All Forum Posts by: Danielle Wolter

@Brandon McBride I just started investing in Memphis, and have been happy so far. Bought my first property in a B neighborhood for $75K with about $20K in rehab. 

@Leo Glazer I invest in SFR so I can't really speak to the best place for small multi family. Memphis is cheap, which is one of the reasons I invest there, but like I said you have to be careful about the area. The properties with really high returns are likely in higher risk areas. The returns look great on paper, but the problems will eat through your cash flow eventually. What kind of price point are you looking at?

Hi @Leo Glazer I personally love Memphis, but it definitely has good and bad areas. As an OOS investor, I would highly recommend taking a tip there to check it out before buying anything. Also, small multifamily properties in Memphis tend to be in rougher areas which can be hard to manage from out of state. There are areas I would definitely stay away from. What are you investing goals? That might help determine where the best place to start would be. What brought you to Memphis? 

@Ashley Wynn I was able to find a local bank that gave me a HELOC on my rental property. I would keep calling around until you find one that will. I got 70% LTV.

@Phil Kagebein If the numbers work out for you, you can just pay to get out of your lease. Likely the seller will not entertain offers that far in advance. There are many others waiting to jump on a good deal. 

@Jason Martinez Congrats on your first deal! Now it's on to the next one :-)

@Keeshaun King If you're not planning on living in it you won't be able to get an FHA loan, which means you'll need to have 20-25% to put down. A lot of people like househacking because the ability to only put 3.5% down is very appealing. And it makes sense financially to a lot of people. Personally, I like my space so house hacking is not appealing to me.

I don't know of a specific formula for repair costs, but if it's very minor,  usually throw in a couple thousand just to be sure I'm covered. For vacancy, personally I use around 8-10%, or at least one month's worth of rent (sometimes more depending on the area). Most property managers will require the equivalent of 1/2 to a full months rent for tenant placement, and then another fee for lease renewal, so this should cover that as well. 

@Stephen Dumaine Currently I have a food blog as a side business that brings in some money. It has seen a lot of growth in the past year. My goal is to have that make enough to cover my mortgage while building my real estate empire (LOL) to cover my daily expenses. I also have a pretty good emergency fund saved up. I expect that when I'm able to quit my 9-5, both of these areas with be able to grow substantially with the additional time I will have to grow them. I would love to eventually go part time and take a 50% pay cut in the next couple years. But I'm pretty sure it'll be a hard sell! Good luck to you!

Looks about right to me. 

@Sean Dezoysa I'm a cash buyer, and I would toss a postcard in the recycle if I got one. I much prefer to talk to someone in person/on the phone that takes the time to find out what my investing goals are and what I'm looking for (and where I'm looking for it). I hate getting tons of mail/email from wholesalers with properties that are "great deals" that are not even my buying criteria.