All Forum Posts by: Erik Nosich

@Greg Goforth hi Greg, I own rental property in Anchorage as well as run several air bnb’s. A few things to keep in mind:

-If you buy close to downtown, stay west of c street, east is considered a bad neighborhood. As a general rule, the neighborhoods are better west of C throughout, with many exceptions.

-The Airbnb market in anchorage has become very competitive, so you need to do something to make you stand out. One thing is cheaper prices, but we found with lower prices, renter quality goes down as well. Find something unique. Don’t expect Anchorage prices to be cheap either Anchorage has always been expensive, but currently the market is insane, drivi g up the prices further.

-There was a massive housing building boom when the pipeline went in in the last 70’s, early 80’s. A majority of homes still look like they are in the 80’s. This translates to an Airbnb guest from out of state as ‘dated and unpleasant’. You will need to drop cash on improving that, and because it’s an Airbnb, it’s not advisable to go builder grade.

-Finding good management has been very difficult. Either they do not do a good job, or are very very expensive. We are still looking for someone to manage ours. We have fired 2 managers in 3 years.

-The Airbnb season is only from may to sept. Even when we crashed the prices, we did not have a lot of bookings throughout the summer. We have long term renters in there on a short lease throughout the winter.

- Have you considered Seward? It’s only 120 miles from anchorage, and very similar to homer. It’s at the end of the fjord, right on the water, protected by mountains, close to glaciers, lots of great outdoor activities, and I have found there to be less crazy people in Seward vs homer. It still has all the amenities you might need, hospital, grocery store, etc. I definitely prefer Seward over homer.

-In general, the farther you get from anchorage or any big town, the cheaper the place would be. You could get a place in say, moose pass or hope for a pittance, and wouldn’t have to rent it out very much if at all to offset costs due to low purchase price. I would look at talkeetna, big lake, moose pass, hope to name a few.

@Pavel Pavlov. Although a downtown location is in higher demand, I would only purchase a one bedroom if it was spacious, updated, and in the right location downtown.

Some areas have gotten bad with lots of homeless.

@Bei He I would get 2x the deposit, ask for the co signers and be sure to get everyone’s social security number. If it goes bad, you can go after their credit when you get a judgement against them.

Additionally, watch them very closely the first few months. First violation, put a notice of violation. It could be noise, parking or whatever. I have learned of you are strict in the beginning and demonstrate that you are going to enforce all the rules, they tend to fall in line and follow all the rules.

Hi all, I own several properties and this June closed on my first commercial property, a turn key short term rental 8 plex.

My wife and I have completed remodeling our single family home and found a house we really want.

The market in Anchorage is crazy hot right now and so we can sell our place for a significant profit. Due lacking a history of long term rental in the 8 plex, (we just signed several leases for the winter months) the bank won’t show as income, and so our debt to income is too high.

Do you guys have any tricks or tips you can recommend? I am surprised the bank does not allow short term profits (we made tens of thousands this crappy year alone) and have been running another place the same way for 4 years.

The only other option i can think of is ask the seller of the house we want to allow us to rent for 3-6 months and purchase after a rental history has been established.

For plumbing, I use first class. A little more expensive but very reliable and had done fantastic work and goes the extra effort to save money,

For electrical, I had a very difficult time finding someone.  The guy I found is fantastic.  On time, fantastic work,  very affordable, and most important, reliable!  He has done numerous jobs and always does great work, often makes the previous work look better.  He will not do a “good enough” job.  Pm me, website won’t let me post his number, I have his permission to give it out. 

Sorry I missed you guys, was busy working. My wife and I own and manage 4 properties and 14 doors.

I live here, and currently own 4 properties. I get a letter about once or twice a week. The market up here is and has been pretty hot, even with the oil price downturn.

I am in the military as well and am about to finish up a 1 year tdy out of state. My wife and I currently own 11 doors in Anchorage and I definitely would like to network more. I know there is a once a month REI meetup in the anchorage area. I will start attending those when I get back.

Discussion followed! I'm additionally looking for a quality handyman for things above my level.

Here is an article is saw in ADN. Interesting gee whiz info for all you folks here in the Alaska market! I am looking to expand my networking, so feel free to add me as a contact on here! https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2017/08/04/heres-how-paychecks-compare-to-rent-around-alaska/ What do you folks think? Speaking to the anchorage market (my area) Do you think an oversupply of housing due to oil and economy being in the crapper is going to bring prices down anytime soon? I already had to drop my prices 5% to get them filled. I'm hoping purchase prices come down to reflect.