All Forum Posts by: Mike Warder

Kunal Mishra I bought two buy and hold places in the area, a townhome in North Charleston and a SFH in Summerville. I called around and found an agent I liked. We talked about what I was looking for and she did all of the legwork. She steered me clear of some areas and looked for places that she thought would appreciate in value in addition to cash flow. Obviously, I ran numbers on everything. The PM I have in the area is handling some minor repair work: replacing carpet for LTV, cleaning, painting, etc. Unfortunately, being out of state means I can't always buy at a steep discount and forced appreciation isn't really an option. Most of the places I look at are basically rent ready. That means my short-term returns are okay, but not amazing, but that's okay with me given my current situation.

Just to follow up, I ended up finding a great second PM to work with. The first one ended up not working out and having the second one in place made it so much easier to make a transition.

Congrats! I recently bought two places in the area as well. Check out Highsmith insurance. An agent recommended them to me and their rates were the best, but not by that much.

I am 5 years in to the 10 year forgiveness program, paying on the income-based repayment plan, currently called PAYE I think. I have 200k in student loans and my monthly payment of roughly $1,100 doesn't even cover the interest. My wife and I file taxes separately so that her income is not considered in my monthly payment calculation. The tax issue is a big one for us. If one spouse itemizes, the other has to as well. As a result, we have had to take the standard deduction each year since we haven't had enough deductions to justify both of us itemizing. So we haven't been able to fully realize the all of tax benefits of our real estate investments yet. I contacted the department of education at one point about possible changes to the loan forgiveness law and how it would affect me. The person I talked to said not to quote him, but that there was no precedent for not grandfathering in people who had already enrolled in the program. He said not to worry about it. Take that for what it's worth. Make the minimum payments on your student loans and keep investing in real estate. I'd love to hear a contrary view though. Perhaps I haven't thought it all out correctly.

Any other PM recommendations? I'd hate to go with one of the companies that people have had bad experiences with. I live out of state and have a Summerville SFR that will need a PM soon. Charleston One seems okay, but i don't like paying 50% of 1st month's rent for tenant placement. Is that % fairly standard? And, I'm worried that with such a large company, my property, communications, repairs, tenant placement, will fall through the cracks. All insights and recommendations are welcome!

I think it depends on the reason. My wife and I are currently in an apartment where the shades were see through and we overlooked the pool deck. We didn't know they were see through until someone came and knocked on our door to tell us. They could see into our bedroom and bathroom. Our landlord installed new shades. We would have raised hell or left, but they thought it was a reasonable request. I say keep the tenants happy. After my experience, I'd probably go the extra mile for my tenants if they didn't feel comfortable or safe.

I just lined up a property management company for a buy and hold townhome I closed on yesterday in Summerville, SC. I have a SFR there that will close soon and I need to decide whether to find a second company to manage it, or to just use the company i'm using for the townhome. I'm investing from out of state and know it can be difficult finding good management companies. I've done my due diligence on first company, but I won't really know how much I like them until we get tenants and spend some time working together. I'm thinking to use a different company for the SFR to hedge my bets in case one doesn't work out. None of the companies I've looked at offer any financial benefit to managing two properties.

Anybody have experience with this approach? Am I thinking about this the right way? Thanks in advance for any insights. 

Hey everyone, I'm refinancing a rental condo in Denver. A couple weeks after submitting all my paperwork, the bank is only now ordering an appraisal and says it will take 4-6 weeks. Is that normal right now? Originally, the bank said they could close the refi in 30 days, but now it looks like closer to 60-70 days. Drawing out the refi might complicate another purchase I'm contemplating. Thanks in advance for your inputs.