Quest for early retirement

Quest for early retirement

Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes

Well, after seeing all of Sammy B’s post, i thought I’d start my own to keep track of how I’m doing. My goal is to retire by 50. I’ll be turning 36 soon. If I can average at least $300 a month per door, then I figure I need 3 doors a year. I’m assuming I can figure out how to pay for health insurance on that, but that’s another topic.

My first house was a duplex in Galveston. Currently renting to tenants that came with it at 2173 total per month, about 1700 a month in expenses. Somehow, the bottom tenants are using $600 a month in electricity cooling an 880 sqft home (bottom floor). I detailed some of it in another post. Fortunately, I have a happy update on that property - Galveston housing Authority agreed to have utilities switched to tenants AND they suggested increasing rent to 1400 for the downstairs. So I’ll be getting g 2250 total and dropping a 700 a month th expense (water too).

I’ve been looking for the next property, and probably made about 7-10 offers. I even went and bid at the Harris county tax auction. Well, this past weekend my realtor called and said someone be knows at a bank is going to list a bank owned 996 sqft 1/1 in Galveston and we can have first look at it, and they’d probably accept 85-90k. It also had 4800 taxes we’d have to pay.

We went to look at it Tuesday night, and at that price, I was expecting some serious work needed. Turns out it was an Airbnb rental that was already staged for the next guest and in very good shape. It even recently had central ac installed! Power still on.

It was 2-1 long ago, and were going to add a wall with a door to put that room back. We're using Jet Lending for 3 months, and we expect the ARV to be 140k after about 9k worth of work - paint the porch, pressure wash siding, new laminate in bathroom in addition to wall.

Under contract as of today, hoping to close Friday, that will probably slip to the following Tuesday or Wednesday realistically though. They accepted our first offer of 85, and that makes me wish we’d started at 79, oh well.

Should rent 1200-1350, however, being that it is already furnished except for the extra bedroom we’re adding, we’re going to give short term rental a try. Airbnb estimates we should earn 2250 a month with a 50% occupancy rate. We’ll try it through the peak summer time, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll rent it long term (or sell it). I like this one because it seems to have a low margin for catastrophic screw ups

Anyway, sorry for the long car, and thanks for reading

Edit: none of the formatting in the app took. 

Home 2, door 3 of 45, i clearly need to hire a professional for pictures when i list it

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Nathan GesnerBusiness Member
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Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes
7y

Looks like a nice unit. When considering vacation rentals, don't forget to add in all the additional expenses. Let's assume you are correct and can make $2,250 a month.

I think Galveston charges 9% tax and AirBnB will charge 4% so that's $292.50 in fees.

You have utilities, TV, and internet. I expect those will average $300 or more. You'll have to maintain the lawn which can cost another $200 a month but let's assume there's only six months of lawn care so you can average that out to $100 a month.

Just those charges alone ate up $700 a month so your income just dropped to $1,500. That's $150 - $300 more than you would get with a long-term rental but...you haven't counted the cost of your time. You have to answer inquiries, process reservations, get guests checked in/out, handle maintenance calls, inspect and clean after every stay, replace consumables, etc.

Again, I don't know the actual numbers but it doesn't take much to bring that income down to the same level you would get with a long-term rental and the long-term rental requires a lot less work on your part. Something to think about.

The DIY Landlord Book4.7248 Reviews
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  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    @Sam B.

    Well we had our first stay Saturday and received a 5 star review! Our second guest checked in yesterday.

    You can take a look at the listing here if you’d like:

    https://abnb.me/oNCg1A7wAU

    The next couple items on the punch list are 1) professional pictures and 2) a cheaper short stay cleaning service.

    The deep cleaning for $130 is good for long stays, but when a guest only stays one night, no way it needs more than a quick clean and linen change. The current company is going to see what they can offer. As is, I’ve lost at least one 1-night stay because the cleaning fee doubled the cost of the stay. If they can’t do it I’ll need to look some more. I don’t add any extra cost on the fee, by the way.

  • Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2013 · 476 posts · 294 votes
    7y

    @Bruce C.  The listing looks great, Bruce.  Congrats on the first review and a 5-star at that.

    Does Airbnb still offer free professional listing photos?  

    Goodluck on sorting out a cheaper cleaning.  

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    @Sam B.

    @Timothy Church

    The photos AirBnB offers are no longer free. About $140. Probably worth it.

    Duplex - contractor is out of hospital, got legal troubles sorted out (if there were any - that info came from his helper who I’m learning not to trust), and is back on job. Even after cutting the plywood out of the spare bedroom floor it still smelled (although not as bad), so we caulked it, put a sealer over it, and Kilzd the walls about 18” up. I think after we put the underlayment and new floor down and paint the smell will be gone completely. They need to be done Friday. I know he’s slowed because his kidneys shut down and he was in ICU for 2 weeks, but if he’s going to stay on the job I need it done.

    AirBnB - March is sitting at 68% booked. We’ve got our 3rd rating in, and it’s 2 5* and one 4*! One thing I don’t like about the rating system: it is a 5 star system, but the way AirBnB treats things it’s as if a 4 * is bad.

    We’re at break even now in March with 1 weekend still open, getting some reviews, and I’ve started slowly raising prices.

    We’ve also got 1 booking through VRBO for a week in June that will pay 700 to us after fees, taxes, and cleaning have been accounted for ($1k gross). That makes me feel better. That’s about what we expected it to pull in the summer, but being a pessimist, in the back of my mind I was worried we’d overestimated. Nice having some validation.

    I meet another cleaning company Thursday night. The company we’re using now charges $37 an hour for cleaners, and they send 2! I can hire pipe fitters, pretty solid welders, A operators, and decent i/e techs for those rates at work!

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    Prop 1 duplex - pace has finally picked up. Contractor is doing a lot better. We may have a few touch up items, but I think we’ll be Listed Saturday for $1200 a month

    Prop 2 VayK - first month has gone better than expected. Got the last weekend booked this morning, and we’re sitting at 77% occupancy for March, which is about 20% higher than the average. We’re also going to be about $100 ahead on cash flow. That’s not much obviously, but we went in to this prepared to lose a little each month until we built up advertising, reviews, and return customers. We may still lose money in April, but even that is already precooked close to break even. And we also got a reservation for Halloween, lol.

    Prop 3 - still looking. Very few good SFRs on MLS, the few that were went before we could contact realtor. Seen some bad MFs. Triplex they took off the market Ind December and relisted $40k higher. Went to view it, it was occupied (selling realtor didn't know) and we couldn't go inside. Based on outside, they didn't do any work before listing $40k higher.

    We have looked at another nice vacation rental. It is a foreclosure. Didn't plan on getting in to the STR business, but if the numbers work... 2/2 1100 sqft on the canal in Galveston with a boat slip. It was originally listed for 289k and sat for months. They finally reduced price to 225 and we went and looked. It needs a lot of work on the deck, and the bottom section needs some money put into it to truly be part of the sqft they are advertising (first pass estimate $50k). They dropped to 215k, and we were going to offer 189k this week, but they just passed it off to some sort of auction that has a 6% buyer premium. I think they are really limiting their potential buyers the way they are handling it. Going to go tomorrow morning and get a detailed repair bid from another contractor. We estimate 305k on the ARV, so the additional ~12k on the buyer premium is a real kick in the balls with $50k work. They may have capped my bid at 175 with that move. We'll also spend a decent chunk of money furnishing it afterwards. Probably 90% to fall through, but I'll post pictures if we get it.

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    @Bruce C.

