All Forum Posts by: Jeffrey Holst

Welcome sorry about the delayed response I have been traveling. I wish you the best and agree you should try to watch out for the monthly meet up

 I agree! If you end up down this way feel free to look me up.

Those are some big goals. Hope you make it. 

I think I am out of town for the next one and we do switch up the location from time to time but I look forward to meeting you.

Welcome, there's a nice monthly meet up going here in Chattanooga where local BiggerPockets people get together and talk real estate. Watch the listing by setting a key word alert for Chattanooga.

Chattanooga is a great real estate market I wish the best.

@Joshua D.  That was my basic point.  I realize now I rambled a bit in the response but yes cashflow to me is a safety net and cash on cash return is a driver of wealth.  Obviously the higher you can make both the better the deal.  If you can cashflow $1000 and have a 500% cash on cash return thats way better than cashflow $100 and a 5% cash on cash return and so on.

Unless you have a crap ton of properties its fairly easy to just update the numbers once a month by logging in to your banks website and copying over the new principle balance figure. my excel simply shows property address my estimated value, the debt amount and calculates total equity.  I dont actually updated it every month but I do most months,  I have amortizing loans on like 15 properties or so and it takes like 5 minutes to update give or take

Neither is better than the other.  Cashflow is super important but so is cash on cash return.  If your actual cash flow is positive and there are unlimited oppertunities then it could be argued that cash on cash is the more important meaure but since knowing actual cashflow is only possible in retrospect it is important to have healthy cashflow projections.

I consider cashflow a safety net.  The more cashflow the safer the investment.  Higher cashflows through higher down payments are generally safer but have lower overal all cash on cash returns,  lower down payments can produce higher cash on cash returns but are typically somewhat less safe.  With low cashflow you have lower margins for error, ie if a major repair comes along that you were expecting it can destroy many years of cashflow.

All of that is to say you should balance the two, I look for a couple hundred dollars cashflow per door in single families and small multis but in larger deals I will accept less if the numbers look otherwise good.

I am with @Ryan Stahr  I get fairly decent cashflows in Chattanooga.  I have been averaging 8+ in B class areas and a little higher in C class.

I can't speak to the other markets but Chattanooga has been good for me.  I also invest in Metro Detroit but that market is not for everyone.