All Forum Posts by: Wayne Kerr

What kind of other investments do you have? If this is simply diversification to your other investments, I think it's ok. Not great, but ok. If you don't have any other investments, I'd probably consider something else. 

This is one thing that irks me when I hear "rent goes up, but monthly payment stays the same" from various gurus. The total, PITI, most certainly does go up over time. I do realize this is location dependent - some rents will outpace the increase in PITI massively, some rents won't change much, some locations will have massive PITI (Taxes and insurance primarily) increases due to storms/weather etc, while others won't change much.

Doesn't hurt anything to put it on the market and see what you could get for it either. 

One thing is this is a long-distance rental. Have you seen the property? Did it get rehabbed? It's a cheap property which leads me to believe the location may not be great. What's the future outlook for Lansing? What kind of CapEx is coming in the future? Why not invest in Florida?

This is perfect - I'd add in proof of utilities in the tenants name as well. Need proof of utilities prior to getting the keys (or some sort of verbiage that says the tenant will be responsible for all utilities plus some sort of late utility fee). 

This is really a no brainer. If the interest rate was more than 1.5% then I might go 15. Depends on the difference in the monthly payment.  

Other than that I'll always recommending doing a 30 year - you have the ability to pay it off sooner if you want but you are not forced to. It's hard to tell what the future looks like in 15 years, much less 30. Plan conservatively, maximize cashflow now, and leave yourself options. The 30 year will leave you with more cash now and the option to may it off as soon as you would like. 

Interesting - that may be the market down here. I wanted to sell to put the money in the stock market, so I wasn't a "motivated" seller per se. And the house will stay rented - it's about a block from ULL (University of Louisiana - Lafayette) in "Freetown". Unique location - some run down properties, some brand new duplexes (for reference I bought my duplex in 2021 for 104k, the one two doors down sold for 424k), college students, crackhead foot traffic, a few bars, people on bikes - you can kind of get the jist. The house doesn't cashflow much and needs some cosmetic repairs/updating, but it's a solid place (4 bed 3 bath).

Lafayette recently banned STRs in residential zones as well - the zoning for this house will still allow for it to be an STR (the one next door just converted to an STR).

May just end up holding this one or getting my RE license (just need to take the official test - already completed the education portion a couple of years ago) and doing a FSBO type deal. The commission was eye opening when it came time to sell. Definitely something that should be factored in to returns in some way,

I think this is less about  "new drugs" and more about the food/water supply personally. I believe you can add more healthy years to your life from eating healthy whole foods and drinking water while minimizing vitamin/mineral deficiencies. The idea isn't putting a on a band-aid - it's preventing getting cut in the first place. 

Look at the obesity rates and life expectancy...I guess being obese makes you live longer...oh wait...obesity rates have gone up and so has life expectancy - I guess the two are related...

The pharmaceutical industry is FIRST and FOREMOST a BUSINESS. These are for profit businesses - with MASSIVE profit, and MASSIVE influence. Why would they want to put an end to that? Take a look at the covid shot - would you consider this a new and exciting drug? Did it help 99% of people it was given to? Was it essentially mandated by the federal government that everyone get it (regardless of your personal risk level - which if you aren't old and fat or have a pre-existing condition is almost nil)? I'll pass on the new and exciting drugs and go with natural foods/water/mineral supplements.

Let me get on ozempic...wait, if I ate healthy, if crops weren't sprayed with folic acid/pesticides, if the water supply wasn't laced with flouride and heavy metals maybe they wouldn't get so fat and cancerous in the first place? 

Prevention > Band-Aids every time 

And personally I'd blame the liberals for the change in birthrates - hard to reproduce with every other person thinks they're gay/lesbian or trans. Look at the number of people (young people especially) who think they are trans these days? I think you would find that liberals reproduce (thank God) at a much lower rate than conservatives - nut to butt just doesn't work 

Here in Lafayette Louisiana it depends on the exact location and the "quality" of the home. Regardless I am seeing a lot more price drops and longer DOM than the past few years. 

I recently listed a property for sale, good location, size etc - but needs a bit of work. Offers consistently asked 4-8k at closing, ~10-15k price drop, and to pay for the buyers agent (3%). What it appears is that no one has cash to bring to the closing. I had the house go under a contract a couple times - I adjusted the purchase price and essentially financed what the buyer was asking into the purchase price (w/ the realtor commission being based on the original price)

I've decided to make the repairs, do some upgrades and rent it out again for the next year. Repairs/upgrades will be made this week

What gets me is the offers are well below what the house would appraise for - it appraised for 193k in 2023 for reference. I don't think we've seen a decrease in house price where I live that would back-up the current offers. 

New suburb areas are continuing new construction - a small rental neighborhood should be coming online, a couple of luxury apartment complexes finishing up - so there is activity but it is primarily on the higher end of things from what I can see. DSLD has also just purchased a ton of land between two small cities outside of Lafayette, so I expect to see that completely built up in the next 5 or so years. 

Washington & Oregon - two liberal states that are not landlord friendly

For those reasons, I'm out 

I have a couple friends that bought condos around PCB in the last few years - it hasn't been a pretty sight. The initial condo had a huge assessment that was based on square footage (something to do with the foundation) - so they ended up selling to try to get out of the assessment. 

That condo was at the Shores of Panama. I don't know whatever happened to the court case, but I do remember it was in the 60-80million range of renovations apparently needed to the structure. 

They sold that condo after a year - mixed reviews on AirBnB and VRBO and bought at Regency Towers. The condo at Regency Towers has been listed since May 2024 - started at 500k and down to 450k now with apparently zero interest. They bought the condo at Regency Towers for 475k in 2024. I believe they are losing money pretty badly at Regency Towers. A quick look at AirBnB and VRBO shows completely open availability through the entire year (including June/July/Aug/Sept). This is not a great sign. 

For me personally, I can't get the STR numbers to work. Between the extra AirBnB fees, special assessments, silly parking they have going on, it doesn't look good for me in the PCB area.

I have been a one man team for 4 years now...I literally mean exactly that as far as everything goes. 

My advice would be to just get a new wife

This is an interesting idea - I've actually thought about it a lot lately. 

The main thing is me is that the capital is tied up. What else could that 30, 40, 50k+ downpayment/rehab cost etc do for you if it wasn't tied up in the property? 

We've seen some unique things in the covid era 2020-2024 like high appreciation (that is not the norm), the low interest rates we had (prior to 2022), and the past year the stock market has done incredibly well (up 20% over the last year). Add in the social media gurus and I think expectations for RE investing can get skewed very quickly. 

What is a good deal anyway? The $2000/month cashflow that the guru preaches that retired him to the Bahamas after only 2 properties? $500/month? Do the tax benefits make it a good deal? What exactly is a good deal? According to Brandon Turner is was about $100-200/door. That would absolutely be scoffed at by most people. It can be hard to say what exactly a good/bad deal is...

I also think it can be very easy to get caught up buying RE - when that may not be the best option. I'm guilty of it myself. I made a several good deals, then kind of forced one. Overpaid slightly, tied up a good bit of capital that no doubt would have been better in the stock market (this past year anyway), and "cashflow" a couple hundred dollars a month. Well we listed it for sale - got a few offers, but nothing good enough to really pursue. So I'm renting it back out for another year. Hind sight is 20/20. 

It can also be hard to predict how your own personal strategy may change over time. How your own financial situation may change over time (for better or worse). If you do an "ok" deal and tie up that capital, you may not be able to do the next "great" deal that comes along. At this point, I LOVE having cash on hand. It just leaves the table open for all kinds of options.