All Forum Posts by: Jacob Pereira

At 61 years old, I'm assuming he's still capable of making his own way and solving his own problems. He may be emotionally needy, but unless he's had early-onset dementia or another serious mental condition, he's probably not as vulnerable as you seem to think. That said, I don't know him or you, so it's just conjecture on my part.

I think it's great that he asked your advice, which you should give, but it's not your job to make his decisions or clean his messes for him. The nice thing is, he has a lot of easy outs if he truly is not interested in her; he can simply drag his feet on helping her with the student visa and when it expires she'll have to leave anyway, he can kick her out for lying on her application, he can just wait out the lease, etc. Of course, he can also do the much harder thing of just sitting her down and telling her exactly what he's thinking. It tends to be tough, but I've found that it also tends to be the best solution in the long run.

Are you sure it's 130k in deferred maintenance? That's a lot. I just put a new roof on a fourplex I own (approx. 4000 sqft) for less than 10k. I'm not sure how extensive the dry rot is, and how hard-core of a retaining wall you need, but I imagine it'd have to be barely livable for that much needed repair.

I'm sorry you're getting so much hate on here. I also quit my job before it was the best financial decision for me. That said, I did have 12 units and enough cashflow to live (frugally) on. If you truly hate your job, but haven't built up a safety net, I'd suggest you do one of two things:

1. Stay at your job for two more years, but start buying up real estate aggressively during that time. "House hack" the first fourplex in a dingy neighborhood that has decent numbers that you can find. That'll allow you to put down a low down payment and help you save up the 25% you'll need to buy an investment property. You should aim for property #2 in 6 months. After a year, move to your next fourplex and repeat. After two years you should end up with 16 units, which will hopefully give you enough of a buffer to quit and experiment with different opportunities. Full disclosure, I tried to follow this model, and only ended up with 12 units after 2.5 years, but had I been smarter/luckier, it would have been very doable.

2. Start sending out resumes; we're at close to historic unemployment in the US (although I do seem to recall that WV isn't doing as well), so finding a new gig shouldn't be tough. You can still follow the model above; it'll probably take you a bit longer, but you'll be happier.

After all, isn't happiness the end goal for all of us? 

We're all guessing here, but I'm betting on a short-term slowing of real estate markets as fear keeps people from making major purchases for the next few months, and then business as usual. Presidents tend to not have much direct influence on the economy (except for wars).

I have a bus stop in front of one of my fourplexes, and people would constantly cut through my yard to get there. All I did was put up a fence and the problem was instantly solved. The tracks issue is tougher, though.

In my area, some flippers are starting to increase values by converting duplexes into single-family and then selling. Keep in mind that more units doesn't always mean higher value. I applaud your creativity, but it sounds like this one is a losing proposition.

@Maria S., Zillow is terrible for validating rents. I'm not sure how their algorithm is put together, but it's obviously some sort of aggregation and the numbers come out really screwy. If you have a realtor you work with, have them set up searches for leases in the vicinity of your current rentals that fit similar criteria to your property. Rentometer is also not a bad site. Anyone else have any good suggestions?

@Jon Q. hit the nail on the head. Sure, in @Marc C.'s scenario you only make 20% returns on the total amount, but if you factor in that you're only putting in 25% of the cash, you're really making 80% annual returns (simplified math; I know the reality depends on the year, interest, closing costs, etc.). Either way, that's quite a bit better than 11% CoC. Heck, even just fully passive investments in S&P index funds will make you 7-8% over time (not including dividends), and you don't have to read the fine print, nor are you exposed to potential amateur businesspeople.

@Steven Maduro,

I've never run into any other posts from this series, but I love the concept. I used to do a lot of the work myself, and now that I quit my W-2 job, I'm still doing some myself, but I'm becoming more and more cognizant of how expensive it is to do your own work. It takes twice as long, is half as good, and the material cost is about 20% higher.

I'll continue to do some of the work myself because I enjoy it and I think the education is helpful for future decision-making, but I'm aware that it's an expensive hobby to do my own work. Continue writing these, and I'll start reading them.

I love this site, but there is one thing that really irks me, and that's the amount of posts that are just peoples incorrect assumptions or even straight-up lies, rather than actual information. I think most landlords with experience see right through it, but for some less experienced members it could be a very expensive lesson, or, as I saw in one recent forum about asbestos, for example, even be detrimental to their health.

For this reason I'd like to add to @Eric M.'s suggestion and say that you might want to take a page out of Reddit's book. I think it would be nice if the more votes a post got, the higher up in the forum the post would show. It would also be nice to have a downvote button for those posts that are obviously false or just plain bad advice. That way, the best advice would float to the top, and all the misinformation would be lost at the bottom.