    Duplex - Finally Listed for rent, a week later than I expected. It’s a low income duplex, so no one is going to mistake it for the Taj, but it has come a long way

    AirBnB - Not much change in March numbers as the month ends from the last update. As we’ve gotten 8 reviews now, AirBnB has bumped our suggested price. I’d already been increasing it based on AirDNA date, but I picked a midway point so as to not raise my prices too quickly. Going on to April, we already have 57% of the month booked with a break even on the net. The last weekend is still open, so expect we’ll end up about 300-500 cash flow depending on if the Thursday and/or Monday surrounding that weekend get picked up. One thing is apparent on booking timing is to leave prices high even 2 weeks out.

    Third property - still looking. Canal house had too many potential pitfalls. Lost out on a bid on another house. Checking out a foreclosure tonight.

    Before

    After

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    Update on my quest. Some progress in April on the 2 I have, but still no third house yet

    Duplex - tenants moving in Monday. Had to drop to $1100 a month from our estimate of $1200, but the numbers are still very good. Expenses (only PITI in this case) = 1100, rent = 2500, cash flow = 1400

    VayK STR - April ended up at 77% booked and total income of 2905, with 714 in cleaning fees, for a "rent" rate of 2131. At least the way I look at it. More expenses than just PITI due to paying for utils, toilet paper, etc that came out to 1719, for a cash flow of $410. Still working on pricing strategy. Leaving prices a little higher, but right now I don't want to risk not getting it rented. We get so many last minute bookings though I'm eventually going to try it. We also hit superhost this month with 10+ reviews and a 4.8/5 star average.

  • Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2013 · 476 posts · 294 votes
    7y

    @Bruce C.  Great job on the rehab, looks great Bruce.

    Glad to hear the Airbnb is chugging along, 77% occupancy sounds quite good.  How's May looking so far?

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    @Sam B.

    Thanks!  May is sitting at 55% booked and a hair below break even. I don’t like the way AirBnB reports though, because if the booking started the last day of April but runs 4 days in May, all of it is counted toward April. So really my April isn’t quite as good as what my report shows, and May is really a little over break even already. In the end that will all average out for yearly numbers though, so the Engineer in me probably needs to let that go. 

    The last week of May is open, and with vacations starting and the way AirBnB fills up at the last minute, I’m pretty sure I’ll end up $500-700 cash flow for the month. 

    Found a triplex foreclosure that I really like. Needs about $40k in work, would be all in at 135k, and cash flow $800-1000 a month. Unfortunately my wife is nervous about expanding that fast. We’ll see what we can work out

  • Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2013 · 476 posts · 294 votes
    7y

    Sounds great on the Airbnb @Bruce C.

    All-in for a triplex at $135k sounds like a steal - class of neighborhood? What would the ARV be?

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    @Sam B.

    C+ that I think is on the way to B. it is on the southern outskirts of Houston where the lot sizes range from 1/2 acre to 2, and a few at 4 or 5. On one side there is a new mobile home, on 200 yards away is a new 350k home. This lot is 1/2 acre. ARV at 165k-180k, so we would have to put some of our money in to it. I think that's the part that bothers my wife. I think the area will continue to appreciate and am happy to put some money in to it since it will be cash flowing.

  • Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2013 · 476 posts · 294 votes
    7y

    @Bruce C.  Sounds like you need to pull the trigger!  Goodluck getting the other half on board.

  • Rental Property Investor · Conshohocken, PA · Member since 2011 · 34 posts · 6 votes
    7y

    @Bruce C. Good luck in your endeavor. I’ll be following along.

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    Well I should have updated this sooner but just been busy.  

    H1 Duplex - new tenants actually pay a day or two early!  I haven’t had to deal with a crazy smell or animals or broken things in a few weeks. It’s amazing! Only negative right now is the downstairs tenant on housing assistance. Housing pays so much of her share, and total is above market that if she pays almost anything a month we’re ahead. But the rate she’s going she’s going to end up evicted. Housing may pick up even more (1370), so we are waiting to see where that goes. Currently $2150 a month without her paying, so we’re still cash flowing well. 

