All Forum Posts by: John Morgan

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Quote from @Sam Andrews:

Quote from @John Morgan:

I self manage 10 SFR out of state and it's easy. I also self manage 19 SFR within a 30 min driving distance to me.

@John Morgan How or what techniques are you using to self-manage 10 SFR OOS? Please do tell.

I just wing it. I do my leases and some payments for free with apartments.com. I asked locals for references for handymen. I use Zillow or word of mouth when I have vacancies. I’ve only had 4 vacancies, but found 3 great tenants from my current tenants asking if they knew of anyone needing a place. And listed one house on Zillow. I found a new renter within 4 hours. I cash app my handymen and it’s worked out great. Don’t over think it. Oh, and I keep people in all my rentals under market rent so I rarely have turnovers. I’ve got 29 SFR and this has been my strategy along with investing in C to C+ class hoods. Most of my tenants stay for many years. Turnovers crush profits. Be a good landlord and your tenants will take care of you is what I’ve found. 

I self manage 10 SFR out of state and it's easy. I also self manage 19 SFR within a 30 min driving distance to me.

I would wait until you have more equity and do a cash out refi when the interest rates lower at least 1% or more. Might be a few years but consider doing a cash out refi while you refi and pull some equity out to use as a down payment on another rental or two. That’s what I do and how I’ve grown my portfolio with no out of pocket $.

If I can’t find anyone within a week or two I lower the rent $100. And I’m usually $150 or more below market rent when I first list them. I want my properties rented out right away vs sitting vacant for a month or two. We currently have an over supply of multi family in most areas. But building permits are WAY down so we’ll have a shortage of housing in a couple years. Just plan on rents softening for the next couple years, especially MF. But it’ll pick up in a couple years and you’ll see market rent come way up and continue to rise 2-5%/year starting around 2027.

@Sejin Kim

I’ve bought my last 30 properties with the listing agents. It’s so much easier to negotiate and buy the properties dealing directly with the listing agents. The seller only pays a 3% commission so my offer looks more attractive to them. I’m usually low balling anyway, but I like using the listing agents because almost all of them give me a lot of good intel about the sellers which I leverage when I make my offers. All my properties worked out great and I have no regrets. But realtors will tell you to get a buyer’s agent. lol

I would say my property taxes and insurance on your unit went up $84/month this year from last year, so I will need to bring your rent up $75. When I phrase it like this, people understand I’m not a greedy landlord and have higher costs too not including labor and materials going way up every year.

Not many of us are selling with rates sub 4%. Find money other ways. Thats what I’ve been doing.

I’ve got 6 tenants that pay me in two payments every month. One guy pays me every Friday. lol. This is why most of these people are life time renters, they can’t manage their money and live their lives paycheck to paycheck. I survive and they are happy.

My wife absolutely hated real estate once I bought my 3rd or 4th rental house. I begged her for me to get rental #5. Then promised her my 10th rental would be my last. Then more deals fell in my lap. I was buying and holding 2 houses a year for the first 5 or 6 years. She went nuts on me for doing it anyway without her being on board. I wanted to create generational wealth, have a hedge against inflation with my $ and diversify my wealth, vs being 100% in the stock market. It was so bad, the kids would even tell me to stop buying rentals because they would hear her complain to me every time I bought a new house.

Fast forward to now, 10 years since we bought our first rental. She retired 3 years ago due to the mailbox money being well above her income which was 65k/year. The real estate profit is around 240k/year now. I bought her a couple brand new cars in the last 5 years to keep her happy. And to show her that real estate isn't so bad and allows us to have more time off to do whatever we want and not worry about finances ever again. And I just bought her a 350k condo in AZ for us to enjoy on getaways and not rent out. She's on board now, but she still demands me to quit buying. lol. I told her I'm done. 29 SFR is enough. This was my journey with getting my wife on board. It wasn't easy and I'm not sure she ever was on board. But she now sees the rewards of buying and holding rentals after 10 years.

My advice is to spend money on her along the way. Don’t vomit her with real estate shop talk if she’s not really into it. Keep the conversations about RE minimal unless she initiates it. And when you have major cap ex issues that come up, keep some of it or all of it on the down low. Spending money on cap ex still freaks out my wife. It’s just part of the business so I don’t even flinch. But it stresses her out. Good luck! And hopefully she teams up with you and gets into it. If my wife was more on board with RE investing, I think I could be making two or three times the cash flow. But I’m cool with what I have and now a happy wife, so I’ll stop buying rentals and stay away from Zillow. lol