All Forum Posts by: Anna Shaver

@Joey Vasquez   If you buy quality properties, know your market costs, buy at a good price going in, know your rents, and build a good team you will be fine and real estate is a very positive experience.   

Have a buffer so if you do have repairs you need to take care of it won't be a stressful situation.  When you have a little extra you make different decisions.

If you also work with a quality property manager starting out you will get the benefit of their experience as well.  You can start out with them and self manage later if you wish.  You can also ask them what areas they get better rents to property values keeping in mind you would like longer term stable tenants.

@Peter Smith  I think sometimes when we are passionate about an idea or goal we want to share it with the people who matter to us.  This can be overwhelming for them because they haven't been in our head and thinking about it for a while.  You have probably been reading and learning, she hasn't.  Don't spring it all on her at once.  Take it slow.

She has agreed to purchase the first one.  She is already on board.  If you buy a property and have a property manager she will know that ok we can do this.

I would make your plan but not share all the details a first, let her get used to the idea of owning properties and seeing the benefits from the principal pay down and additional cash flow.

My husband wasn't as passionate about real estate in the beginning but he knew I did the research, could answer his questions, or would find out if I didn't know the answer.  The last two properties he trusted me to put an offer in without having seen them first.  We talk about our criteria.  I keep him on the same page but know that he doesn't want all the details. Once he knew I won't steer us wrong, that our family stability and security is important to me and I have reasons behind decisions and numbers to back it up, he felt much more confident.  Over the years he has determined real estate investing can be a great way to work towards an early retirement.

@Jason Sampson  Wow, I am envious, you have all the tools to make good sound investing decisions with the licenses to back it up.  Thank you for speaking up.  

How is your market for rentals?  

What areas are you investing in?

@Naphat S.   

If you lived in it 4-5 out of the 5-6 years you have had it, this property might not qualify for a 1031 exchange.  Someone can correct me if I am wrong but I thought you had to have it as a rental for two years first.

If you decide to sell it and take the homeowner exemption you would have more time to make a careful selection of new properties if you decided to go this route.

I agree with @Ben Leybovich you know the area here in the bay area.  The type of tenants you have are of a completely different income level.  Once you start investing in lower cost properties with a much different median income level it comes with a different set of responsibilities and amount of work to keep your properties full.  

Rather than jumping into the frying pan and regretting the purchase of a large amount of properties, I would take out an equity line of credit and purchase one or two and see how it goes for a year before deciding to go all in.  You may decide that it is a great fit for you and if you time it right still have time to sell your existing property with the homeowners exemption making your property selection easier.

@Rodney Kuhl   You're welcome :)

@Mark Forest  ok, so say you are right and its isn't customary in Michigan.  If you were to include a copy of the earnest money check with your offer it makes it an even stronger offer.  

It could also be this in combination with in some of the houses the seller would like to sell to someone who will live in their house because of sentimental reasons.  In our market a home that would have been a perfect flip just sold to a family.  It needed a crazy amount of work which would scare away most new homeowners but the seller didn't want to sell to an investor.  

If all things are equal sometimes it is the agent you are working with. If another agent doesn't like to work with them, the way they write offers is not clean, or they have previous dealings with other agents they feel will close the deal and your agent is an unknown this can make a difference.

@Wendell De Guzman   Thank you for posting.  What is unmeasured is easier to justify lol.  Got it, so having a built in buffer is good, paying it off is not as wise of a financial decision.

@Albert Bui   Thank you for the clarification.  Looks like I have some numbers to run.

@Gary Clisele   On city-data you can look at the crime, population, median property value, household income for the area.  It is a starting point.  Rentometer.com is also helpful.  You can look at crime maps on neighborhoodscout.com.  On Trulia you can see the schools ratings for the neighborhoods and the crime.  I am not sure how accurate the crime information is but it can rule out areas that are a definite no.  I don't know if these sites are based on monthly numbers or a yearly avg and also how old is the data.  I would be curious to know if anyone has more knowledge.

@Thomas Kildow    I agree this site has a crazy amount of information to process.

One of the posts I found helpful to have a good starting place was http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/05/25/getting-started-in-real-estate/

It has links to a lot of good resources on the site, list of podcasts to listen to etc.  It made starting a little more manageable because then I wasn't just trying to read all of the posts and listen to all of the podcast, all at once, of course.  Lol.

Your carpentry background will be helpful to you.

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