I have been considering purchasing a multi-family home or a property with multiple homes using an FHA loan.I am still considering the pros and cons of being a landlord versus possibly approaching real estate investing in another way.

Places where consumers HAVE to go for the experience versus things where they can " look and book " and go home and buy online for cheaper.

Hi Everyone,I've tried searching through the forums for some info on this, but haven't found anything concrete, so figured I'd ask.My question is whether you need to bump up normal assumptions, RE maintenance, PM, capex, etc. costs when analyzing a vacation rental property to see if it will cash flow versus a regular long-term lease tenant?

We also own 2 fourplexes in AZ and go out there periodically to work on it, and the tenants we've met out there know we're the owners (though they don't have our address or phone numbers, since we want them contacting our PM for issues).Seems like a lot of people know that what the owner says is final, versus if they're talking to a PM they might think they can get the PM to wiggle a little on some issues rather than being the final decision-maker.

It almost seems like you have to consider the time value of having all of your cash tied up versus levering the property if you're going to look this much into it.

I always look at energy versus return.I have friends that are flippers and it is a ton of work and after looking at it years ago it just didn't appeal to me but everyone is different.

As far as hiring someone versus doing it yourself, I would say that's a personal decision.

As for how best to structure the entity (S-Corporation versus LLC partnership), an S-Corp will probably be best for your partner, considering his whole source of income is from this activity.

Does it matter if I use an in-state versus out of state lender?

Example the mix of tenants with national versus mom and pop, area quality, demographics, etc. will make a huge difference.It's not just banks making these loans.