All Forum Posts by: Andrew Jones

I have property in Bakersfield. You most definitely should get the security deposits in closing as it will be your responsibility to give the tenants money back if they leave the place clean. On a side not in my experience tenants usually leave the place a mess and you keep a portion or all of the security deposit depending on damages.

Wow, what a great post. There are many positives to think about: you didn't loose money, you got tons or first hand experience instead of paying some guru, and know you know what to do in the future. The house looks great and you did the area a great service hopefully you get some appreciation over the next few year.  Good luck with your future deals.

Your friend's program sounds like a good one.  It generated leads and was on the cheap side.

Since you are still interested in RE, but not really another job look more into buy and hold investing and using a property management company.  Flipping, wholesaling, rehabbing, etc is a job.  The 50% rule is a good place to start with research.

Numbers look good, awesome job @Kalimah Jenkins.  Way to find a undervalued property and add value by raising rents. 

Rents are low for that price, but if the property is in a good area that will attract good tenants you may be able to make it work. 

As for seller financing there is no standard loan. 

Try and see what the seller wants.

Since you want to minimize cash in try and structure the terms to match that.  For example give them the price they want, but no/low down payment. 

I have only done one seller financed deal and not having to deal with an inflexible bank was really nice. My seller wanted more money upfront so I negotiated a lower price with a large down payment.

As others have mentioned Liability Insurance is the way to go. 

10k annually on 25k cash would be a return of 40% which may be obtainable on the rare deal, but shouldn't be used a rule or thumb or a general saying.  A more reasonable return of 12% would be better advice.  That would be saying every $25K cash, brings in $3K annually.    

If your not getting rejected 90%+ of the time on your offers then your either not making enough offers or their too high. 

All the self storage places around me have a full-time person working there.  How do you operate a self-storage place without someone at the counter?  A 24 unit facility can't generate enough cash to justify a full time employee.  Is there a computer terminal or something? How does the current operator handle new people coming in and leasing a unit?

I am going to be the contrarian and say I would pay off the debt. The way I look at it paying off the loan is guaranteeing yourself about a 4% return on the money (approx 0.75% for tax savings and the fact that loans end). Not the greatest, but with low interest rates and a sellers market, not the worst either. Plus I hate debt and $20k may not be much to get a new deal with right now. After you paid of the debt see if you can get a open line of credit or HELOC on the equity incase a deal does come up.