All Forum Posts by: Alecia Loveless

@Melanie Browning If you meet people or know people let them know what you’re looking for. Word of mouth sometimes is a huge factor. Sometimes it can be your next door neighbor or your hairdresser or the mailman is a great resource. Accountants are too.

I've finally, after 23 years of working with my realtor, gotten into his "pocket" listings. So if he gets a listing he thinks I'll want he tells me about it while he's working on the seller or working on the listing and as soon as he gets the keys he takes me to see it. Sometimes weeks before it goes on the MLS which allows me to make the first offer. This does mean I have to be willing to pay a premium price but if the numbers work, they work! And on my last property I offered full price and then a problem came up and now I've gotten $100,000 off and am getting bonus work thrown in too like a new hot water heater!

Best of luck, you’re going to do great!

@Willy A German 5-6 years ago my now Ex was a real estate agent and the mortgage broker she worked with knew about all sorts of mortgages that the banks did not and would get her clients into loans despite bad credit or debt or whatever. I’m not sure what types of fees the broker charged however. I believe this one got paid a set fee from the lender of the product he sold as opposed to being paid by the buyer.

Personally, I make a fairly low base salary, around $35,000 but own my house outright and have a little cash to use for down payments. I went to my local bank that I’ve been with for 22 years and applied for a mortgage with them in January and it was simple and easy and I got approved.

I’m now back with them again applying for a second mortgage at a slightly higher rate as rates are going up and once again they’ve been helpful and it’s been simple. I’m still waiting on a few documents that have changed on this one for further approval.

This bank services their loans and does not sell them off which I like. That is one of the reasons I didn’t shop around further.

@Tony Hershiser Congratulations in you real estate venture! The key to successful MF investments seems to be in good screening of your tenants. That is my advice to you. Once you master that I believe it becomes easier. If the tenants are basically good human beings and want to get along and have a nice place to live they tend to get along better in a multi family environment. I’m new at this and having good luck so far but I think the longer you own real estate the better you get at it! Just my thoughts.

@John Bradley If you go the MF route which is what I have chosen to do for now while I am building my portfolio I would try to see several MF properties in the area you are interested in. This should give you some idea of what type of renovations you want to make that will not over renovate your property. You can even keep looking at properties after you buy your own if you want to stay current or go look at some that are for rent.

I completely renovated one side of my duplex, the one I rent out including down to the studs and the floor joists in the bathroom because it was rotted out, 4 rooms of laminate plank flooring and all new appliances and new countertops, laminate because that is standard in my area. New lighting, new electrical, new plumbing and a new separate hot water heater for that unit. Total cost $25,000. The unit is a 3bd/1ba.

On my side I’ve added a dishwasher and done some painting. There’s some wall patching to go and a little more painting. Total cost when I finish $1200.

So how much you actually need to spend for renovations may vary depending on the unit and tastes and preferences.

The rent from my tenant is below market value because he moved with me from a previous property, never needs anything, is quiet, and wasn’t going to bother us on the other side of the building. Yet his rent pays the taxes, water and sewer and our cable and electric and mortgage. I highly recommend the MF for that reason.

@Evan Yale you can also look for owner financing for a few years with a balloon payment after 36 or 60 months when you will refinance it with a real lender at that point. With even $20,-30,000 down if an owner is able to do this they might be interested in monthly payments for a while or even for the whole term of the mortgage.

@Bernardino Graziano I bought an inexpensive SFH last May to do some repairs to then rent long term. Due to issues with another property my contractor was tied up with we didn't start work on the new house until November. By December my realtor and I both had an epiphany that it was going to take me close to 25 years to make as much money renting the house as it would to upgrade the renovations and flip it.

I’m just about ready to list it and once all the bills are paid I will make a profit of over twice my salary last year and about 40 years worth of rental payments. Obviously I’m not accounting for depreciation and other write offs.

I'm not planning on doing a 1031 because I've got an extremely cheap property in mind that will need a total rehab and will use all of the money but will then cash flow ridiculously or I'll refinance it or take a line of credit perhaps or a HELOC.

In the meantime I’ll have bought 7 units and hope to secure the last 2 in the next month in the last 4 months.

@Matt Lyons This is a great post.

I am currently making up for lost time regarding financial planning and see REI as my way to FI and security in retirement. I'm still a beginner but will soon have 8 doors and if everything goes well with an estimate I'm waiting on for another property I'll have it under contract soon too.

I’ve got some renovations coming up but I’m excited to get going and fix the issues and turn my newest property into a top notch rental.

My parents and my partner aren’t on the same page as I am regarding the extra hours I’m putting in right now but I want to have the nicest properties in my area and a waiting list of tenants. This is why I work extra hours at my W-2 job and my side hustles and only have the best people working for me.

Thank you for the uplifting post and for reinforcing my reasoning for doing what I’m doing.

@Bobby Coomer I’m in Northern New Hampshire and many homes have that here including the building I’m about to buy.

@Ben Darby everyone tells me the best time to enter the market was yesterday. So why wait any longer? I’ve been waiting on my current property for months because my realtor has known it was coming. It’s had some issues but I am pretty sure we’re working through them.

When I drive through my little town and look at the houses I think 3 years ago I could have had that one for $48,000 or this one for $69,000 etc. so now I don’t wait any longer.

I do make sure that if I buy something and the value drops because the market falls that rents will still cover my mortgage and that way I know I’ll still be making money.

SA, TX is for sure an expanding market. If you can find something in the price range you mentioned and run it through the bigger pockets calculators and make the returns you want then I say go for it!

@Kraig Krueger I’ve been getting opinions that my furnaces need to be replaced but they’ve been running fine and I continue to maintain them. My plan is to try to let them go a while longer or at least until I start having some difficulty with them and then replacing them once I’ve saved up some money to do so with.

My property is likely in a similar climate as yours and we see that a window unit usually does well enough to cool down most units. Our tenants provide their own window units but if they request I’ll have my maintenance man install them.

One thing we’ve really found that makes a huge difference to our tenants who pay their own heat or for us if we pay the heat is to spray foam insulate the basement which is something you might consider. Sometimes the attic too. It makes the building more comfortable and cuts down significantly on heating costs during cool and cold months and I’m sure keeps it better insulated during hot months too.