All Forum Posts by: Amy Fulbright

Rentcafe.com allows you to put in a city and state, and then click on "Rent Trends" in the top banner, and tells you how much rental rates have changed on average, year-over-year (along with other information). It doesn't mean that your rental should be adjusted exactly that amount, but it's informative.

The Triangle Real Estate Investors Association (TREIA) has a monthly subgroup meeting for southern Wake County also. It might be worth visiting the TREIA website to see if their topics are of additional interest. Just a thought. (I just moved to TX from the Raleigh-Durham area.)

@Todd LaPierre, @Daniel Flores, @Wylea Griggs, @Jim Workman: I heard Scott Carson speak two years ago, and got on his mailing list. The part of his spiel that I'm most interested in, is actually the "how to set everything up in 30 days" / "daily email with to-do list to actually get you started". 

I'm not interested in sending Scott Carson any of my money (he's currently offering stuff for the discounted price of $800). I'm looking to develop the systems to invest in notes--not necessarily be on the Junior end of a Joint Venture.

Do any of you have recommendations for how to get started in Note Investing? (i.e. the concrete steps) I'm really just interested in the content (and the scripts), not the whole JV thing.

Other activities could potentially include traditional camping, glamping, non-traditional camping (i.e. allowing campers to camp with dogs off-leash), allowing dog clubs to meet on the property for competitions for a fee, hunting, building a tiny house community, build a solar or wind farm, drive-in movie theater, paintball course, etc.

Depending on the landscape, someone might be interested in leasing the land for raising livestock, doing a livestock show, performing environmental research for state/federal grants, etc. You might also be able to connect with a company like PODS that simply needs lots of vacant land for storage (I've never heard of anyone necessarily doing this, but figure it can't hurt to ask). I don't know if Rest Stops are profitable or not, but if your land is on a highway, then that's another idea.

I've also seen folks put up drive-thru light displays around the holidays, but there's no reason you couldn't do something for each "holiday". You could do an adult beer hunt instead of an easter egg hunt (everyone brings a 6-pack and $10, one group hides another groups beers, then everyone takes their empty 6-pack container to "hunt" for their favorite 6 beers). In that scenario, you could make money selling the 6-packs of beer, AND the $10 entry fee. You could possibly do something Irish/beer-related for St Patrick's Day, sell/shoot fireworks around New Years, etc., host an Oktoberfest party in September...

@Dennis M. My first rental, the numbers aren't great, but that's because I didn't fully understand the numbers to be looking for. Now that I DO know the numbers to be looking for, I'm finding deals, but I don't have the necessary down payment. 

@Bjorn Ahlblad I figured that since I'm saving up for the down payment anyway (about 1 more year to go, 2 tops), I might as well start brainstorming for contingencies. I'd be happy to buy a move-in ready place, but I'd still need a down payment--something the BRRRR strategy accounts for via a Hard Money Loan.

What would exceed my expectations? 

(a) Knowing multiple contractors for bringing a home up to market ready (so I could get multiple bids on a single project), or 

(b) After knowing my price range, knowing the rent rates for the neighborhoods of those properties to create a short list of props to consider

(c) Being willing to share MLS access in exchange for them being my Buyer's agent

(d) Consistent follow-up, even if it's just to say that they haven't heard anything and they've reached back out to whomever

(e) Knowing local lenders who will offer mortgages on Properties #5-10 

I realized recently that what's really holding me back from diving into REI with both feet is that I don't have a solid set of exit strategies for if/when things go wrong. Not only that, I'm not sure that I'm AWARE of what can go wrong. Can you help me create a list of general categories of things that can go wrong?

Here's what I've got so far  

- I hire a bad General Contractor/handyman/contractor to do the repairs
- Rehab goes over budget (and I don't catch it until after the budgeted funds have been spent, house isn't finished)
- Rehab goes over budget (and I catch that it's going to happen, before the budget is totally busted)
- Rehab goes over budget (and I don't catch it until after the budgeted funds have been spent, house IS market-ready though)
- Reappraisal comes in low after rehab/Can't refinance
- Can't sell for enough to break even
- Can't rent for enough to cover monthly loan payment

My eventual goal is to get a list of the top 5-10 things that commonly go wrong, and then find ways to PREVENT the them. 

Based on a couple of the Bigger Pockets webinars I've attended, those numbers look good. So if those numbers are true/good numbers, then yes, that's the kind of deal I'd move forward with. I did notice a couple of things: those numbers appear to assume that the property is move-in ready, no obvious repairs are on the horizon, and that you already have a tenant and a property management company in place. Is that the scenario you find yourself in?

The answer depends on the price point (and/or number of properties) you're looking for. 

Also, between good, quick, and cheap, which two are you most interested in?

I have a couple of thoughts on this: the easy option is to just take a photo of them on your phone, and then add the photo to an album specifically for REI receipts. If you're just wanting to categorize your expenses with the saved photos of your receipts, and you don't use TurboTax, then a free app like Stessa (for iPhone) or the TimelyBills App (for Android) might make more sense.  

I would also argue it matters how many properties you have, and how complicated your financial situation is. Quickbooks is owned by the same company as TurboTax, so that's something else to include in the decision-making process also--again, depending on how complex your scenario is.