All Forum Posts by: Mary M.

Do you have an agent working for you? in a hot market you need that intel to be able to succeed. Also, dont forget that even if you bought a local property that was negative cash flow - if rents increase over time your cash flow will increase. REI is a long game. and IMHO its better to invest where you know and where you can be eyes/hands on.....

REI is not a get rich quick scheme. It is a building wealth over time deal. If you dont have the pile of cash to use as seed money it will be slower still. If you want to flip houses realize that GCs are months out for new jobs and you will have a very hard time finding a good contractor in the beginning.

In my opinion, the best way to get going is to buy a house as your primary, live there for a year then rent it out.  Or if you have the means you can try your hand at flipping but again that is not as easy as it sounds unless you have experience and connections. 

Perhaps you can join your local rental owners association or REI groups and start getting plugged in....  but dont quit your job!!!

multi fam in a popular elite college town

The others have covered why it is probably not the tenants fault, but I want to mention that *if* this was the tenants fault (sounds like it is not) then best practices (and some state/local laws)  state you can ONLY charge them for the replace  the damaged area and only the non depreciated value of the damage. So for example if the floor is 15 years old ad the depreciation timeline is 30 years the you could charge the 50% of the cost. 

I used a commercial RE agent ad purchased commercial multi family - ie 2 small buildings - one 12 units the other 8.... I suggest conecting with a known entity CRE agent (I used Colliers) ad see if they have some ideas for you.

ETA: I have a total of 20 units and I self manage. I do as much as possible myself including repairs, cleaning, leasing etc., it is NOT anywhere near a "full time job"  I am happy to chat with anyone who is interested in knowing how much time I spend etc. 

be absolutely sure you read the local laws as it pertains to covid.  You may or may not be in an area where if she applies for assistance she will need a grace period of x days (here is 60-90)  ....

I agree a good tenant is really worthwhile. I would probably ask her to pay the water bill...  and leave rent the same.  Or, have her pay half the water bill and increase her rent $30-40....  You can sign a 6-12 mo lease whatever she prefers. I would not take 6 months of rent up front. 

My suggestion is: before you close be sure you sign up/join your local and state  rental owners association. Then take any and all classes they have for new owners. 

Also a good idea to read the Ll/tenant law in your state/locale 

To win in this game of REI you need to know the rules of the game you are playing :)

I think you are forgetting the actual asset that is purchased which is holding the value of the cash spent.   I am not looking to aggressively grow, I am looking to have a steady income in retirement.  Dont forget that the asset grows in value over time, rent appreciation happens as does debt pay down.  My goal is income not asset growth so leverage is not really something I want to aggressively use. (in fact I wish i had bought all cash)    I think people forget that each person has a different need ....  and while I could use my cash to grow grow grow I have no need to do that.  I have other goals in life. 

I make over 10k/month, and live off my rentals. However, i started with a large chunk of cash and was able to reinvest and triple it.  I dont have a goal of reinvesting and reinvesting - my investment is purely to produce enough income for me to live on. Thats it. 

I will say that I look at REI differently I guess - I look at it as how much do I make on my money invested - so say I invest 1,000,000 I would expect that I should make about 60k/year (6%) (this is based off my location and type of investment) of course this will change over time as rents increase, etc.... but in a nut shell its just investing and what your money in will produce.

There are as many ways to invest in RE as there are people doing it.....