    H2 AirBnB -  May was on track to be 87% occupied and provide $1720 in rent, exceeding our targets of 1660. Unfortunately, we had an issue with the cleaning service. I had notified them on the Sunday before Memorial Day that we had a last minute booking and we would have guest checking out Thursday before the next guest checked in Friday. I texted them this info as that is how they have been communicating with me other than to send invoices. Well, 8 pm Friday I got a call from a very pissed off guest because the house hasn’t been cleaned. I called the cleaning company, and the best they could do was run sheets over. Fortunately, I was able to get the contractor that I used in the area to run over and do a quick clean. To make matters worse, the couple saw a dead cockroach. This is SE Texas and it had been raining, roaches happen. Well they called AirBnB and used the word infestation. I think they were just still pissed.  I agreed to the AirBnB resolution centers proposal to knock about $350 off the charge.  So our rent was only about 1370 this month plus extra pest control costs  

    I went and inspected the property after they left, and there were no roaches. I know what an infestation looks like, see the pictures up thread! :/. The regular cleaning crew plus my emergency cleaning crew also confirmed they didn’t see anything. We still put out about $70 worth of bait and traps while we were down there inspecting after they left. The cleaning crew tried to charge me the normal $130 fee but I told them no way. They said in the future email them. I’ve got no problem with that, but that isn’t how they’d been running things. 

    June was full except for 4 days before May was over, and 2 of those booked today. The other 2 are random Wednesday’s.  Assuming no more “infestations” we'll end up with $2960 rent, exceeding our target of 2891. The first half of July is also already booked and on target. 

    H3 - still looking. Cash is starting to build up after the eviction and all the repairs caused by it, but our reserves aren't where'd id like, so anything we get will have to be a slam dunk no cash out of pocket because purchase plus rehab is less than 70% ARV. While not as rare as unicorns, they aren't all over the place that I've found. I am going to look at a 4plex tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

  • Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2013 · 476 posts · 294 votes
    7y

    Sounds great @Bruce C.

    There will be bumps in the road, good to experience them early and move forward.  

    Sounds like the summer cashflow is really starting to come in, congrats!

  • Real Estate Agent · Galveston, TX · Member since 2015 · 255 posts · 219 votes
    7y

    For the Airbnb:

    For scheduling things with the cleaning company, look into TurnoverBnB. It is free to use and is a great way to make sure your cleaners know to clean the house. They get automated emails for every booking and even update emails if something is rescheduled or canceled. If you need recommendation for other cleaning options on the island feel free to reach out to me. Be happy to share my personal experiences with a handful down here. 

    I get the pest issues!! Even with all my properties on quarterly treatment schedules, it still happens. Really not much you can do other than apologize. I keep a handful of spec's gifts cards in my truck just in case I get guests that don't seem happy with just an apology.

  • San Francisco, Bay Area · Member since 2019 · 37 posts · 23 votes
    7y

    Awesome! Definitely inspiring!

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    Been a while since my last update.  On 8/2 we hit our 1 year anniversary being landlords!  Still feels a little odd, and it has certainly been a crazy year.  

    #1 Duplex - I don’t want to jinx myself, but this has finally turned in to passive income. Section 8 tenant sometimes pays, but we get more from the city than we could renting it. Netting $1100 a month. If we don’t have any other issues, we will finally be at break even from all the eviction and repair costs!  

    #2 VayK AirBnB house - bases on AirDNA, our goal was 2289 per month for April through August (that is after cleaning fees). We ended up at 2410. We also averaged 82% occupancy. So far so good. Now we'll see if we can make enough during the dead months to justify STR. We've exceeded our numbers for all other months, so I hope we can continue the trend. It will also be interesting to see how we do with a year of reviews under our belt. I know that our pricing took a hit in March - May when we had just a handful of reviews.

    #3 - we've been working on #3 since the first week in January. I've looked at a lot houses online, been to several auctions, driven over 1000 miles looking at houses, and out in a few offers. As of today, we are finally under contract. Deals not done yet, but I'm hopeful. It is another house in Galveston that we plan on STR. It's much bigger and nicer.

