All Forum Posts by: Amy Van Ollefen

@Quintin Mortensen Good to know. Sounds like you just have to find the right deal in the right place. Would definitely be looking for a good real estate agent to help out once I am ready to buy, still working on that! But I would love to learn as much as I can in the meantime. 

Have you been to any real estate meetups in the area? Was thinking about checking out some of those. 

@Kristin Whitaker Yikes 50%! Guess that is something to look into for sure. Sounds like highway robbery. I mean, I suppose I can understand being a resort town, everything has prices that are outrageous, but sheesh! True, it wouldn't be a true powder chasing scenario, but more that I just like different mountains. 

@Quintin Mortensen I have heard of a few people who have property in Brian Head. Not to mention, they're getting all the snow lately! HAHA, They are pretty small, but sometimes that's better... for more reasons than one! Not sure I will ever not be a fan of the back bowls at Vail though!! If I did this, that's probably where I would start, just because it's where I want to go the most right now! But Brian Head would also be a good option to look into.

@Kimberly T. Yeah, I think a condo would be ok. The thing about vacation rentals is that the price per night can be pretty high, especially during holidays, so it can make up for the high property cost. You'd obviously need to do some research on the actual numbers, but that's how people make their money. I know people who live in each others living rooms during Sundance and rent out their rooms, and pay the entire month+ of rent. 

@Mike R. Yeah I hadn't really thought about managing it myself. I suppose especially at first, if I just had one property and if I was going out there frequently, it would be pretty easy to manage myself. Wouldn't really be so doable if you were going to do multiple locations all over, so that's something to keep in mind.

Not sure this is necessarily a strategy, but more of an idea/dream I was thinking about the other day. 

It all started because I used to live in Vail. I love that mountain! I love to ski! I live in Park City, UT now, but the weather has been horrible, so we've had very little snow (up until this week, hooray!) I so miss Vail, and thought it would be fun to go out there several weeks every winter, even every other week or something. What if I bought a vacation rental and rented it out weekly, but only 2 or 3 weeks out of the month, and then I stayed in it the other times? 

I also used to live in Mammoth and have a lot of friends there. I have plenty I could rotate through crashing with so as not to wear out my welcome if I visit, but what if I did something like a part time vacation rental too? Eventually maybe do the same thing in other places, and be a real powder chaser. Own condos/homes in Vail, Mammoth, Jackson, Telluride etc.  

Obviously the goal wouldn't necessarily be stellar cash flow, I'd get a lot of benefit out of using it myself. Cash flow sure wouldn't hurt! I was just thinking though, that timeshares cost money, renting a place on vacation costs money, what if I owned places and made a little cash flow? Broke even? Would this be more likely of a profitable scenario if there were multiple locations involved, as each property would be rented out a higher percentage of the time? 

This could be a totally asinine idea from an investment standpoint. But even if it loses money, I really like the idea of being able to go to Vail and ski there every other week while still living in Park City. Let's just keep it simple and start there. Will this work, at all? Is this a horrible investment idea and I just need to be rich enough to live in multiple places and travel wherever I want? :) 

 Agreed, I want to get into real estate as an investment, not to give myself another job. It will take a lot of work to get there, but that's the goal. Not to just save a few dollars because I'm managing them all myself, and now I work twice as much as I did when I had a "regular job"

@Antonio Coleman from anywhere sure, but I'm wondering if people are having success investing locally or are looking to other markets. 

Hi there! I recently moved to Park City and would love to build connections with other real estate investors in the area.

Seems like rents are extremely cheap in SLC. How does anyone get cashflow out of anything? Seems tough. Vacation rentals seems more feasible, but the purchase price is pretty prohibitive in most cases up in PC. Out near the junction might have potential as there are some cheaper places... 

How are you guys investing? Do you invest locally, or are you looking to other markets for better cashflow?

Wow, I only read the very beginning of the thread, but sounds like you are off and running! Your website sounds awesome, and I am checking it out now, as I think I might go turnkey for my first few properties, as rehab still sounds a little intimidating to me right now. 

Wow, that looks really nice!

@Rick H. I'm not exactly sure what has given you the impression that I'm not receptive to whatever "message" one way or the other. I understand the perspectives that were brought up in this thread. From my first impression it seemed like hard money was the solution if you didn't qualify for a conventional loan, and if you had a good deal on a house it didn't really matter what your personal circumstances were, and if it was under 65% LTV (or whatever the specific requirements were) you could get a loan for than entire amount, but looking into it more it didn't necessarily seem like that was the case, or it was all that different as far as qualifying for a conventional loan. It seemed like there was more to it than that, and so I was just trying to understand and get clarification. It's really not necessary to act like I'm an idiot because I have no experience and asked a question. What I'm not receptive to is condescension. I think I'm done with this thread.

@Rick H. There's really no need to be snarky.

Thanks everyone for your input. I am seeing that it really does depend on the details of the situation, on all fronts: the borrower, the lender, and the deal. 

Turns out this wasn't a deal. At least not one I wanted to do. It had good cash flow sure, but I talked to a realtor in the area, and it's in a bad neighborhood, and their property management co wouldn't even manage it. I'm sure if I tried hard enough I could find SOMEBODY to lend me the money, the question is, do I really want them to? In this case, not so much.