All Forum Posts by: Michael Ehmann

Why Athens?

Thank you, @Cara Lonsdale ! 

Thank you everyone for the great responses! I really apprecite the input from everyone who commented. 

@Cara Lonsdale, really appreciate the depth you went into. 

@Casity Kao, thank you for your specific perspectives and the things I should consider when deciding whether to forfeit the commission to get a lower. 

This solidifies for me that I will pursue my license. One of my 2018 goals is to 1) decide whether to pursue my license (check), and 2) if so, select a course my the end of January. Looks like I've got a little research I need to do over the next 2 weeks.

If I am my own real estate agent buying an investment property for myself, do I get the % commission which would typically go to the buyer's agent? Pretty simple question. I tried to Google it but couldn't find anything (maybe I'm using the wrong search terms). Hopefully I picked the right category to post this. I'm still newer here, so if I'm supposed to post this somewhere else, let me know.

Got my loan with <1 year employment. If you're at $130k, you should be in very good shape to start.

Oh also, one other thing I forgot to mention. I'm all for systematizing things and outsourcing a lot of rehab/repair tasks. However, I personally have found it valuable to try and do some of the things myself, at least on my house hack. 

For example, before this property, I didn't know how to replace a toilet, how a washing machine works and how to diagnose problems associated with it, how to hang a ceiling fan, etc. While I do not want to be doing these things for every one of my future properties, I think it's valuable to at least have some fundamental home maintenance skills, and  experience can often be the best teacher.

So for you, I would still plan for the inevitable things that will go wrong and plan them such that you can outsource the work if you need to. But when something does go wrong, I would at least consider whether you can try to do it yourself if you have time or if you can observe the outsourced work, just so you have a better understanding of home maintenance. That's my 2 cents anyway. 

@Account Closed, I recently house-hacked my first investment (condo) by adding an extra bedroom, effectively turning it into a 3/2. Everyone else has covered anything I'd say about how much to save for extra costs, so I'll just throw in my 2 cents and talk about the different things I've had to deal with. 

In the past few months I've replaced one toilet, the washing machine, and the oven (which is like half of the appliance stuff that could go wrong). One of the biggest lessons for me: have a plan BEFORE things go wrong. When my washing machine broke, I was out of town answer got a call from one of my roommates saying that the machine was full of water but wouldn't drain. I hadn't thought through all of the "what if" scenarios to know what to do in this situation. You'll never be able to plan for everything that will will wrong, but at least think through the most likely ones (like your appliances breaking). 

The other key, as mentioned in many of the podcast episodes, is to effectively train your tenants. I have some new guys moving in next week, and we will be sitting down to review the lease together in detail so that we can set proper expectations about our tenant/owner relationship. 

Messaged you - I have some family in Indy.

@Account Closed, will this be your first investment purchase?

My goals for next year are to 1) get a few deals under my belt to build credibility and experience and 2) get plugged into my local RE community in Atlanta. Tactically, I want to: 1) Participate in at least 3 real estate deals by the end of 2018. 2) Attend every BP Atlanta monthly event, as long as I am not traveling that day. 3) Get plugged into 1 Atlanta REIA and attend each of their monthly events, as long as I am not traveling that day. 4) Analyze at least 10 deals/week, to support goal #1. 5) Get my RE License, mainly so that I can get access to the MLS. By 2019, I want to be doing enough deals where the MLS access is worth the annual membership fees. Tactically to do this: January I will select a program, likely an online course. February I will pay for the program and start the course. I want to complete the course by end of May 2018. 6) Do a good job at my day job to get my full performance bonus, which will be capital for one of my deals.