All Forum Posts by: William Sing

Hi Kevin,

Congratulations on the success you’ve experienced with your first property! Thought I'd put in my two cents. It sounds like you've set a solid foundation for your real estate journey. Regarding your options, both have their unique benefits, and your decision might come down to your personal goals and comfort with managing properties.

1. Continuing to House Hack: Staying in your current home and purchasing another single family or duplex to rent out can be a great way to expand your portfolio while maintaining the comfortable cash flow you're accustomed to. Given the equity you've built and the cash reserves you have, this option might allow you to leverage better financing terms for the new property. You could also look into using a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) on your current home to fund part of your next investment, thereby keeping your savings intact.
2. Moving and Renting Out the Current Home: Transitioning into a duplex, living in one unit while renting the other, plus renting out your current house, can significantly accelerate your investment pace. This would shift your income sources and could potentially maximize your rental income. However, it involves more management and higher stakes with multiple properties. As for the current home, converting a bonus room into a real bedroom could enhance its rental appeal and value, depending on local demand for larger rental units.

Paying Off the Mortgage vs. Investing: Given the relatively low interest rate of 3.75% on your current home, and considering the income it generates exceeds the mortgage and expenses, it might be more beneficial to keep leveraging that property as is rather than rushing to pay it off. The extra cash flow could be used to cover any unexpected expenses in your new property or further invest in upgrades that increase rental yields.

Since you mentioned an interest in living in a new area, exploring out-of-state opportunities could align with both personal and investment goals. Just ensure you factor in the challenges of managing properties remotely or consider a reliable property management solution.

Ultimately, your choice should align with your long-term financial goals, risk tolerance, and lifestyle preferences. Diversifying your investment while maintaining manageable debt and cash flow seems like a promising strategy.

Best of luck with your next big move in real estate!

Warm regards,

@Cora Gilmore

Recommend Taryn Blanton at WFG National

Also Shawn Morgan for the attorney - morganlawpdx.com

They are more in the area of Portland Metro, area as an FYI. 

Also recommend Stevens-Ness forms. You can google them and find standardized contracts there. 

Hay Josh!

That is definitely a bit of a loaded question and it kinda depends on where you are at along with where you want to go. Where are you at in your investing journey! Here is a good primer on how to setup up things for liability - 

Hey Leo,

Great question and it's smart you're thinking ahead on this. The first step is definitely to get familiar with the landlord-tenant laws in Jersey City, as these will guide your actions. Look into "no cause" and "for cause" evictions to understand the grounds under which you can decide not to renew a lease. In many places, giving proper notice that you're not renewing the lease is perfectly acceptable, but specifics vary by location.

Another option to consider is "cash for keys," where you offer the tenant a financial incentive to leave early. This can be a smoother, more amicable way to regain possession of the unit.

Lastly, tapping into local landlord associations can be incredibly helpful. They're often a goldmine of information and resources tailored to your area's regulations and can offer guidance specific to your situation.

Best of luck with your new property and navigating this transition!

- Will

Congrats on taking that next step! I'd add some sort of umbrella policy for insurance. Usually they have a million dollar policy that can help cover the gaps liability wise. Not sure if this is a part of the landlord policy but good tenant screening would be a big part too. This is a good podcast that goes over this a bit more in depth - Search "LLCs for Rental Properties & Bulletproof Asset Protection" if the video isn't popping up

Definitely take a look at the real estate rookie podcast and am also a huge fan of the On the Market podcast for more real estate related things. If you are wanting to learn more about business and how to get things generally setup look at traction by gino wickman, vivid vision by cameron harold, and story brand by donald miller. 

If you are diving into more of the FIRE movement I'd listen to Paula Pants afford anything. She is in between david ramsey (no debt ever) and Rich Dad, Poor Dad (super leveraged). Both are books you should also take a look at but ALWAYS know there is a spectrum to everything and take everything with a grain of salt. Just because you are given the same data as someone else does not mean you will make the same decisions. 

Hope that helps kicks things off for you!

Hey Connor! 

Congrats on diving into this wild world. I'd recommend you check out these places and get really specific on what you can help out with:
- REI events - Usually there will be a group in the area that will put on events and things like that to meet people who might need help.
- BiggerPockets Events - Take a look at the events going on near you with BiggerPockets. There is a section of the website that goes over this I believe or you can search for events through the website. 

- Property Management - If you are looking to learn about how to manage companies, this might be a good place to learn those skills. Just know that this is not as much of a "fun" thing to do. 

With all of this, get really specific about what you are wanting to provide in terms of a resource. Going to someone and saying, "I just want to help" is useless. You are now putting the ownest on them to come up with things for you to do. See what issues they may have and how you can solve it. Want to help out an investor verify deals, say that you are willing to drive out and record what is possible. Listen to their pain points and see if they'd be willing for you to help them out with those pain points. 

Hope that helps!

Hey Rachel, 

One side note is that Landlord's choice varies a lot but I'd take a look at local listings that do have a professional property manager and review their screening criteria. That is a good way to pick and choose what might best fit you. 

• Reliance Property Management - They have a lower cost for their investors. 
• Chroma Property Management - They are great at handling rentals and are pretty forward on pricing. 

West Ridge Property Management - They offer more a la carte options if you only need help with specific things.

Questions to Ask Your Property Manager - A list of questions that can be used to vet your property manager.

Hope these help

I've seen anywhere between 15-25% in the PDX market.