All Forum Posts by: Amy Van Ollefen

Financial freedom and stability are the first reasons. Being in control of my own destiny. Being free to travel and work when and where I want. But I have a huge heart to give. I want to be able to freely give out of my abundance. Maybe because I am introverted, or my background, but I place a very high value on "home" I want a safe, comfortable, nice place to live and or stay. It doesn't have to be multi millions, but real estate in particular draws me in being able to provide "home" for people. There is something very redemptive in rehab, seeing the value and potential that others may not, and turning it into something beautiful that provides shelter, safety, comfort for someone.

I love this thread! It makes me so excited to someday do my first rehab.

I noticed a lot of these are furnished. Isn't that a big expense for a flip?

@Tanya F.

 This is a good idea. I currently live in a situation where utilities are included, but after paying my own for a while, and just being a mature responsible human being, I still turn the lights off, don't jack up the heat, etc. Unfortunately I don't think most people are like this, after living with quite a few different roommates. My current roommates turned the heat up to 75-80 degrees repeatedly, I have come home and found the door to the outside wide open in the middle of winter with nobody around, that furnace was crankin! They are such slobs, they also throw food all over the floor and just leave it there. I have never seen such disrespect or oblivion in all my life. I can't wait until their lease is up in a few weeks, good riddance... anyway rant over. 

Some people... most people, probably won't give a rip unless it's affecting their wallet directly.

This is a good question. I've really liked the idea of buying a multi-family and living in one of the units, but preliminary searches seems like multi-family are pretty rare in my area. 

Based on this response, I would NOT recommend you buy this property, or any other property for a while. You don't really seem to have a handle on what the numbers and expenses will REALLY be. Do you have one of the worksheets you can plug in all the numbers to see what your cash flow will actually be? There is more than just PITI.

Your response worries me. No you won't have to do maintenance every month, and the property won't be vacant every month, but you SHOULD factor this in every month and set up a reserve for WHEN not if it does happen. How much of a reserve do you have now? What if something major does break? What if it doesn't rent out for 3 months after someone moves out because they trashed the place and you have to spend major $ repairing things before it's rentable? You should be prepared for things if they go wrong. I'm not trying to sound negative, but would you rather be prepared, or go bankrupt because you didn't think it would happen and then something does?

I would recommend reading more on BP on how to analyze deals and the ups and downs of being a landlord. To me it seems like you are over-simplifying and over-idealizing the situation. It seems more like you are trying to make something you want happen, vs evaluating the deal from a more objective perspective.

Well, I don't have much advice, but I feel your pain. Totally different circumstances, but most days I feel lost, without any motivation. Repeated failures and restarts have taken a toll in many ways. You are still here and that is most important. The fact that you are aware of where you're at, and still searching means a lot. Don't give up. You will find that "spark" and it will get better, even if it is a hard journey. Thanks for sharing! 

Depends on how much value you put on living in the specific area you want. As a pure investment scenario, negative cash flows seems like a pretty obvious bad deal. But the factor of you living in the specific area you want weighs in heavily, and you can get other people to help pay the mortgage, that's better than paying it all yourself. If you've taken the time to research properties in the area, and these are the best numbers that seem to come up, then it may not be a bad thing to go for it. It depends what you're ultimate goals are. 

For me, I'm just not in a position right now to invest. I'm in debt, have to replace a 15 year old car, and figure out how I'm going to pay the bills in 6 months, as I currently work a seasonal job. I'm looking for a job to pay the bills and give me some stability. I'm starting a business to pay off the debt, invest, and get me out of the job... Business has a lot of potential, but I've been in a lot of transition with moving, and needing to find steady income which has put a damper in putting much time and effort into it. I'm planning to go after it strong once I get my next job lined up, because right now that is unfortunately the priority. 

@Jack Aduwo Yeah, probably true, you just may have to look harder, or employ different strategies, but you can probably find something if you look hard enough and are patient enough.

@Mike 

@Mike Gallagher Good to know, I may check it out!

@William Hochstedler I've been living in several resort towns lately so clearly that's going to be expensive, but when I was renting in the suburbs of Chicago, (which I have lived most of my life) the cost of living in SLC is much lower. I also lived in LA briefly. so I suppose I've just lived in some expensive places, but SLC is cheap to me at least! 

My first thought is that every time it needs to be painted, it's going to be a PITA.