All Forum Posts by: Becca Summers

@Vinoth Amar I think a lot of your questions have been answered but I wanted to add a few things.

Rent rates are higher in Salt Lake County than Utah County.

Orem/ Provo are great areas but they are running out of land to build. I had a meeting with the Orem city planner and he said that all of their growth is from going up as they have very little land left to develop. Where Lehi still has a ton of land left. 

Eagle Mountain (city centers) I think is going to be a nice hot spot in the next few years. Facebook has purchased land to build a data center there. As part of this, they are building millions of dollars of infrastructure to support the area out there.

@Allan Anderton you could by a 4 plex with Mountain America's 10% down investor loan.  The interest rate is higher but if the numbers work it's awesome. No mortgage insurance either. 

I want to give you a different opinion. I personally love investing in single family. My reasons: I find them easier to manage. My cash flow is great per door. There are no tenant to tenant issues and my favorite the appreciation and exit strategies are endless. 

If you get in and find you hate real estate investing it's easier to get out. Selling to a retail buyer, flipper, investor or flip it yourself after your renter trashes it. Selling a multi-family is not to hard as a duplex honesty in Utah so many duplexes sell almost if they are a retail purchase because many "investors" buy them where they move in. They are looking for the second unit of offsetting their mortgage not necessarily cash flow if both units are rented which is a problem I see over and over when they come up for sale. 

The biggest downfalls of single family investing. You can only have 10 with normal loans, You have 10 roofs, ten HVAC ect. Also mentioned above having a renter moves it's 100% vacant. Single-family vacancy in Utah is under 3% and every time I have a unit come up I have a great pool of applicants. Anytime it's vacant for me is lack of planning on my part not being able to find a good renter. 

If you have a small cash reserve single family is a good way to get your toes wet. 

@Sherwin Gonzales I am seeing a lot of cash investors coming to Utah from Texas, Florida, and California. I think the reason is our economy is awesome unemployment is less than 3% job market is crazy. Facebook just announced they are building a data center just 30 minutes south of Salt Lake which is bringing in infrastructure in the area. 

Housing is being pushed up though, The price put down for our average is probably all housing combined. The single-family inventory is closer to $340,000 in Salt lake and $330,000 in Utah County. 

If you ever know someone wanting to invest in Utah County or Salt Lake County I'm happy to help as an investor myself. 

@Casey Christensen the answer is both of you need a title company. You can use the same one or choose different ones. There really isn't a price break. That is something about Utah that is different that we can have what is called split closings. It makes funding a bit more work if you both have different companies. Depending on how you worked out the closing costs and who pays might make a difference to what you want to do as well. 

What are you doing with your equity? Are you wanting to invest it somewhere else? You'll need to let the title company know about wanting to do a 1031 and also get an intermediary some title companies have them. 

Fun fact about my training class at Keller Williams. I started with 10 agents and of the 10 all but 0ne are still Realtors 5 years later. I think the failed rate is based on two things. Lack of training and people not realizing what your getting into when you start real estate. So many start thinking it's easy or flexiable. It can be but is also very demanding. You definitely get out of it what you put into it.

Nate, I personally invest in SFR because I like the rent rates, value add, multiple exit stratigies and renter pool. My rentals are B and C class and I prefer the B but the C makes good cash flow. I manage my own properties so I have no reference on property managers. I think the multifamily 2 and 3 units are over priced because so many Utah "investors" buy them and live in them to help off set the mortgage and don't buy them to cash flow so they pay more than a traditional investor. There aren't many small multi family in Lehi at the moment. There are a few corporate run townhouse style complexes right by adobe that have been built to fill that void and they get great rent rates for what they have to offer.

@Nate Waters great questions I can tell you've really done your research.

What should an out-of-state investor know before jumping into investing in Utah: We are cheap but lack of supply has pushed rent rates up so the rental market pricing is not inflated. There are a lot of luxury style apartments being built in the area to help with the demand and I think once they are all done there rent prices will drop which will affect the B class rental prices. Something that a California person wouldn't find "getto" a local wouldn't live in. When I work with buyers I always ask where a buyer if from when they are giving me their wants and need because my local born and raised buyers think the "getto" is really just areas that a home owners can't afford to upkeep their homes, they are still considered safe but scare the local buyers away. Where buyers from out of state know what a real getto is. With that said I would say there are only a few areas in Salt lake that are heavy in crime which I would avoid. 

Provo has it's benefits as the pricing is lower that SLC but the rent rates are also lower than Salt lake. Lehi  and American Fork are great areas as they are close to Salt Lake but cheaper than Salt Lake. If you can afford anything on the East side of I-15 in Salt Lake that area has more demand but a lot of renters are having to go to the west side to get the right rental vs purchase price rates.  

I hope that helps.

Mountain America just got audited on the 10% down investor loan and they can't do them right now as of three weeks ago.  They are working on getting it back but for now the bank can only do 20% down loans. 

I did one of these loans back in April my rate was higher than market but the lower down payment was great and it cash flows well because it was bought under value. I'm sad to see it go. I hope they can get it back.

@Brittney Stewart are you planning on getting your license when you move to Utah? The reason I ask is Salt Lake doesn't allow daily rentals it must be 30 day lease. However it's not policed so if your neighbor complains you're out on your rental. The only city that currently allows it in Utah is Park City. So if you get your real estate license in Utah you'll be held to a higher standard than regular owners because "you should know better."

A potential great investment would be buying in Salt Lake City (not the east side or avenues) the city is working on a bill to allow detached apartments to single family homes on owner occupied homes.  If this passes you can go in and add the apartment as a great value add. There are some areas that are a little scary I'd avoid but it's a great opportunity. 

I realize this post is almost a month old so you might already be here and have a plan but if you have any questions I'd be happy to help.

Good attention grabbing title. Your right our market isn't cheap but it's also not as bad as other places. I love investing in my back yard. Your right there are a lot of "investors" here in Utah. I think many have no idea what they are doing. What are your goals?