All Forum Posts by: Alecia Loveless

While I know its not housing, there's a shortage of self storage in my area. I've found a potentially great piece of land and was wondering if anyone is doing this, and if so, pointers and companies to buy buildings from. Thanks!

@Austin Shulman While it’s not the best paying job or the most glamorous I work as a Direct Support Professional or a Residential Counselor on the overnight shift at a group home facility. I know it’s not the best job for connecting with other people but it provides a stable salary that with time will allow you to get mortgages and most full time positions come with full benefits including insurances and some type of retirement account with many employers offering a matching benefit.

I work 4 days a week and on one of those days I do a double shift. There’s almost always overtime at time and a half.

Then I can stay up when I get home and scour the MLS or tend to my real estate or go to sleep immediately and have the second part of my day for my real estate or other things. Plus the three days off are great for scheduling inspections, showings, walk throughs, bank appointments, etc. On your days off you could be a part time agent or focus on driving for dollars or just about anything.

The only catch is that you have to be able to stay awake overnight unless you find a sleeping position which also exists.

Just a thought.

@Angelina Ng On the threads here many people say the Midwest still has lots of opportunities for good returns and strong cash flow and I believe some towns are Cleveland and Columbus,OH.

Personally, I have been doing fairly well investing in my own back yard, New England, while I am building my portfolio and learning the ropes. I do my own property management and have bought “nice” property that doesn’t require a lot of “headache” maintenance such as leaky toilets or dripping faucets that I get calls for in the middle of the night.

I am buying a building that is going to require some structural repairs to be done fairly quickly which will be interesting but it is all part of learning the business and I absolutely love it so far. If I was earning enough money from my real estate already I would quit my W-2 job and just do real estate.

@Auryana Faramarzi All good advice. I’m a bit biased because I grew up in the region but Denton is hopping and growing exponentially. It is a two university town with a great arts and music district. Plenty of excellent schools and many superb neighborhoods.

I have a family member who has 17 rental units in Denton that is purchasing more. This person is seeing a solid stream of tenants, great appreciation, and a good resale market right now as they are making improvements and increasing their portfolio.

Just my thoughts. I’m sure there’s many great opportunities.

@Jeremy Torres While you always want to get the biggest cash flow possible sometimes you have to be creative or buy for reasons other than monthly cash flow. While I like to try to get at least $250 per unit it’s not always possible in my market.

I bought one that cash flows less, around $125 per unit but it’s the nicest building I’ve ever seen in my geographic area, will have very little maintenance, and given its location and great condition will have low turnover. In fact one tenant has been there 6 years and one tenant 20 years.

A SFH I bought was going to cash flow about $300 but we realized it would flip to the tune of a $100,000 profit. So I'm flipping it.

So it just depends on the property you find and the deal you are able to put together for it. I’m not always able to put everything together in a neat little box of $250 per unit cash flow per unit. My opinion is always think outside the box to get the best profit for your needs.

@Kristine Norris I think some of the answer boils down to taking a good hard look at yourself and your expectations and your goals for the future.

How much time do you have to devote to management? Do you want to own 2 units or 50 units? Are you organized? Are you a people person? How do you handle conflict? Do you handle conflict well? Do you have a team in place? Are you willing to put a team in place?

Is earning an extra 10% worth spending a little more of your time on your real estate each month?

Bigger Pockets has great books on property management and rentals in general. If you get your forms organized and your team in place this significantly reduces the actual amount of time you have to spend on your properties each month.

I currently have 3 properties with 7 doors, soon to be 4 properties with 10 doors. (Maybe 5 for 12). Right now I spend about an hour each month on banking, for the past 4 months I’ve spent about 3 hours apiece on a flipper that’s almost done, and now that it’s summer and the grass is growing I’ll have about 4 hours a month of landscaping for 2 properties. The 3rd one I pay the snow removal and my neighbor mows the lawn, we share the driveway. So a total of 7 hours a month.

So without property management I make $1850 a month cash flow for 7 hours of time but my flip will go on the market in 2 weeks and profit $80,000 for a holding period of 1 year after all costs.

I don’t have a lot of maintenance calls because I do full rehabs on my buildings at initial turnover

But occasionally there’s something that I deal with. However my time is less expensive than a PM.

@Chris Barnes I’ve always renovated when my units have been empty. However, I’m currently purchasing a Tri-plex that has 2 tenants and Is in need of some upgrades and repairs. Some work has to be done quickly and some can wait a while.

I’m planning on raising rents as the two leases renew and while doing the construction work I have considered giving a nominal discount of maybe $200 off each month we are working, for at least one of the units that I believe the work will take the most significant amount of time to complete, even though it is in the basement that they do not use.

I believe both tenants are good tenants as the current owner is from out of state and has had no problems with them. They have also been quite helpful with the inspection process. The units are mostly clean and neat and I don’t see any red flags yet.

The third unit is under construction and not in play at the moment.

@Antony Munoz For 22 years I owned and lived in bed and breakfasts so in effect was house hacking. I then bought a duplex seeing the upside of having a tenant to pay my bills. I’ve since sold the B&Bs but still live in the duplex and have expanded my portfolio by 8, soon to be 10 doors. I hope to continue expanding with more properties as time goes by. But I highly recommend house hacking!

@Thomas Bailey The first property I bought was a SFH which has turned into a flip due to price increases. Then I bought a 4-unit. With mortgage rates considerably lower for owner occupied that's what I'd do. The rate I just locked in for non-owner occupied was 3.675. Still not bad but you can still get 3% or perhaps lower if you live there.

Now I’ve got a duplex, a 4-plex, and soon the new 3-plex. Also working on another duplex.

In my area SFH doesn't work out. The cheapest you can find one needing major repairs is $170,000 and the rent is about $1,400 so you don't come close to breaking even. In my opinion multi-family is the way to go unless you're in a market where you can pick up homes for under $100,000 and rent them out for a lot and make your numbers work.

@Davis Stoner I am looking into the company TrueSubmeter for my water usage. Might be good for you when you switch to town water. It looks fairly simple.