire, the property rented out for $1050/month, HOA was $205/month, Property Taxes was $273/year.

Since the Fire, the property is estimated for $1135/month, HOA is now $325/month, Property Taxes have increased to EST. $894/year due to new rebuild changing the taxes.

The estimate to sell is 210-230k, most recent similar rebuilt property sold for 210k, but was sold prior to completion of rebuild, so i expect it was sold to investor at a discount. fully remodeled similar property went for 230k in November. 

Everything inside of me is saying the best route to go on this property is to sell it, because I'm told by my accountant that I would be exempt from the long term cap due to property being destroyed and rebuilt. 

I've been personally renting and hoarding about 150k in cash for the correction in the market. Im thinking about selling the above property, take the 170-180k profits and combine it with my other cash to purchase another property or two in 2021. I am just looking for input to make sure im not overthinking something or missing something. It would also be nice to not have a property out of state, so i can stop filing taxes in Colorado. 

Everything is telling me to