All Forum Posts by: Alecia Loveless

@Karen Braddy Get started however works best for you and once you have created a “nest egg” of cash figure out where you want to invest next.

I have been dealing with a relative who is a chef with 35 years of experience who’s restaurant closed and for the past year and a half has turned down job after job because he’s “Worth more than $14/hr” as was mentioned previously in a post. So now his home is going to foreclosure because he’s earned $0 in income instead of the $14 an hour.

Which is why the best time to start investing in real estate was yesterday and the next best time is now. If you can start earning a little bit here and there by this time next year you’ll have paid down some of your mortgage and have some cash to work with!

Also always remember if you buy a multi family and it is leased and occupied and rents are current some banks will count that income towards the income requirement needed to purchase the property not leaving all of it to fall to your personal income. Of course this works best if you have little debt.

@Gregory Mizzi Living in northern New Hampshire there are plenty of places around here that you can get “off grid” but still be close enough to civilization to get people to go clean your house and maintain your property between visitors.

I’d personally recommend buying a property close enough to a town with some stores, restaurants, and services so you will attract a wider variety of tourists to support your vacation rental.

My town has 2200 people and has 4 restaurants, a little store, two gas stations, some shops, 2 golf courses, a summer theater that has movies and sometimes live entertainment and plenty of backroads where you can buy 5-10 acre parcels you’d rarely see other people and could build a cabin and have solar.

Or about 10 minutes away is another town with no amenities that you can get from 2-30 acres of land, maybe more, that’s still close to services, a 10 minute drive to a different town with a full grocery store and many restaurants, a reservoir for boating and swimming, and all of these places are very close to a national forest.

After owning 2 bed and breakfasts for 24 years I think the key to draw a large market to your property is a wide variety of attractions and not just being set on one thing like being unplugged in the wilderness. Yes, there’s a call for some of being unplugged but I think people still want their amenities too.

@Denicia Alves I just got a huge discount on a property purchase where there was extensive dry rot. I’m in New England however so it’s a different market than California.

For me the cost of the lumber is going to be as expensive as the labor.

I’m a little surprised if you’re on the local neighborhood/town Facebook site you’re not getting lots of recommendations. I belong to several local community pages where I own property and everyone is very quick to give recommendations when someone asks for one. Just yesterday we got 30 people who replied with where to take your car to get it inspected!!

You should be able to contact the building inspector and ask what the repairs should look like to get some type of idea of what you are looking for. The building inspector might have the name of contractors or your realtor. If possible try to get at least 2 quotes from different contractors to see if they tell you the same type of work is needed.

Also you can always go to Lowe’s or Home Depot or the local hardware store to get the names of some good reliable contractors from the lumber desk. Explain to them briefly what you need done and see if they can refer you a few people.

@Wyatt King Depending on where you want to be in the smoky mountains you might be able to finance 2 STR with a bit in reserves with vacation home mortgages. Just being realistic because I've been looking at some homes in a few areas there. You can build up from there if all goes according to plan and expand as you accumulate cash flow or pay down your primary residence and travel etc.

From the stuff I was looking at, and of course build up your team and research this, the bigger, nicer houses that slept 10-14 people as opposed to the ones that slept 6-8 seemed to rent almost exponentially higher per week for what wouldn’t be that much more per month in the mortgage.

@Eric Lunsford My opinion is that you will need some type of income to qualify you for your loans. I have had some capital to work with for the past few years as down payments but without my job would not have been able to leverage it to get the mortgages.

My job is truly an ok job for my area and for the level of work required but I only make about $40,000 a year. With no debt I have been able to purchase several small multi families where the rental income based upon the leases has added to my income. I believe this varies from lender to lender if they will allow this right from the start.

Using the same local bank I have been able to continue using the income from the leases from the buildings I’m buying towards new buildings even though it has not yet appeared on my taxes as I have not owned it long enough yet. So far this bank has allowed me to do this with 3 buildings this year.

Small multi family properties will cash flow better than single family houses if you can go that route and it’s not too expensive. Or a duplex. If you enjoy what you’re doing can you borrow against your stock options or find a similar job? Best of luck!

@Rueben Pacheco I believe it’s a personal decision but I’ve always kept separate accounts for separate properties and separate businesses. I like being able to quickly go into my online banking and access my “3-Plex” and see that I have $18,127.94 as a balance and when the electronic deposits were made and what day the mowing service check cleared and then flipping over to the mortgage account and transferring the payment due 10 days early and seeing it clear the next day.

As opposed to having to wait and figure out if the mortgage check cleared one day before it’s due from a big account with $60,000 in it from all my properties and 5 mortgage payments going out the same day and 30 checks clearing every day which I feel is more complicated than separate accounts.

@Jacob Claxton I have used Lowe’s for various things with no problem. However on some window installs I did in an old house once their contractors did not remove the hundred year old double hung weights or insulate the space where those weights were so in the bitter cold of New Hampshire winter the new insulation value of the windows only helped so much because cold air was still leaking in from the spaces left between the walls.

My advice is be very specific if you have special instructions regarding your flooring/installs for whatever you have box stores do as their contractors want to move on to the next job as quickly as possible.

@Oliver Santiago I bought a 4-plex in February with a 20 year tenant in it. He has lived in several units since moving in. Originally his rent for a 1 bedroom was $450 for an upstairs unit. About 6 years ago he moved into a renovated 2 bedroom first floor unit as he is now 77 and a little shaky. (I called him one morning and he had fallen and I had to call 911).

2 months prior to listing the building the owners made the existing rents current, and now this gentleman pays $775, the 6 year tenant pays $750 for a 1 bedroom, where previously he was paying $550.

The other two tenants are new and pay fair market rent.

It is possible to let long term existing tenants know what current rents are and weigh their options on the new rate versus moving. My building is extremely nice compared to others and is convenient to the locations in the village it is located in which for the long term tenants was necessary as the older gentleman walks and the other one cycles.

If anyone moves I will likely upgrade to stainless steel appliances, call it a day assuming no damage, and raise rents closer to the $850, $825 range.

I’d try to raise their rent by $100 this year, let them know the market rate is higher, not do renovations, and if they stay raise it another $100 the third year. Unless the market takes a huge leap in rental prices you save the reno cost, avoid any turnover cost, keep excellent tenants and get the fully paying tenants on the other side.

@Neel P. While it can go either way I just negotiated $100,000 off a $300,000 as is house because the repairs needed were so significant and the seller truly was unaware of them until my inspection disclosed them. So you never know until you ask.

But if it’s a bunch of small stuff they may say no.

@Mindy Jensen Booked in and so excited! Convinced my spouse to come and participate and she wanted to attend mostly different conferences than me so we’ll get twice as much knowledge! Woot!! Staying at the Sheraton.