All Forum Posts by: Adam Christopher Zaleski

17K could be enough money for your first deal.

I think there is a lot of value with investing in something that you understand. It can give you the confidence to go against the crowd. If the masses are avoiding an investment, it could be a great opportunity for someone who understands the investment because the price will be lower because no one else wants it.

I love college rentals. I have lived in college towns pretty much my entire adult life. I love to bet on something I know and understand even if the numbers are not the best.

People who do not understand college rentals call it risky. If they don't understand the investment, I think it would be risky for them. However, you can reduce risk through education and experience.

I call them the day before the appointment as a reminder. About 25% of them will tell me that they are no longer interested. Then on the day of appointments, I only get about 25% no shows.

I schedule every 20 minutes. I will try to get 9-12 appointments for a 4 hour block.

Start now. If the numbers aren't working in your local area, then expand your search a little. If there ends up being a housing crash, then just try to be more aggressive. If there is a housing crash, try to seek advice from BP and not your friends. When there is a housing crash and the numbers look really good, most of your friends will tell you it's the wrong time to buy a house.

I am trying to figure out the best way to handle an unapproved pet. I actually allow 2 dogs for a single family home rental (3 bed/2 bath). A total of 3 college students live at the house.

I have a $200 pet fee and $25/month of pet rent if the dog is 25-50 pounds. No dogs over 50 pounds and less than 2 years old. If the dog is less than 25 pounds, then no pet rent. One of the tenants has a dog and told me about it. He paid the $200 pet fee and also pays the $25/month pet rent because his dog is 37 pounds. Everything is great.

However, one of the other tenants asked if they could get a dog in September. I told him that I do allow 2 dogs for the rental and gave him my guidelines. I emailed him about a month later and asked him if he ended up getting a dog in October. He never replied.

I was at the house a couple days ago and noticed that he had a dog crate in his car. I asked the neighbors to look for a second dog. I'm sure it won't take long to bust him. However, I don't think I have anything in the lease that gives a specific penalty for not disclosing a pet.

If the dog is within my guidelines, I was thinking of charging him the $200 pet fee and maybe three months (Oct-Dec) of pet rent if the dog is 25-50 pounds. I would love to also charge him a penalty for not disclosing the pet, but I don't think I can do that because there isn't a specific penalty stated in the lease.

I think it becomes more complicated if the pet does not fall within the guidelines. What would be an appropriate penalty? I was thinking of charging him the $200 pet fee and still tell him that he has to get rid of the pet. I would just take it out of their deposit.

I am in Colorado for 2 weeks during the winter break and a little over 3 months during the summer break, so I manage myself and it's not a big deal.

I also manage myself in Florida, but I typically only there for one week in the winter and one week during the summer visiting family. In case of emergencies, I have family that lives about 30 minutes away from the rental. I pretty much do everything myself, but I could call my family if I had an emergency. I paid for property management for one year and it wasn't worth it.

I lived in both areas for at least 4 years. I wouldn't feel comfortable buying a rental, if I wasn't familiar with the area.

I'm originally from Illinois. For undergrad, I got in-state tuition in California after living there for one-year. It was pretty easy. I was also considering some Arizona schools at the time, but the state schools in Arizona required 2 years of residency before they would give you in-state tuition.

For Iowa, you had to have at least one-year of residency with 6 credits of school or less for the entire academic year to get in-state tuition. If you were a full-time student the entire time you lived in Iowa, you could never qualify for in-state tuition. You would have to drop-out or only take one class per semester for 1 full year.

All of the states and schools are very different. These are just 3 examples, in addition to my CSU example above.

The paperwork for in-state tuition for community college might be a little easier. If you get in-state tuition at the community college, it should automatically transfer to the state school. This was the case for me.

I went from 50K to 500K in networth in about 6 years, mostly with real estate appreciation. I would consider myself to be a part-time real estate investor with no desire to be full-time. If I hated my day job and need to get to 1 million net worth to quit my day job and do real estate full-time, I think it's possible to get there in 7 years.

For example, I moved to Florida during the housing bust and bought one house. If I was super motivated to leave the rat race, I would have probably bought 3 houses and hustled more during 2011-2013.

Every school is different. When I applied for in-state tuition at CSU, intent had nothing to do with it. All the grad students moved to CSU for grad school. However, if you follow their rules, you are pretty much guaranteed in-state tuition. That was my experience in 2007 at CSU.  

I have had a single family home rental in Fort Collins since 2007 and I have been very pleased. However, 2007 was a very slow market and there were lots of deals. I think the market is much different today.

The longer you hold onto the property, the more it would make sense. If you plan on selling after your kid graduates, it would be very difficult to make money.

I know that people who bought 3 years ago will probably make money because there has been massive appreciation over the last 3 years. However, I think it would be overly optimistic to expect the same massive appreciation for the next 3 years.