All Forum Posts by: Vaughn J Smith

@Nathan G. I think your approach and line of thinking on this subject is brilliant. I’ll definitely be sending you a DM to learn a little more on this. Thank you for sharing

@Cameron Lam your story is inspiring to say the least. As a former Phoenix and Scottsdale resident I know how many colleges are in that market. You have done an amazing job of using that to your advantage. I hope to move back to AZ within the next couple years. I will definitely be using your strategy as a guide. Wishing you continued success in the new year.

I’m a little late to this post but I hired trust properties to manage my las cruces home when I moved to Phoenix in March of 2014. I had a different tenant pretty much every year but the longest the property was vacant was about 2 weeks. They do a really good job of screening potential tenants and verifying income. When I decided to list the property for sale I noticed there was some minor damage that they did not catch. Cracked window, cracked tile, and a small water leak from the shower. I agree with Audrey that I always felt the price they rented for was a little low but my home always rented quickly. I hope this is helpful to anyone looking for a management company in las cruces in the future.

Audrey, your comment is very encouraging. I’m hoping that is the case for my property as well. The good thing about Las Cruces is that the winters are not brutal. The sun is usually shining every day and buyers are actively looking in the months of January and February unlike some markets where they wait until the spring. I just was informed that my wife’s cousin may be interested in the property once her current house sells. I wish I had known that prior to me signing a contract with an agent. Thanks again for your words of encouragement and I wish you a prosperous New Year.

Dan, thank you for that. Another lesson I’ve learned is that buying a single family home as my primary residence to later lease to a tenant is a bad strategy unless I’m purchasing the property at a really low price. There is little to no cash flow so there’s more risk than reward for my efforts. I’ll be focused on multi-family properties going forward. My time here in DC will be likely be less than 2 years so my plan is to do as much research and reading as possible. One of the markets that is intriguing to me is New Orleans. I was born and raised there, so I am very familiar with flood and wind damage from hurricanes. AZ is not prone to major natural disasters so investing there is less risky with regard to those types of setbacks. 

Thank you for the feedback Russell, I am definitely hoping it picks back up in the spring. I realize another mistake of mine was being too aggressive with the lost price when it was first listed. I knew there was a shortage of inventory at the time and tried to capitalize off of that by listing it a little higher over the comps. I contemplated taking it off the market during the holidays as well. I admit I have a lot of regrets with this one but I’m learning from my mistakes. This was my first home purchase and it’s the first times I’ve ever listed a property for sale. Thank you again for your insight. 

I would like to start off by saying thank you all for providing such a wealth of knowledge on this site and via the podcast. This is my first post and it definitely will not be my last. A couple months ago i was directed to the bigger pockets podcast by my twin brother Derek. The more i listen to the podcast and the more i read the forums, i realize how much i did not and do not know about buy and hold investing. I purchased my first home in October 2008 in Las Cruces, New Mexico after accepting a career with the federal government. Just based off of the year alone i am sure most would agree, it was really bad timing. The location being Las Cruces, New Mexico was yet another sucker punch that has negatively impacted my ability to do much with the property. Las Cruces is a small college town (home of the New Mexico State University Aggies) with healthy population of federal government workers and military contractors. When I moved from Las Cruces to Phoenix in 2014, the property was valued at about 18k less than what i paid for it 6 years prior. With zero equity in the property I decided to rent it to a long term tenant. Initially after management fees, repairs and PMI i was losing about $250 per month. I actively worked to pay down the mortgage so i could stop wasting money on PMI. After i reached the 20% mark, i was pretty much breaking even on the property after expenses. Not having kids, the property served as a write off as i had moved into an apartment in Phoenix. 18 months after moving to Phoenix i purchased a single family home in which to live in Scottsdale, AZ. In September of 2019 i accepted a promotion with the federal govt and moved to Washington, DC. The market in Las cruces had rebounded a bits i decided i would not renew my lease with the tenants and would put the house on the market. I invested about $4000 in paint, tile, repairs etc to get it ready to be shown. Again, timing couldn't have been worse as i was in the middle of a move and the house went on the market at the end of October. It has been shown several times but unfortunately it went on the market right before the holidays. My plan was to sell the property and invest the equity into a multi-family property that would actually cash flow. The dilemma i have now is that its been vacant since September 1st and I have been carrying the mortgage. I figured what better place than the bigger pockets forum to ask if maybe I'm not thinking of all my options. I could very easily rent the property again but my plan was to sell it and use that cash for the next investment. My home in Scottsdale is currently tenant occupied and cash flows about $200 per month and has about 100k in equity. my plan is to get a HELOC on the Scottsdale home and use that to invest in the next property. I started to think, why not rent the Las Cruces property to another long term tenant and get a HELOC from that property as well. I have about 60k in equity in the Las Cruces property. What would you do in this situation?