All Forum Posts by: Connor Dunham

I think most people on here self-manage that I've seen in AK. The plan I see for most people is to scale until you can pay a direct-hire manager (either full or part-time), or pick and choose the ones you manage, and the ones you hire-out the management for. I have considered contracting out unit turnovers, but haven't priced it out. Best of luck with your research.

@Jonathan Capua - This place is a great resource. I'm also a Civil Engineer. The body of knowledge required to do real estate investing complements engineering well. If you enjoyed Engineering Economic Analysis and the time value of money, finding deals can be a lot of fun.

@David Cook Our market currently is like buying an 60% Oil / 40% inverse S&P 500 index ETF we tend to track relative to those factors (at least that’s the commonly held perception).

I had a renter identical to what you've described for my first owner-occupied as well. He was in there for 10 years, so I didn't mess with fixing anything but what was required. When I read others say "don't force a vacancy" - I agree too. However, it is important to set expectations. Serve every notice to quit when they are late face to face. Serve reminder letters on business letterhead that if their service is disconnected, they will receive a notice to quit. If there's unruly behavior, get those issues addressed as well through lease addendum and written agreements. Also, evaluate rents - raise them to market rate in the spring or next lease renewal. Welcome to landlording.

@Shaun M. I can see why it was never installed... It appears the artist forgot to check which direction is up. Great find! Please consider donating it to Iditarod headquarters. There is a lot of history that goes missing over the years or never returns home... in particular Balto himself.

@Jo Ballagh give unit 4 notice and have them sign a deal saying they will leave by this date in exchange for their getting their deposit back. I would go with this method for soundproofing: https://www.tmsoundproofing.co...

Concur with @Chris S. about buying in winter. I've only ever closed between the months of November and February. @Ryan Bray There's a guy on here in your area buying very similar units to what you're looking at and doing lease-options on them... Michael Borger.

I would love to talk you out of your plan. There is no precedent for appreciation with that style of property in this market. I personally know three people that want to sell theirs but can't because they don't want to take a $10 to $50,000 hit and would rather just rent it out. Single family and bigger is a different story.

@David Edwards Funny you should mention that. Fairbanks is also unique in their city limits are very small. The rest of the metro area is incorporated under the borough only, which purposely hasn't adopted a building code. This leaves only zoning as the limiting criteria to what you can build. 

@Derek Morrison Anchorage and Fairbanks are quite different actually. A lot of people in Fairbanks prefer to build homes themselves rather than buy at market rate - a true do-it-yourself community. Currently, it's going to cost you a fair amount more to build new than to buy in Fairbanks - we are in recession since 2015. Utility costs are a major consideration at -40f and -50f especially running on heating oil or wood heat (most places in Fairbanks aren't hooked up to natural gas). So - first consideration is to see if you can get natural gas. Second is electricity - what would be the line extension cost? Are there overhead lines nearby? Third consideration would be water/sewer - is it in the city or are you going to be on well/septic? Most places are on well/septic so you'd need to check the soils for arsenic and other contaminants. Many places in the area have high arsenic levels and rules them out for residential use. Pay to get it tested. Have a backup plan if this fails. Try to check for tests of adjacent properties. The list goes on but that should get you started.