All Forum Posts by: Jonah Kolsrud

Great to see you starting your journey so young! I would highly recommend devoting time to listening to the podcast and reading a few books. ,For books, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki will come highly recommended and I myself am a big fan of Set for Life by Scott Trench. Once you get a few books under your belt I would recommend joining a local REIA or meetup to meet some veterans of the game and always look for an opportunity that you could add value to them (i.e. driving for dollars and giving them leads local to your area, etc.) This value add portion is key as it gives you an organic mentorship and people in the REI community tend to be personable and want to help you as well!

If you ever have more questions, I would be happy to help point you in the right direction as best I can!

Hey BP members,

In a market which is fiercely competitive, I am looking to figure out how I can make numbers on potential properties be even more profitable with such limited inventory. I have seen in previous posts (see below) where a number of great ideas were presented with everything from billing tenants back for water (situation permitting based on meters), advertising opportunities, RV spots to rent, storage sheds, and even changing to more water efficient shower heads. As technology continues to improve and investors become more connected to share there ideas I am wondering what other great creative cash flow opportunities exist! I look forward to some awesome responses that will hopefully add value to everyone!

Previous Articles for reference:

-https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

-https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Thanks and Happy New Year!

@Mitchell Herman Fantastic idea, I would fall into the statistic that prefers such a service as a means of getting the answers I need faster. Follow up question, how would one go about even having that feature added to their website and what is the cost implication? Is it a subscription type model or single purchase?

@Filipe Pereira the Google form is genius! I love the idea of being able to weed out potential tenants without going on a wild goose chase. I saved your previous post so I can reference for the future! 

Hey BPP members,

I am a process improvement junkie and am wondering what ways you automate you processes. I've seen Appfolio and Buildium which can automate rent collection (among other features), other apps allow for automatic pre-recorded voice mails to reach leads, and even more that can do any number of actions for email marketing. I feel that there are more tools out there which can open up tons of possibilities! I think this directly ties into the last podcast mindset shift of Who Not How!

Thanks in advance!

@Anthony DiBenedetto Welcome to being a new investor (I myself am new as well)! My advice to you, is the same I was given. Education is the key to any success and is a great place to start (8 pages a day is a book a month). From reading you will find there's a million different avenues to go down, whether that means bringing in a partner or as Ben mentioned above you could secure owner financing (the possibilities are endless which is both a pro and a con). My personal journey to buying a first property involves a whole lot of side hustling after my 9-5 (Doordash/Ebay sales) and working to reduce my expenses wherever I can to buy a house with a traditional loan. 

Stay patient and spend as much time as you can sharpening the axe. Luck is just the intersection between hard work and opportunity!

@Casey Crowe a valid point, thanks for the feedback! Any thoughts on it being a value add when going to exit the property as an attention grabber?

Hey BP members, I was doing some research on tax advantages to switching solar in South Carolina for rental properties. From what I can see there is both a state tax credit (25% of the total system cost up to $35,000) and federal tax credit (30% with no cap), but am curious what other investors experience has been with having these installed on rental properties. It seems like it could be a viable strategy on to increase cashflow by having renters pay you vs. your local energy provider (i.e. you charge a flat rate per month to renters that covers your financing cost on the panels + a set amount for you to pocket).

Thanks in advance for everyone's thoughts/experiences! Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey BP Members, I'm trying to determine if its worth it to save more and do a traditional home loan or start my REI journey earlier and eliminate my rent expense by using the 203k loan (currently I have enough saved for an FHA loan). My goal is to house hack a duplex/triplex/4plex as I know with FHA loans it has to be owner occupied.

Are there any nuances/obstacles outside of the PMI that I should be factoring into my considerations?

@Jaquetta T Ragland Yes, closer to work would be preferable but I am not opposed to a commute <30 minutes. I would be working right next to the airport!