All Forum Posts by: Tatum Littleton

Hello everyone! 

My wife and I are considering making our LTR into an STR. I know with as many STR that are going up, I know one of the biggest things to do is to make sure your property stands out in the crowd. To help us brainstorm some ideas, what are some unique aspects or amenities you have seen or done yourself? We're open to any and all ideas, we're in the stage of no bad ideas!

For a bit of context, our rental is in a large college town and is very athletics centric, so right off the bat (pun intended) I like having a sports heavy theme. But to be honest, that's as far as I have gotten. 

Thank you!

Welcome Seth, and thank you for your service. I'm glad and hope you continue to see REI in a better light than while you were enlisted. Those are great questions, keep learning, that's what it's all about.

As far as the BRRR question, I personally have never gone on that endevour, but I would say to find a lender (or a realtor in your area that can point you to one) in your area to help out with that and can give you more specific information.

Finding comparables can be done on your own by looking at listing websites or even Facebook. A realtor who works with renters will be able to give you specific areas and their rents within a timeframe for where you are wanting to invest. Agents have more access to more information than you can do on your own. 

Finding the cost to rehab will require a little bit of work, the tools on BP are helpful in finding estimates and getting an idea of what kind of costs you could have. Since it seems you have a little bit of handy experience, you can do a few things on your own that will help bring the cost down. But doing research on how much new paint, cabinets, doors, flooring, baseboards, and anything else you may need to do can be found online or by asking for a quote.

Finding deals can be done by searching online on listing services, or having an agent that you are comfortable working with who is willing to help you with numbers and the amount of rehabbing you want to do. 

I hope this helps! 

Good for you Nick! That's awesome you're already looking into REI before you're even done with college and seeing that house hacking is probably the best bet for you.

There are different goals for different people, since you're planning to start out soon and at a younger age, you have some flexibility. What are your goals for the near future as well as goals years from now? When looking into house hacking, what are you comfortable with, rent by the room, living in one side (or one portion of tri/quadplex) of a duplex? Are you looking for just a solid starter that may need a little rehab (how much do you want to deal with that) that will cost a little, you will need to consider that in running numbers. Or do you want one that is totally turnkey and ready to use, which may cost you a bit more? Are you looking to buy and hold it and let it appreciate overtime or just cash flow?

The calculators under the tools tab will help you get a good idea of what numbers you may see. There are quite a few helpful tips when going through it if you aren't sure what to input. Lastly, I would advise finding a realtor in the area you want to invest, someone who knows the area well and is willing to walk you through the numbers, and use their calculator if you run out of uses since you only get 5 (I believe) with a regular account. 

I hope this gets you started in the right direction, and if there are any other questions you have, feel free to reach out, I would be happy to help you out!

Hi Britney, that's a great question and very personal and unique to each individual. Personally, I like the LTR route, it works best for my wife and I and the things we have going on, but that's not to say we won't try STR in the future if things change.

We have asked ourselves and will continue to do so (and I would encourage you to do the same) these questions. Do we want to put in the work to turn over the Air BnB? Do we want to pay a property management company to do that? Is our market suited for an Air BnB or can it be supported or would LTR be more safe? What is the difference in incomes you could have for LTR v. STR? What are your overall goals, cash flow, or appreciation? How much capital do you have to make your STR stand out and make it one people want to be at?

Of course, this is not all nor the only questions to ask yourself, I would say to really weigh what you are willing to spend and maintain for STR v. LTR.

HOAs are a hassle and you have to be particular about where you have your property based on what they would or would not allow. I particularly stay away from HAOs altogether and only have to worry about city ordinances and rules. 

As far as which type of property, again, what are your overall goals and how much do you want to worry about? Obviously, if you can afford to pay someone to take care of it, more power to you and you have more flexibility. 

I hope this is at least a good start to help evaluate how you will take your next steps! Good luck on your journey! 

Hi Joseph, I understand where you are coming from and your concerns! My wife and I also live in Austin and are currently looking for investments in and around Austin as well. We do have a property in Bryan, TX (about an hour and 45 minutes east) and are also looking there to build our portfolio. I believe Bryan/College Station is also a great, viable location to begin investing worth looking into, with low vacancy and different ways to invest such as LTR or STR it offers a good amount of creativity!

I know Austin and Bryan/College Station quite well and think both (with the right strategy) would be great portfolio builders! There are plenty of ways to make a property work for what you are looking to do.

Pretty neat story to kind of walk into an investment like that without even planning it first! The first property my wife and I invested in was kind of by happenstance also. Pretty cool to get into REI "accidentally" and find out more as we have gone and looked into what we want to do next! Love to hear how people have gotten into investing. Keep up the creativity!

This is probably one of the toughest questions for someone interested in real estate investing, it should not be taken lightly. I believe one should ask questions such as what are your ultimate goals? Do you have other passions that could work with REI? What is your financial standpoint currently? Is it possible to do both simultaneously? What would you want out of college?

Obviously, there are countless other questions to ask but all that to say is, it is a very personal question of whether one should go to college. You should seriously consider these questions and others that you can come up with to make the most clear answer possible. At the end of the day, no answer is perfect and I'm sure you may regret some aspects of either decision but both should ultimately lead you to your goal of whatever you set before yourself. 

Lastly, I would encourage whoever is wrestling with this question to write down their "why" for both and seriously consider which is more important.

I like that you're open to it all, don't limit yourself. It seems like you have some great momentum started and can absolutely get to 2 properties a year with the right plan. 

I totally agree with the "buy and hold" idea, the "get rich quick" is appealing but as I'm sure you know this is a long play arena. Good for you to focus on what you know in PA, but great to continue to grow in other markets.

I may be a bit biased (though I really think it's true) but Texas is a great place to invest with many different markets for any kind of investing you want to do. I'd be happy to talk with you more. 

Glad you introduced yourself here on the forums! 

Great to hear Chris! What are you looking to scale to? What kind of investing interests you the most? What markets are you currently looking into? I love to hear about everyone's goals and aspirations.

Amazing, Philip! What a great accomplishment, happy you are on to new endeavors. Good to know someone in the flooring business who has like-minded goals! I currently am investing in Texas but have been thinking about looking out of state and I hear good things about Indianapolis. I really enjoyed my Spring when I interned downtown in 2019 and it's pretty cool to see that it's a good place to invest!

If you are ever interested in looking into Texas I'd be happy to help you out... I'm sure you've heard it's a great place to be, LOL!