    2200 sqft 4/2 with a 2200 sqft garage and paved shop underneath 

    List - 155k

    Purchase - 142k

    Rent - 1900-2000 long term (outside shot at 2300), STR I believe is 2700

    Repairs budgeted - 39k (I plan on doing most of the labor myself)

    ARV - this is where it gets sticky. My realtor after seeing it thinks it will go 281k. My HML plugged it in to their computer system and they think 200 at best. Guy I used for last REFI plugged it in to his as well and come up about the same. I'm nervous we won't get 281k, but I know this isn't a sub 225k house fixed up. The HML will be sending their appraiser out, which is part of the deal anyway. I am concerned about where it ends up. If it only comes out to 225k, that is a lot of money left in it for us. I also tend to overestimate costs, so I want to put a little more work in to cost estimating

    There is upside to convert part of the bottom to a 1/1 to STR as well. I'll post pictures once we either own the house or walk away

  • Rental Property Investor · Galveston, TX · Member since 2018 · 49 posts · 29 votes
    7y

    I'm not terribly experienced, but it seems really hard to predict sale prices in Galveston.  My wife and I are living in a home that we are doing a (very) slow flip on and are wondering what the potential price will be, though we have planned for alternate strategies if necessary.  Please share the next phase when you can.

    Chad Davis

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    @J Chad Davis Will do. I hope to have an update tomorrow, as that is when we expect to have HML appraisal. When we did the inspection, we found what looks like nice hardwood floors under all the old carpet in the bedrooms. Sanding and refinishing will reduce our rehab cost a nice bit.


    We still need the HML appraisal to come back at 255k min to be able pull this off though. I really hope the appraiser doesn't use all houses that converted their garage at ground (flood) level.

    I obsess over the worst case scenario at every step. My nerves and liver aren’t going to make it :)

  • Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2013 · 476 posts · 294 votes
    7y

    @Bruce C.  Good numbers on the new property under contract - even if it comes in at 225, you're still all-in around 180, which is awesome.  Is not getting every cent back out a deal breaker?

    Post some photos when you can.

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    @J Chad Davis @Sam B.

    Sam - yeah the deal would still have been good at those numbers, but we’d have had to leave a little more cash in than we feel comfortable with. Need reserves. 

    But good news - appraised at $280k! Our initial closing date was 9/25, but as fast as the HML moved last time once they had everything, we could be closing by Tuesday. Now that I feel comfortable we'll be closing I'll post some pictures.

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    I like the white, but any thoughts on how I can make it a little more exciting?  It’s vinyl. 

  • Rental Property Investor · Galveston, TX · Member since 2018 · 49 posts · 29 votes
    7y

    @Bruce C. great work!

  • Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2013 · 476 posts · 294 votes
    7y

    @Bruce C.  Nice work on the appraisal.

    The house needs some help with the curb appeal - kind of looks like some sort of half converted commercial box right now.

    If you can cut in a large new window downstairs, install shutters on all the windows, paint the garage doors, paint the front door to break it out/pop and perhaps even a new exterior paint job?  Too much white right now, imo.

  • Seabrook/Galveston · Member since 2018 · 274 posts · 178 votes
    7y

    I’m terrible at the decorating thing. I’d personally prefer to live in clean, uniform white walls with no pictures. Wife tells me I’m welcome to go stay at the insane asylum whenever I’d like!

    So painting the doors of the garage is probably a obvious solution, but not one I’d even considered. Thank you!  

    I’d probably paint the whole thing, but the exterior is vinyl, and my understanding was that vinyl shouldn’t be painted. 

    Where you drew the window is where I think we will put a door long term, but I agree a window would also look good there. The house makes an L. From just to the right of the current door it goes straight back. We may go ahead and toss up sheet rock and put in flooring to add about 1000 sqft. We'll call it a large game room or something on AIRBNB. Eventually we'll make it a 2/1 bungalow to STR as well. This picture is looking more or less from where that window would be, straight back.

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