All Forum Posts by: Erwin F.

@Mark Zermeno I do a static amount of $100 per door that gets put away into a capex account.  With that being said, I do have bank accounts for each property with healthy reserves.  None of this has been touched for personal reasons yet because I still work fulltime.

@Mark Zermeno... I may have misunderstood your question :)

I put that away upfront when the property is purchased.

@Mark Zermeno, here's what we've spent on capex over 6 years of having 4 rentals.  

1. 1. ~$4k on AC replacement
2. 2. ~$200 on Fridge
3. 3. ~$800 on 2 Dishwashers (they were old)

We have a mix of condos, a townhome, and a house.  So the only one with major fixes is the house, but everything was replaced.  This is the property where I put the most away for capex since I have the most things to handle.

1.  I would recommend a separate bank account and separate credit card.  That way accounting at the end of the year is easier to decipher.

2. Per CapEx. I'd put between $5k and $10k, but I'm pretty conservative.

@Alan Velazquez, may I suggest a house hack?  If you're married, maybe a duplex would suit you best.  If you're not married, you could subsidize a big chunk of your housing expenses by renting out rooms.  

By house hacking, you could be doing several things at once.

1. Lowering your personal monthly expenses
2. Learning the ropes as a landlord to see if you like it
3. Get awesome financing since you're owner occupied

Then, you could add gas to your investing F.I.R.E. (pun intended).  And after a year of holding, repeat this process.

Good luck!

I would love to buy an RV and live in that for a year with my wife and three kids.  We would try to go to as many national parks as possible.  Also, I really want to visit the upper peninsula of Michigan.  

@Mitch Messer, do you mind if I take a look at your report as well?  I just got one done and need some advice.  And please let me know how I could help you in any way.

I know it's been over a year since this post.  But I may have a similar problem.  The source seems to be a leaky AC unit located in the bathroom ceiling.  I was going to get the leak fixed, get the ducts cleans, and paint the entire place (about 500 sqft).  Also, a condo deep clean will happen after all of this.  

• Should I get another test after all this?
• Do you think the steps above would handle it all?
• Anyone know the impact of the counts below?

Inside

• Raw Count:  11
• Count/m^3:  490
  

Outside

• Raw Count:  7
• Count/m^3:  300

@Charlie Moore:  I'm a big fan of convenience.  I'd probably just pay to get it cut once a month.  Then when her lease is up, I would opt to not renew.  Since this is one property, it may not be a big impact in the grand scheme of things.  Good luck!

@Russell Brazil, I definitely agree with you! Timing the market seems too emotional driven. I prefer to dollar cost average over a long period of time. I’m dollar cost averaging by continually buying index funds every two weeks, funding my real estate reserves every two weeks, and analyzing small multi to buy.