All Forum Posts by: Tracy Davis

Hi! I'm new to Bigger Pockets and am learning more about REI. I was an accidental landlord about 8 yrs ago in the middle of the housing crash for two years, which ended up working out very well to my advantage until I was able to sell at a later date (very high HOA fees and other issues with keeping as a long term rental). Now I'm interested in REI on purpose. I have interests in student housing / multifamily and STR's - although I'm keeping an open mind and may start looking at LTR's.

I am also in the process of getting my real estate license - just passed the state exam, so one more class and final application to go!  Not looking to change jobs, but hoping to use my license as an advantage in obtaining properties in AZ.  

Planning to get serious about buying this fall - hopefully the seller's market will start to slow. (It's crazy everywhere, but AZ especially is out of control.) So in the meantime I've been analyzing various options - and wow, not much cash flowing happening here.  I have found occasional cash flowing properties which looked great from my point of view, but were being shunned by the market - still trying to figure that phenomenon out.  In a market where everything is pending within 24-48 hrs - I'm not sure why some properties look good, but sit on the market for a week or two before being scooped up.  Also reading about syndications.  

So I'm working on building my network of peeps here.  Excited to get started.  Also considering buying out of state vacation rentals that I would be interested in using at some point in the future.

Anyways nice to meet you!

Thanks Landon - this is helpful. Yes, it's in the university district. I guess I was thinking potentially having a 4 bedroom house, that having 4 people on a lease might have an increased risk of issues. I've only ever rented a SFH to one renter in the past, so this is new territory for me. I was just excited to finally analyze a cash-flowing property for a change!

Newbie here.  In the target areas I've been scoping out, I'm seeing the larger (and more expensive) houses tend to cash flow better.  Any pros/cons to buying a student housing duplex with 7 bedrooms (3 on one side /4 on the other), vs a multifamily house with fewer bedrooms in each unit?

The same is true here in Tucson, unless you are willing to invest in a war zone.  With the seller's market, I'm not sure you can leverage yourself and still cash flow here, at least I haven't found a nice enough property that doesn't need to be gutted to make that happen.  Which makes me wonder if really in a seller's market it's better to just pay cash to achieve a cash flowing property, rather than leveraging yourself and having a couple negative cash flow properties for several years.  The latter seems too risky for me.  

The same is true here in Tucson, unless you are willing to invest in a war zone.  With the seller's market, I'm not sure you can leverage yourself and still cash flow here, at least I haven't found a nice enough property that doesn't need to be gutted to make that happen.  Which makes me wonder if really in a seller's market it's better to just pay cash to achieve a cash flowing property, rather than leveraging yourself and having a couple negative cash flow properties for several years.  The latter seems too risky for me.