All Forum Posts by: Charles Osugo

@Chris B.

The ATM fee refund is a great feature, I don't travel internationally much though. Thank you for sharing Mr. B

@Luke Wong

Appreciating rent over the years, good comps, bedroom and bathroom counts in each unit (you could possibly have a room mate in the unit you reside in for additional cashflow) proximity to public transportation (this might be less attractive due to Covid-19 though) cosmetic problems are good because that can lower sell prices while still being easy fixes and hardwood floors to reduce cleaning expenditures.

Sorry this list isn't exhaustive, there's definitely more factors to look at.

@Cody Smith

A 3rd option would be finding another investor to partner with, this could help you avoid having too little of reserves like you described with option 2.

I'm not sure what your interest rates are but if they are low enough (under 6% if you're in your 20s, 5% if you're in your 30s...) then investing would be advantageous.

Reserves is important to have in these tumultuous times, maybe a few meatless meals each week can help you build up more savings along with a high interest rate savings account.

Do you use robinhood for brokerage accounts?

So far the best rate I've seen for saving accounts is from Varo bank, they give 2.48% if you jump relatively simple hoops (5 debit transactions/month, 300 a month in direct deposits). 

Do any of you know a higher APY savings account? 

I am not investing yet, Once I finish this semester of college I plan to start taking action. Gerhardt Mahling has a team in MN that could be beneficial to you. Here is is website https://gerhardtmahling.exprealty.com/. I'm recommending him because he was the nicest to talk to and was competent what matters when you're buying a home for buy and hold investments. 

@Ese A. O'Diah

Wings credit union or Spire could be useful. There's also firefly credit union.

You know I'd say college is a hard one. With a property I can more easily distinguish which is better or how it performs based off comps. But with people it's not as simple since this thing called "life" can have a multitude of impacts even when similar events happen.

In all honesty the return of investment isn't met if I don't have a 70% chance or higher of getting the job I want when I graduate. Assuming the desire is reasonable. Being CEO of Tesla may not be possible for a 22 year old waving around a BS in mechanical engineering.  Return of Time deteriorates fast if you're taking longer than you should. Like taking 5 years to get a bachelor degree (about anyone taking 12 credit full time semesters). 

College actually becomes one of the most important financial decisions someone can make when you think about compound interest. So keeping that in perspective I'd say the best rule is your student loans shouldn't exceed 60% of your career's 25% percentile wage. So if you have a job with a 25% percentile wage of 50k In my eyes your student loans shouldn't be over 35k. I personally follow a 20% rule but I don't want to be too hardline on everyone else. This might make a lot of careers seem impossible, but with the right school choice and work it's not. This is a home school hidden gem: modernstates.org. With that website you can take CLEP exams for free and get a transfer degree (A.A) at dirt cheap price at a community college. Then transfer to a university, while at the university make your part time job scholarship writing and that will make any career possible. Except in rare scenarios like Medical Doctors and attorneys. 

Hello Mrs. Garcia, 

I hope you can bring the rent up, I might've been too cautious in my projections but going with your number on mortgage, tax and insurance along with 5% for vacancy rate, 3% for repairs and 7% for CapEx there really wasn't much left. In fact if your dad took $35 for property management fees you'd be breaking even with your 1100 in rent. If you pay nothing in closing costs and make about 35 dollars a month your overall cash on cash return will be 3.3%. You're a little under the 1% rule since your rent/purchase ratio ends up being 0.86%. I have the spreadsheet attached in the link: Lauren spreadsheet