All Forum Posts by: Anna Watkins

According to your numbers the difference in payments is $175. If you take the 30-year mortgage, and always pay $175 extra to principal, you'll end up about the same plus have options.  Don't forget that for the first several months the smart landlord socks away ALL the cash flow in reserves, for repairs, mortgage payments during vacancy, escrow hikes, etc etc.  Then you can start throwing money at the principal, saving for the next down payment, or planning the Hawaii trip.

Check out BPer Paula Pant's Afford Anything blog.  She has lots of information about her experiences renting a midtown (Monroe & 10th St) apartment on AirBnB.  Plenty of action there!

Folks, I've got to give regrets for lunch tomorrow.  A change of schedule (to accommodate The Boy's championship bball game) means I just can't take lunch away from work.  Don't do any awesome deals without me (or maybe, do awesome deals and tell me all about them later!).

IMHO -- if it's truly in East Atlanta (as in EAV at Flat Shoals & Glenwood) and in a condition you can stand to live in yourself, go for it.  The other side will pay the mortgage, so every month save what you would have paid otherwise in rent, and you'll have a great nest egg for renovation, or for your next investment.  Congratulations -- a duplex at that price in that area sounds pretty good.

It's in my calendar -- now it just depends on what's happening next Tuesday. The first meetup was fun, so I am looking forward to it!

@Rick Baggenstoss - Dang, that house is even better with no dust on the floor and some stylin' furniture :-)  Congrats on the super speedy sale! (even without the turquoise pillows, which I do agree with @Michaela G. about)

@Lynn Angus - How's Rose Circle coming along?

@Emily Allen -- post a link to your Craigslist ad.  There are many Intown Atlanta landlords who can give really good advice on how to reach the right tenants, if they know exactly what and where your rental is.  "Safe" is relative, and different to different people.

Good luck!

I felt the same way when I read it -- kind of like going to DisneyWorld for the first time at 19 -- I was already past what it offered.  Now if I could get my teenagers to read RDPD (like Dawn's husband!), it might be worth something.  As someone mentioned above, it's a "mindset changer" more than any kind of "how to" book. 

@al 

@Al Philips  -- BP blog article on estimating rental property expenses - 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/12/02/rental-property-expenses/

@al 

@Al Philips   -- as everyone has said above, both deals as described aren't any good for you.   A couple of replies have alluded to all the expenses to take into account before you figure your "cash flow"  -- as a beginner I think you've left these out of your numbers.  The mortgage payment (principal, interest, taxes, insurance) is only part of it.  You also need to figure in (as in pay or set aside) certain percentages for occasional repairs, big expenses down the road, property management (just in case you get tired of landlording someday), and vacancy (what happens when a tenant leaves and you don't get another one right away?  Mortgage is still due!).  

So a property renting at $1500 with a mortgage payment of $1200 (including tax & insurance escrow) doesn't actually have a "cash flow" of $300.  After you take out $150 for your maintenance set-aside and $150 for vacancy (10% each), you're already at $0 cashflow, even before you count in anything else.

Also, the offer prices vs. the list prices you mention are way too high!  Figure out how much you can pay that will fit this formula -- $Rent - $desired cashflow => mortgage + all expenses.  And then offer less.  If you get a counter offer, you have room to go up, but don't go over the maximum, or you'll be paying out of your pocket instead of with OPM (other people's money; the bank's and the tenant's!!)

Good luck!