All Forum Posts by: Collin Wallace

It finally happened...tenants experienced a fire in the garage of one of our houses.  Thankfully, everyone is safe.  There is smoke and water damage to the house, damage to sheet rock, smoke in the HVAC system, water damage and so forth.  The cost of remediation was bid out at $11,452 for a 3 bedroom 2 bath house.  I am not sure what caused the fire at this point.

I am one of those people who think, "What's the worst that can happen?" and this ranks up there.  Had a foundation to mud-jack last year, so ticked that box. Have had termites several times, and ticked that box.  Now the "fire" box has been ticked.   

@Cameron Fowler, what are you trying to fund?  Is it a $1.5MM deal? Cause 100% probably isn't happening.

Quote from @Joshua Stein:

I'm one year into having a property manager take over one of our properties, it's mainly great because that income is now (almost) truly passive - probably requires less than 1 hr of time each month.

However, my PM seems to have had a bit of trouble scaling. I'll ask for them to do something (HVAC tune-up, turn off exterior water before winter, etc) and, while they'll initially acknowledge the email, I usually have to follow up multiple times to confirm the task is completed.

Is this a pattern with most PMs? What are your general expectations of a PM and when/how do you generally know it's time to look for a new one?

I'm trying to gauge if I'm being too type A and need to let go a bit, or if I'm underestimating what a PM should do.

 If they are responding and actually doing it then I would say that is pretty good. They always say the squeaky wheel always gets the most help. 

I started looking for more help when my PM did not inform me that my tenant was not paying rent for 3+ months. I asked if they had posted an eviction notice and they responded no the tenant is going through a hard time. Everyone goes through tough times... I switched PM's and now I know that if that happens again they are right on it. They get things done and I do not have to worry about it. I get my passive income every month and I am a happy camper. 

@Jeff Joachim

Awesome post! Another option is investing in a private lending fund. the investment is diversified over all of the loans in the portfolio without the headaches of ownership, maintenance, tenants, etc. It's a great way to be in real estate and "be the bank" instead of the owner with an attractive return.

Bobby

What a roller coaster this house has been. I am 95% complete with this project. I want to use this post as my journal/therapy to recap all the things I can remember. This project wasn't easy, I had a lot of what seemed like downs and not a lot of ups, but I learned a lot. I will be back to write more. 

@Stetson Miller thank you for this! Eliminating the PMI was not something I had previously considered, I appreciate that input.
Nice to hear from someone close to home. I actually was introduced to your group at the local REAI here in Fort Myers a few months ago! 

I do have a 6 year old daughter in school so moving out of Naples isn't a viable option at this time but I have considered doing BRRRR in the above mentioned markets, although not much of a profit margin even in those cities. This is why I moved towards out of state.

I did some calculations on refi out of my 2.4 into a 5.5 and the difference over 30 years is a lot to swallow. How many times can a person refi on a house I wonder? Am I over thinking this loss looking at the grand scheme of things?

@Bob Willis Not a bad question at all! 

Co-Hosting is where you manage a Short Term Rental Property (Airbnb) for a homeowner. 

You will manage the guest messaging, advertise the property, handle guest issues, coordinate with vendors (Cleaner, handyman and runner), and pricing. 

You are basically running the show, so the homeowner can sit back and relax!

You will get a percentage of the gross revenue each month. A typical co-host fee is about 20%.

Hope that helps!