All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Bennett

Property Management is what will make or break this deal even if all the numbers work for you. Highly encourage you to reach out to local property managers and investors to find out if you can find one that will help you make long distance landlording a success. Wish you the best!

It is a challenge, but doable. I also have a family of 7. Instead of house hacking in the sense of buying a multifamily & living in a unit, we bought a fixer upper short sale & are doing a slow live-in flip. It has its own challenges, but I see the ability to either take the gains tax free if we sell, or get a HELOC to pull the equity out and become my own hard money lender ;). Always options. Just need to think creatively.

I know my preference would be to rehab to my standards first. However, you need to compare the risk/return. You risk the wrong type of tenant w/out the rehab. That exposes you to possible lost rents & damage to property. You have to compare that to the risk of holding costs for a non-cash flowing property & opportunity costs for that money invested not performing elsewhere during that time. Sorry I'm not more helpful, but I think you already know which way you're leaning. :)

I think this falls under "tenant training" and under personal preference. If you don't mind the extra income in exchange for the extra hassle, then don't worry about it. For our tenants, we've communicated up front that we rent to people who pay rent on time. We will absolutely post a pay or quit notice as soon as legally allowed & will follow thru on eviction proceedings until paid in full, each & every time they are late. Haven't really had much problem in this area because we value on time payments and we "train" them to it early on in the relationship. Just depends on your preference. :)

Just an FYI: down here is 100+ degree Texas, we have National night out in October. It's Tuesday, October 1st this year. Wishing you a successful party! Would love to here how it goes!

Yes & no. As a buyer, I need to know at least the subdivision & street to determine ARV. I would be careful even advertising a deal before you have it wrapped up under contract. Some buyers would go around you (I've been told by others) & others, like myself, believe there is enough of the abundance pie for all to share & integrity is more important than a few $$$s. Wish you the best!

Clean and functional. When we first purchase a property we look at the systems & determine the expected life. If less than 5 years, we look at replacing. In addition, I tend to do things like install quarter-turn shutoffs on all the water lines, make sure smoke detectors are installed, all lights are working etc. It is a matter of making sure nothing is a hazard to the tenant or to the property itself if not carefully attended to by the tenant (they don't look for water leaks etc). Hope this helps!

Do y'all have any advice for what type of flooring to install in a sunken living room (1970's style) for a rental with ARV around mid 80k? It currently has original shag green carpet (yay!) and paneling. the carpet goes up wall to paneling (sorry I don't have any good pics right now). My contractor suggests laminate, but 1) that's a lil too over-rehabbed for the neighborhood & 2) we don't want to put laminate in our homes due to lack of durability, pet stains, hard to repair etc. Couldn't find the answer using search, so I thought I'd ask my first question :). Thanks!