All Forum Posts by: Stone Jin

@DeWitt Gibson There are sign up sheets on the conference rooms to reserve.  If you want to schedule a time and get a rough headcount I can sign you guys up.  I often work out of there to get away from my kids.  #firstworldproblemsworkingfromhome

If you want to start one, GangPlank downtown chandler has free conference rooms you can use to host.

I would echo most of the voices that say Phoenix area rentals is ALL hot.  A lot of the people like the east valley, particularly South East valley (tempe, chandler, mesa, gilbert), probably because they live in the east valley.  I'm sure the west valley investors are just as happy with their investments.

If you are just looking at the MLS for your purchases, then highly likely the ratio of monthly rent to purchase prices is around .5%-.6%. Very difficult to find stuff on MLS greater than that. Then if you are going to leverage, you will essentially break even. To get $300 cashflow a month with a purchase price under 200K is possible with short term rentals, but that involves much more work and potentially start up capital(cost of furnishing a unit).

@Shiloh Lundahl has a specific strategy that he works much like everyone else.  We all have our strategies/niches.  My niche just no longer exists in the Phoenix area.  So I'm looking elsewhere.  

@Preston Wengert mentioned pinetop lakeside.  We have a rental there as well and had no issues getting it rented out, however you have to know that the area is a summer getaway and most of the industry is tailored around tourism and healthcare for retirees who live up there full time.  

To sum up, you just need to be clear with your strategy/niche, what your desired Cash on Cash return required, what your desired monthly cashflow. For example, when I'm investing out of state, I need to get 10% COC returns and $400 a month cashflow.

@Adam A.@Andrew Fidler Hi guys, can you shed some light on the process when an investor first buys a property.  What is the period for inspection etc.  I think a lot of the conversation has been around existing rentals.  However, can you shed some light on how that process works and any time frames associated with that.  

As someone who has made this mistake before. If the unit is in an HOA, then HOA will likely strictly forbid running a business out of a home. Once the tenant loses that income stream, then they will have difficulties with rent.

Don't do it.

We like single families for a couple reasons. We don’t have to deal with the neighbor to neighbor drama. We also like it because we get less turn over and more families. Just preference. We are willing to less return for less drama.

@Account Closed Turn key is good for some people who just want to buy something and forget about it.  I personally just don't like lower end homes so most turn key isn't for me.  We only buy homes that my wife and I would live in ourselves.  B to B+ neighborhoods is where we want to be.  

We have a fairly good sized portfolio in Phoenix.  The numbers for buy and hold do not make sense here anymore so we are looking to expand into markets where our style of investing still works. 

Basically these realtors get a lot of inquiries from out of state investors and most out of state investors are not in buy mode, rather investigation mode.  So after a couple of weeks of answering questions they just disappear.  Too bad for them as we are looking to buy quite a few in the next few years.

@Account Closed  It wasn't easy.  I believe I'm on my 4th realtor.  I'm originally from that area so I have a fair amount of support.  I got my property management on referral from investors in the area that I trust.  I am going to GC the work myself and hire it out piece meal.  My father is there and can provide oversight when I'm not there.  My lender in AZ got her license in Ohio just for me.   My insurance broker is someone I have a personal relationship with.  It took all my experience and connections over the last 10 years to try to make this happen successfully. 

I would encourage you to think about the strategy and exit strategy you want to implement.  In the current cycle, I think a lot of the appreciation play in many cities is reaching a limit.  An investor wiser than me has taught me that investing in cashflow is #1.  So for us, it's all about cashflow.   

It depends on what you are comfortable with.  If I had only 25K to invest (assuming that spending the 25K doesn't wipe out your rainy day fund), I'd leverage get a 100K house in the Midwest.  Or you can do both, do a cash out refi (not heloc), you now have more money to play with.  

Yes, leveraging will eat away at your cashflow, but it allows you to get into bigger assets.  I personally am not a big believer in 25K houses. On paper they look good, you might make it to work if you are local, but long distance investing in 25K assets is scary to me.

I'm currently in the process of buying a SFH in Ohio. It needs work. I'm buying it for 110K ARV is 160-170K. I'm putting in 15-20K in upgrades. So I'm all in for like 50K, my monthly PITI is about 800 and my rent is about 1500. After management my cash on cash is about 10% and I have 40K in equity if I need to get out of the project.

Good luck.