All Forum Posts by: Callum K.

Hot Pressure washer will certainly take that up. You can rent it, but for the size of the effort it might just be cheaper to pay someone to do it for you. You can search for pressure washing companies online, there are many.

@Robert Steele and @Elizabeth S. I too am in the same boat as Elizabeth. I have such low mortgage rates on my properties that I cringe in considering converting my cash into equity but I am in search of minimizing my burden vs. maximizing my income. Until I am convinced otherwise I am leaning toward continuing to allocate extra cash toward buying more houses until the rates go up another point or two... Would love to hear your thoughts

I spent a day calling all the title companies I could find to educate and compare costs. I found that the title companies that don't typically work with realtors offer cheaper rates and have been much more ethical in their dealings. I by no means can speak for different locations, but this is what i have found in Oklahoma

I managed to hit that target by purchasing houses from distressed borrowers and my target properties were $100+ homes netting $800-$1100/mo. I have been an advocate of moving into a home for a year and then converting it to a rental which has allowed me to leverage the homes. Not a typical approach, but in my view, certainly a feasible approach by anyone. I wanted to have lower maintenance houses because I have a full time job as well. My first 4 houses got me to the $3k/mo, now I am in the process of supplementing those stable investments with lower quality rentals that offer higher yield. Once I do that as well as pick up a couple more larger SFR's my income should be replaced and I plan to quit my current job. Hope this gives a little different perspective on different strategies...

ANISH TOLIA are you able to find $50k homes in the SF bay area? I would expect a $50k home out there would be a total war zone.

With 12 homes at $50k in San Francisco, I could only imagine the costs associated with overseeing those. Wouldn't your expenses will go through the roof on repair and upkeep? Also, I believe that running 12 $50k homes are not linearly 12 times more work than running 1 $600k home. I think it would be much more involved. Many posts I see do not seem to account for investor time and your time is money.

With respect to the Taxi analogy, I would think it depends. If I found there to be nobody renting BMW's and there is a demand for them, then absolutely I would buy them. Also, the Germans use use Mercedes as one of the primary choices for Taxi's probably because they are able to purchase them at better rates given that Mercedes are domestic vehicles. To me, it all depends on the level you buy the home at with respect to its market, but also know who your target client might be. Just because there is higher demand for low SFR's doesn't mean there is no demand for high end SFR's. In my area, the supply side for lower end homes is much more saturated than higher end properties which makes it easier for me to find tenants.

No, but you might be able to get a hard money lender to front the 0%-20%

Home Depot for me. I quickly realized that Lowes fails on multiple fronts

For instance, the free samples of hardwood at home depot cost $0.25 each at lowes.

They gave me the wrong paint and I had to prove to them that it was their mistake. Once I did, they gave me replacement paint on the cheap, but it was a pain. I also bought a worklight that failed 4 times before I finally got one that did work.

Rob K, I stole your comment from another thread about naming it "Blowes" and it has spread like wildfire throughout my network. Thanks for the priceless comment!

I have changed a few plates, but have found that cleaning them is relatively easy as well. I have run several through the dishwasher and have had no problem, but then again these are so cheap its really six of one half dozen of the other...

I am seeing about a 10% increase in my area as well. I am trying to lock in with all my renters because at this level I am producing fantastic returns and the downside risk outweighs the upside potential loss

Most lenders I have spoken with only require 20% down payment (unless regulations have changed recently). It does not help the objective but it might shorten your savings period. I would check with multiple lenders to see what is required by each.

With respect to an FHA loan, although the 3.5% is enticing, I bought my first home as an FHA back in 2008 and since then they have increased the PMI to almost double, they have added significant fees to closing, and now you must keep PMI for the life of the loan rather than it being removed after you reach the 20% equity. To me, I think FHA is not worth it right now, so I would look deeper into other options, but thats just my opinion.