All Forum Posts by: Dale K Poyser

 Yes vs carpet. But I would recommend luxury vinyl plank (SPC - stone composite) with a high wear layer, or wood look ceramic tile. Hardwood flooring is expensive and scratches easily.

 Agreed, good location with slightly negative cashflow is the way to go. Unless its a fixer upper if you make high cashflow out the gate it's likely to have high turnover.

 I know this question was directed at Grace, but I can offer my .02 on this. Most PM companies do self showings. THe prospective tenant provides their driver's license and other info and you can give them a code (if you have a smart lock w/ Wifi) that they can use and you can change afterwards. This is actually very common and something you might want to look into.

Don't run numbers based on STR or MTR, run the numbers based on the worse case scenario which would be LTR. If you are comfortable with those numbers and you can wait it out until interest rates improve then go for it.

You could also consider putting down a larger downpayment. There are downpayment assistance programs in CA that are in play. One of these programs will give you funding up to 150k toward the downpayment. That program coupled with some other incentives (like rate buydowns) may move the needle in your favor.

The program is called "dream for all"

https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/dream/

Thanks for the reply, how easy it that to do when you are an out of state investor? The showings and such? Do you leverage your handy man or some other "boots on the ground" person. Or do you use a combination of something like a ring camera and schlage lock?

This is definitely intriguing to me, my two points of contention are showing the property and managing work orders.

What tools do you use/recomment for

1 - finding tenants (screening, renting, etc)

2 - Managing vendors/work orders

3 - Evicting tenants

4 - Showing the property

You can rent by the room. If you log on to some of the popular sites like furnishedfinder or Airbnb you will see that they have "rent by the room" options. This is definitely possible unless there are some HOA restrictions that you have to work around.

I would not recommend a HELOC or HELOAN unless both are at fixed interest rates. I did get a HELOC on my primary and it was fixed, so they are out there.

If you do, keep the balance low and take advantage of the zero interest balance transfer option on credit cards. As long as your credit is good you, if your HELOC rates go up, you should be able to rinse/repeat that "0% balance transfer" option every couple years until the debt is paid off.

There are alternatives out there as well

Loan on your 401k or IRA

Loan on your stock account

Down payment assistance programs that provide all or some of the downpayment money. (you may or may not qualify since you already have a primary)

Private money loan.

Good luck, but def avoid variable rates right now.

Some things that make a rental appealing 

1 - pet policy (pets or no pets allowed)

2 - number of full bathrooms 

3 - number of floors (single level vs multi)

4 - backyard or lack thereof

5 - school ratings (higher the better)

6 - crime ratings (lower the better)

7 - location to highways

8 - amenities (parks, pools, trails, lakes, etc)

9 - location to place of employment.

10 - age of the property 

11 - appliances 

Just to name a few.

23% - 30% is normal for a mid term rental or short term rental. Although, some property managers are charging around 10% for midterm rentals.

Is your lease term 1yr or more? Is your unit being rented as a furnished unit?

If this is a long term unfurnished rental then find another property management company with rates you're ok with. If you find better rates you can ask current PM to match or beat it. If they don't, move on from them.

Also, while "most" PMs charge a fee on "collected rent" there are some that charge a fee whether rent is collected or not. Stick with the ones that charge a fee on collected rent.

Do you have a lot of turnover with your unit? How long has it been rented? If there is a lot of turnover then the guaranteed rent would justify the price.