All Forum Posts by: Greg Scully

@Priscilla Cheng - In your post you mentioned "good profit after paying expenses".  Depending on your market, expenses can range 45%-55% of gross rents.  Make sure you know the appropriate expenses ratio for the market your looking at.  For instance I was interested in Tucson where expenses can be in the low to mid 40%, whereas in my home town 50-55% is more common.

@Nick Fernandez - Have you considered using professional property management?  Since you will own it free and clear it should be easy to cover that expense (maybe 10% of gross rents).

One of my partners (Adam La Barr) is part of this group.  They may have some suggestions for you.

Active Duty Passive Income

@Frank Bonzai - I agree with leaving the CAP rate out of the initial conversation. I'd suggest be specific with other aspects of your criteria (size, location, unit mix, etc.) but mention you need "some kind of value add component". That could include: differed maintenance, mom and pop manager, below market rents, high vacancy, etc.

@Jim Growfer - We've done some very limited mail campaigns, less than 100 total. We're fortunate to have some deal flow from other sources that keeps us busy enough.  No letter responses to date.  It's also good for doing due diligence in general.  I have partners from multiple states, so the 250 monthly pulls (annual plan) has been pretty handy.

Everything exports to excel, so it's easy to manipulate, filter, make notes etc.

@Anthony Ballard - Since you are already familiar with the benefits of REI, I bet just further education will put you over the hump. Rod Khlief has a good ebook and I'd also recommend "Big Money from Small Apartments" by Lance Edwards.

@Victoria S. - 2 beds are bread and butter.  If there is a shortage in your market for 3 beds you may be able to get a premium rent.  Keep in mind that they often come with more kids, which can mean more turnover cost, so you may want to price that in.

@Jim Growfer - I use Reonomy.  Depending on your budget this can be a real time saver.  You can get very specific on criteria and it provides owner contact info.

Rising property taxes may also come into play now with the latest proposed state budget.  All of my investments are outside of Alaska.  The barrier to entry is high in Alaska relative to the returns (unless you're able to buy at steep discounts) and the market fundamentals are not very good.

My prediction for the market is continued pressure for owners for the foreseeable future.

@Trey Knight - Hopefully you'll get there soon enough. It took me six years to finally go full time REI (counting 3 years in a small business and 3 years pursuing REI). Just keep at, it sounds like like your making great progress. Remenber to give yourself credit for what you've done an what your trying to accomplish.

One strategy is to set a goal and reverse engineer the process to achieve it. 

And keep investing in TN;)!