All Forum Posts by: Aaron K.

Why is the property only breaking even if you've owned it for 7 years and you are in a high appreciation area?  It should be doing considerably better than that, especially if you have enough equity in it to fund down payments for 3-4 other properties.

Do not mop wood or most hard surface floors, you are damaging them with water, so yeah you may be on the hook for some damage.

I don't know what you'd qualify for off the top of my head but with a VA loan know you'll be living in whatever you buy for a while, but you'd want to save up enough that you would be able to handle multiple repairs at the same time so I'd say minimum $7k-$10k but that's just me.

@Robert Callaway Unfortunately the answer to your question needs a caveat, I assume what you're really asking is how to get more clients and the answer to that is spend more on marketing, do more networking etc. (part of the reason I hated being a RE sales agent).

If you're asking how to do a good job after you already have a client and particularly an investor client, things that stand out to me are quick response times, people who answer the phone, and/ or return calls quickly.  Agents who make suggestions with thought and math behind them not agents who throw any old property at you.  Someone who knows what is achievable in a given area in a realistic sense, it makes no sense to tell someone what they want to hear if you spend months or years driving them around to see properties that don't make sense financially.

Obviously depends on the quality of your material but there are less expensive options out there and in a rental, it might not matter as much as long as it holds up reasonably well.

@Kevin Estrada they are turning you away because they already have or are expecting to get a cash offer, not much you can do in that scenario, if they don't get a cash offer you can go back and try again but otherwise you probably just have to move on.

@Miles Yang I've done both CA and OOS, it all depends on what you want to do, thus far both have returned about the same total when you account for appreciation and rental appreciation.  If it is cash flow you want OOS is the way to go, but if you want total return you'll probably be ok investing in most places with enough knowledge and research.

@Naoko Potts question 1 is if the house is even on a raised foundation?  If not it isn't a problem at all, if it is it will be similar to a slab home in that if something breaks they'll have to dig out to get to it but ideally everything would be incased in dirt and less likely to experience weathering.

You probably aren't going to cash flow with a house hack unless you end up with the roommate route or other creative solutions like that, it is tough to cashflow when you are living in one unit even in cheaper markets, so come up with a new strategy or adjust your expectations.

You will have a tough time, not to mention the IRS would like to have a word with you for tax evasion, pay your taxes like a law abiding citizen then you'll have the tax returns to show lenders and get financing, it is probably going to be a couple years before you can get financing with a conventional lender, maybe sooner if you decide to amend your previous returns and pay the money you actually owe the government.