All Forum Posts by: Bryce Y.

Hey guys,

I need some help choosing the exterior paint colors for this house. I plan to paint the front door and shutters the same color. I'm not sure if I should use the same color for the soffit/facia/siding.

It may be hard to tell from the pics, but the color of the brick is white/yellow. Not very nice, but will probably look better after power washing. There are sections of siding/soffit where the wood is rotting and needs to be replaced. I plan to use a high gloss paint on everything. Aside from power washing and sanding thoroughly, is there any more prep work I should have my painter do?

This will be a rental. Thanks in advance!

To each his own, but what I am getting at is these are things that are perfectly achievable with a normal tenant in place.

I don't really see what's in it for you. If he was paying above market rent or paying a big amount up front it would make more sense. Paying 3 months up front is not a big deal (how many properly screened tenants stop paying within the first 3 months?) and signing a 3 year lease could be good or bad if rents go up.

Also the fact that he is self employed means it will be difficult for him to get a bank loan...

I hired a bilingual stay at home mom off craigslist. I pay her $2 per phone call and she pre-screens them for income, criminal, eviction, as well as answers all their questions. If they pass the initial screening, I have her set up an appointment. She enters appointment/applicant info in a google docs spreadsheet which I can access anytime.

So far it's worked out great and saved me a lot of time and aggravation dealing with the deadbeats.

For those who use the deposit only cards, does it let you refuse partial payments? What about automatically calculating in late fees?

I can see a savvy tenant taking advantage of the loopholes...

I totally agree. I have had it with money orders. Already had one case where it got lost in the mail, and possibly another this month. Caused a huge headache on both sides; I kept asking where the rent was, tenant kept saying they mailed it in a week ago. They sent me a copy of the money order receipt and I called the number to verify that it was indeed real and was not cashed, so I decided to waive the late fees. It took them over a month to get their money back, plus a $20 charge for the refund.

Interesting. So is it safe to conclude that labor prices are actually similar to Atlanta? I have a couple questions if you don't mind:

1. When using someone for the first time, how closely do you monitor them? Do you visit the job site daily?

2. I'm curious about your decision to replace the toilets. I know you mentioned you always replace them in flips, which I can understand, but I'm not so sure renters will really appreciate a new toilet as much. Of course I am assuming there is nothing wrong with the current toilets.

3. How soon before you start marketing your property? Will you use an agent? CL?

Thanks!

So the basic idea is to buy at retail prices, leverage 95%, and make the bulk of your return on principal paydown? I'm not bashing you or your company as I have never heard of it before this thread, but this does not sound like a good business strategy. Being so highly leveraged makes you extremely exposed to market fluctuations and with virtually no cash flow to lean on, it seems more like gambling than investing.

Also your expense assumptions are flawed. Being new construction, I can buy the 3% expenses for the first few years, but according to you, "This would be a really low assumption for an older unit, but within the range of possibility for a brand new property with a 10 year builder warranty backed by a third party insurance company (Strucsure)." So what happens after year 10? Surely expenses will go up dramatically (on average). Are you accounting for this in your model?

I noticed your paint costs went up $500. What changed? Also for your 'other' line where you have smoke detectors, mini blinds, etc., how do you determine a price for the labor? I would think a set hourly rate would be best...

No, but everything's for sale at the right price :)

As for what's next, I'm not really sure. I'm focusing on SFH's at the moment to take advantage of the low rates, but after that I'd like to get into other more active aspects of REI. The "problem" I'm finding with buy and hold investing is that it sucks up a lot of capital and (if done right) still leaves you with a lot of time at the end of the day. That's great for those who have lots of obligations, but being young and single I still have a lot of time and energy!