All Forum Posts by: Heather Schmidtknecht

Jaysen Medhurst --

My mortgage with PMI and taxes/insurance escrowed is $758/month. I am managing this property myself, as it is my first and only 30 miles from my home and in the same city as my FT job. I had a thorough home inspection to identify any obvious repairs needs (which there were none) and I asked the sellers to purchase a home warranty in my offer, so all appliances are covered by that for the first year I own it.

I should also mention that I am in a unique situation, in that my mortgage for my own residence is fully paid and I plan to continue to work FT (while slowly building my rental portfolio), so I don't really *need* the cash flow... I'm trying to focus more on long-term equity gains as my tenant(s) pay off this mortgage.  Hope that brings some clarity.

This summer I set out to purchase a rental property with the guidance of Bigger Pockets.  The neighborhood I was interested in is a college-town, so many rentals are occupied by students, as landlords can make more money charging students by the room as opposed to renting to families.  When looking at many investment possibilities, it became increasingly clear that many landlords are taking advantage of the constant influx of renters in this community... large houses are hacked up into apartments, leading to odd-sized rooms and a lack of "flow" in the floorplan.  Many of them have so many layers of paint on the walls, that it's permanent state is literally "tacky", both in texture and in appearance.  I decided that my "standard" is much higher than that, and I decided I would not buy a property to rent unless I would be comfortable living there myself.

I found a 3-bedroom, 2 bath single family residence that has been recently updated and is clean and fresh.  The home inspector indicated this is a home that had been well-maintained.  When I closed on the property, I put an ad on Craig's List and we did some minor cleaning, paint touch-ups, replaced all the light bulbs to LED, and replaced all the smoke/CO detectors and within 2 weeks, the place was rented.

The property was listed at $116,900 and after negotiating, we settled on $114,000 with a home warranty.  I put 15% down, and took a 15-year mortgage.  I have a lease signed for $1000/month to a single professional female, who will also pay all utilities.  I am very happy with how this deal turned out and am looking for the next one!  :)

My son's landlord charges for it in the lease, does all the paperwork for them, and then all they (the tenants) need to do is sign it.  I might start doing that, as then I know it's done and I know I'm listed as Additional Interest.

I am interested in a duplex that has a listing price of 89k; there are two units that rent for $450 each.  The property is in pretty good shape; would minimally require painting of garage exterior and window trim on house exterior in the Spring.  Interior could be updated a little, but is 100% rentable “as is”.  There are improvements that could be made fairly easily to increase the rents and the value of this property as a whole.

I have heard that the sellers are highly motivated, but their mortgage pay-off is 85k.  I’d like to purchase it for 70k, and am looking for creative ideas to make a deal with them knowing that their pay-off is 85k.