All Forum Posts by: Jason Burton

BP,

I was perusing antique furniture on ebay and noticed they have a real estate section. Has anyone purchased or sold any type of real estate on ebay? I would love to hear about it.

Thank you for the feedback. I'm still new REI so these forums are super helpful.

@Kerry Baird

I take it you have some experience renting to military folks? The E-5 threshold makes a lot of sense to me. I had never thought of that before. Increase the number of personnel in the rental pool. Thanks for the comments and advice.

Forums,

I have the opportunity to buy a house with a owner occupied loan with about $12,000 out of pocket to get in. Here are the details. Purchase price $162,500. Comps in the area sold for about $170,000. My long term plan is to buy and hold SFR's for cash flow. It will rent for around $1250-$1300/month and is in a B to B+ neighborhood outside of a military base. None of the houses in the neighborhood are available to rent and the other house for sale is pending. I would be living in the home for at least 5 months and maybe longer, but it is unlikely that the military will keep me here past the 5 months. Based strictly on the numbers and some of the common rules it seems like a bad deal (50% rule).

Rent: $1250
Management: $125

Maintenance and vacancy I factored at $125 (5% for each; built in 2005 low maintenance and very low vacancy for the neighborhood)

That leaves $1000 to cover the mortgage payment and insurance. After all is said and done it would cash flow about $50/month. There is something about it that makes me want to do it yet there is a part of me saying that I'd be crazy to do this deal. What do you guys think? Thanks in advance for any of your thoughts.

Is it typical for property managers to require the owner of the property to get liability insurance and list them (the property management company) as an additional insured person/entity? This guy is asking for $2million liability general aggregate insurance. (I'm not even sure what general aggregate means to be frank) Any help will be appreciated.

Wow thank you all for the great feedback! Time to dive into the links @Paul Timmins provided.

@Zigmunt Smigaj Thank you for the offer. I'm not in Alabama yet so I will have to take a rain check on the lunch meeting. What areas have you found to be doing well so far? I'm still in a toss up between Enterprise and Dothan.

@James Tobin Was it pretty easy to find a nice rental in Dothan or did it seem like they were scarce?

Eleena,

Thank you for the honest feedback. I have some more research and thinking to do. And just to clarify one point the area that I would buy in is in Enterprise, AL. It has a slightly larger population but like you said, there is only one main employer and that is the military. Time to look for something to rent. :)

Hey BP I have been wondering if I should buy or rent. I'm being moved by my job to Fort Rucker, AL and I can't decide on whether or not I should buy or just rent. I will only be assigned to the area for a relatively short time (1 or 2 years; maybe only 6 months I won't know until I'm there). I'm eligible for VA loans so this would be a great opportunity to find a place to buy with no money down (OPM). The only problem is that I'm not that good at doing market research. I hear other military folks say the market there is "flooded" with rentals. How do I know if that is the case? I don't want to buy a property with the intention of renting it down the road only to realize that it won't rent. What's the best indication of a healthy rental market? Thanks for your advice in advance.

Just trying to find anyone from southern Alabama who knows a little bit about the local market there in the Dothan, Enterprise, Ozark area.

Anyone familiar with the Southern Alabama real estate market? Particularly the Dothan, Ft. Rucker, Enterprise, area. I am being reassigned to that area and was wondering if there are any real estate agents or investors that would be willing to share any info for buying/renting a place to live in the area. Any and all information is appreciated!