All Forum Posts by: Travis Rogers

Thanks for the info Jack, I agree. As far as the TX property, this was a huge learning experience for me. If I had it to do over I wouldn't have done it due to property management costs and complications I've ran into (and lack of appreciation as you've mentioned). However now that it's generating $300/mo net after property management, etc., and is on auto-pilot, I plan to keep it at least until the tenant moves out. 

I've realized appreciation is huge and I've always had it where I live in Oregon, this is the first property I'm not seeing it on due to location. Appreciation in TX may change as a lot of Californians are moving there now, which is what keeps Oregon costs appreciating as well. Time will tell, but it will also be the easiest to pay off, and will be a nice cash flow at that point so that's the positive side. 

Thank you again for your time! All the best!

Hi Folks! 

My name is Travis, I own 3 SFH properties (2 rentals, and my primary). Two of them (one being my primary) are at about 50%-55% LTV, they are in Eugene Oregon. I'm considering a straight no-cash-out refi on my primary, cutting my monthly payment by about $300. Prior to that I was considering a cash-out on my primary (100k cash out) and paying off one of the rentals (the low cost one in Texas), but the numbers line up about the same and I'd rather pay off my primary in the end than my low value TX rental. Numbers are below, any thoughts, suggestions would be appreciated! Main goal is keeping payments low and being able to weather a storm. This helps with that, I just don't pull any cash out in this scenario.

Primary: Owe 218K / Value 440k 3.875% current rate (4 years in)

Rental 1: Owe 212k / Value 380k 4% current rate (1 year in) fantastic rental/renters/area!

Rental 2: Owe 101k / Value 140k 4% rate (4 months in) decent rental, but not spectacular

Obviously rental 2 won't do anything on a cash-out. Rental 1 and Primary both have great equity positions. Rental 1 pays me about $415/mo currently. My thinking at this point is just to refi my primary and save the $300/mo for now, but if you see any better options, creative options that I'm overlooking, let me know. Thank you for your time! I look forward to reading any comments you may have. Also, if any of you know anyone doing a no-cost (true no-cost) refi please let me know. I've done them in the past, but can't find anyone doing them right now, probably due to the market being so hot! This is my first time in this scenario, just want to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious. 

Nice job! I live in Eugene as well. My last property in town I was all in at $303k, SFH, did nearly a full remodel, value is now $380k but I kept it as a long term rental and it's been great. Congrats, it's enjoyable work and worth it when it goes smooth. Would be interested in discussing with you sometime if you have time. I actually mailed 40 handwritten envelopes to owners in a Texas neighborhood this year, and called property management companies with rentals in the same town to see if the owner would sell. I bought one in March off of the property management method, and an owner reached out to me with a great deal in the other neighborhood but due to Covid I put it on hold for now. It's been hard for me to find deals in Eugene this year. All the best!

@Grace Widdicombe where is this meetup?

@Lindsey Spivey I charge $25 per dog per month. My renters have 2 dogs ($50/mo). My personal conclusion while trying to avoid pets altogether due to the risk/damage has been that it's better to have good tenants with pets, than bad tenants without pets. When I open it up to pets, I get a lot more quality applications just due to larger numbers. Once I feel I have covered any carpet replacement fees and potential pet damage with deposit and pet rent, I'll probably drop the pet rent completely if I have great tenants, since pet rent for me is mainly insurance. That's my personal strategy in case it helps. Fortunately my tenants and pets have been great (knock on wood)

@Michael Class my advice, and my process, is slways a 30 year. My primary is a 30 year, but I pay it as a 10 year. That way if I get into a bind, I can make lower payments. You can always pay more, but can never pay less than your monthly schedule. Just my 2 cents

Hi Jennifer, 

I'm in a similar situation. I picked up a home this year in my neighborhood with the intention of renting it out after remodeling. After the remodel, I realized I could sell it for $50k more at minimum (net gain not including any taxes I would pay doing this), and people were asking me if I would sell it. For me, this was very tempting, but the cash flow was good, home was in my neighborhood, and I love the home. For me, it's now a long term rental with great tenants. Should I ever need to sell it, it will sell. I only look for homes in good neighborhoods, this current rental is a fairly high end rental, I could live there should I need to downsize. It costs more in this neighborhood, but in return I've always had great tenants (after screening of course), it appreciates at a higher value, and there's always demand to rent or buy if I need to sell at some point. 

Personally I've always avoided flips because if you're in the middle of one and the market drops, you could lose money. After my situation this year, I had the following thought. If I go into a flip, and the market turns, I would keep it as a rental. That's my plan for 2020. For me personally it buys me some "insurance" in case the market crashes or slows down while I'm getting started on the flip, or rates go up, etc. driving prices down. As long as I could rent it to cover my overhead (and ideally more) I could do so until the market turned and I wanted to get cash out of it. 

Ultimately for me personally, the best thing is to have cash flow properties that pay monthly, long term, and appreciate over time so that they get paid off or could be paid off by someone else, and grow in value, with tax benefits and ROI that's sky high compared to the stock market. There's no right or wrong answer to your question, it's what works best for you and your family and how much risk tolerance you have, I don't have as much tolerance as I probably should looking back on things. These are just a few thoughts I had with my experience. I hope this is helpful and wish you and your family the best. One last note, I have a 12 year old son. I am teaching him this process as well. The schools aren't going to teach it, and there are so many things I wish I could have done in my early twenties that I had no idea about (BP wasn't around back then lol). Have your kids help with some of the remodel work, show them the benefits, etc. They will have a head start that most of us would have loved to have!

-Travis

Great to see this! That's a success without being out the cash, in the end. I picked up a place this year and put about $70k out of pocket into it. It appreciated about $50k in 6 months after the remodel work which was great, but I'm out the $70k since it's a long term, monthly cash flow rental for me. My question is, how do you connect with a good wholesaler to find distressed deals? I'm willing to pay cash and refi after remodeling, but haven't found any deals in my area. Any advice would be appreciated. If I can find a good property, I'm pretty fluent with the rest of the process. Thanks in advance for any info! 

Thanks @Andrew Syrios and @James Wise. Good to be here 

@Ricardo Gomez thank you!