All Forum Posts by: Jeff Roth

Hi Kimothy-

I love the hustle and the plan.

While I started later, the clear path for me is buying value add properties, rehabbing them (preferably lightly) and using the BRRRR strategy. Buy Rehab Rent Refinance Repeat.

I am fortunate to be within an hour's drive of a market in Michigan where I can buy properties like this and again next year with $500 monthly positive cashflow after paying a property manager to manage it.

Love the hustle. Best of luck. Happy to help!

Hi Yehuda-

Congratulations on starting you real estate development and education at an early age. I wish I had done the same. 

In addition to the Bigger Pocket videos on YouTube, I recommend Ken McElroy's channel on YouTube. He is Robert Kiyosaki's real estate advisor and a real teacher. You should also get all of Ken's real estate books. He has a new one coming out soon about raising capital for deals.

Finally, I also like Robert Helms and Russell Gray. They have a podcast called the Real Estate Guys Radio show and wrote the book Equity Happens (recommend)!

Best of luck and happy to help!

How exciting that Bigger Pockets was asked to contribute to the story and you reached out to the community of users for input.

1. Most recent purchase was in Lansing, MI. Paid $50,000 for 1,000 sq. foot single family ranch last year around this time.

2. Bought well with $15,000 in equity and it cashflows $500 a month after all expenses and property management fees.

3. Planning to buy another investment property in the next couple of months. As long as interest rates are below inflation and the property cashflows it is always a good time to buy.

4. Looking for a duplex so I have more than one tenant paying the overhead and I feel good about providing affordable rental housing especially to people who really need it like section 8 tenants.

5. The advice I would give to others is just get started, use a property manager and find an investor friendly Realtor to work with. Also, once you buy your first property, if you buy it well, you can refinance out the initial downpayment in a year or so and go buy the next property. This is how you can build your portfolio off of the initial downpayment if you keep buying well and rolling the downpayment into the next property.

6. Jeff Roth, 50yrs old, Realtor and Founder of Arbor Advising www.arboradvising.com in Ann Arbor, MI. 

Yes. Congratulations on your successful house hack.

Two things come to mind.

One, to answer your immediate question, you could easily invest $50,000 in a market like Michigan and generate a $700 a month positive cashflow after your mortgage including all expenses and a management company. If you bought well enough, you could refinance the $50,000 back out in a year or two and go buy another one.

Second, I wonder if you could have gotten a home equity line of credit to use for your primary residence purchase and held on to the triplex saving on taxes and transaction costs from the sale and maintaining two real estate assets. Generally better to hold on to property unless your money can work harder in something else and you can't refinance out the money you need to buy that next property from your existing properties.

Again, congratulations and happy to help!

Recommend Equity Happens by Robert Helms and Russell Gray.

Also, How I turned $1,000 into a Million in Real Estate in My Spare Time by William Nickerson.

Finally, Am I Being Too Subtle? by Sam Zell

Best thing to do is buy well enough that you have enough free cashflow to pay more than interest only payments on the HELOC or HELOCLoan.

Once you have enough equity, you can refinance and pay off the HELOC.

Recommend starting with a 15 year mortgage if you can cover the payment and the HELOC payment and have cashflow above that monthly as you will pay down principal faster and build up equity to refinance faster as well.

It's possible in places like Michigan but tough other places I know.

I also like the flexibility of a HELOC and some HELOCs allow you to fix a portion into a fixed rate loan which is a nice hybrid option so call around for rates and terms.

Congratulations on your first short-term rental.

Make sure you watch your expenses and focus on the guest experience for positive reviews.

Think about whether having your own cohost dedicated to your property will help you book it and manage the guest experience to the level you want for your guests.

Congratulations again!

Many people regret selling unless their money could work harder in something else.

If they can cashflow comfortably and the property is appreciating nicely, think about holding, refinancing to pull out some equity and buying something else to keep your money working for you and your family and adding assets to your portfolio.

I would want to be in a location that had existing short term rental management companies with proven track records--preferably more than one company to choose from. Agree, the further south you go in Florida the more likely you are to have year round bookings. I would also want the long term tenant market rent to be close to covering holding costs if something should change in the short term rental market. Also agree a house is better than a condo as you don't want to go into business with the HOA who can change the rules on you for short term rentals.