All Forum Posts by: Victor Quan

This is absolutely awesome.  Thanks a lot for all of your input! 

Keep in mind that 1 bd/ 1 baths aren't that palatable on the re-sale end unless you price it for another investor.  As for it being a bad idea or good idea...well, I'd say that it depends on your long term strategy.

1. Do you see yourself building a buy/hold portfolio or do you also see yourself flipping?

2. Are there better options to park your purchase funds?

In my portfolio, I have a studio and a small 2/1 that I'll never let go.  They're easy to manage and easy to access.  

Didn't mean to throw more questions at you.  What's your gut telling you regarding the deal?

One of my best friends posed a question to me that I couldn't quite answer.  He's a renter and he asked me the following:

Are there any creative ways to lower rent?  

I'm a landlord myself and offered my own experience but I was curious if any renters or landlords have come across instances in which they have experienced the act of receiving or lowering their rent/cashflow.  

I've learned so much from the dialogue that has happened here.  Seriously, thank you all for your input.  

 Thanks for making the poignant difference between the assessed and appraised value.  Seeing as to the direction of the discussion, I'm going to start making some headway in lowering my assessed value.  Thanks everyone!

 Oh man, I'd love to see Seattle pull a shysty move like that.  That'd actually make me giggle. 

I was looking at property records for my rental and found that my appraised value is 48k more than my next door neighbor who has the exact same house and lot size.  I'd even push to say that the conditions are the same as well.

Is there a way to reduce the appraised value on my property so my property tax can be less? This is a property I plan to keep for a long time so re-selling is not an option.

Pros/cons to this strategy in reducing management expenses?   

In my experience, dishes are nothing more than garbage from the previous tenant.  Furthermore, marketing your property on the rental listings as "satellite ready" isn't going to spur more positive attention either.  

Get rid of the dishes and increase the drive-by curb appeal of the house.  Make the future tenant go through the headache of taking care of the satellite dishes.

Make sure you patch up any screw holes with wet-patch when you remove the dishes though (if installed on the roof)! 

 

I'm a full time investor so I had my hardship running around trying to get a bank to take a chance on me. Lo and behold though, today I was able to sign the final documents for my first substantial HELOC. Banner Bank (Shoreline, WA) has personnel who are very personable and extremely professional. They understood my need and reasons for securing this HELOC as I'll be using these funds for another purchase or extra monies for rehab.

I just wanted to share as this was a big deal for me.  If anyone is interested in details, just message me and I'll share more.  I know I can't be the only one who has had trouble finding competitive financing.  Moreover, I'm also interested to know if other investors have had success securing multiple HELOCs and their own difficulties in securing those lines.   

I'm curious what the experiences other investors have had when it comes to banks verifying owner occupancy.  I have a friend who said that they never checked but I'm curious if anyone has had any experience (good and bad) in finding out.  Super, super curious.