All Forum Posts by: Mike Savage

We have been renting a great 4 br 2.5 ba house for 12 years.  Usually our tenants are a couple or a couple w a small child.  Recently a group of 4 graduate students showed interest.  One of the students toured the house with her father and they absolutely loved the place.  Her father will be co-signing on the lease.  I've not thought this rental group through yet but can anyone recommend the best method moving forward?  Should I even rent to roomates?  Any deal breakers?   BTW all 4 of the students will be in school for at least 2 years.  Two of the students will be in school for 3 years.  I usually have a 1 year lease with option to renew after discussion in February.   Appreciate feedback.  Hot summer, brain not thinking clearly.  

I was recently contacted by a camera man who is interested in making a feature film at our property.  It is currently vacant.  I have reached out to some contacts I know in the movie biz for advice but wanted to see if anyone on the forums here have real world experience.  

Thanks Peter Jay, Sam et al.  I am considering my next post asking the general question how much is enough $$?  Also what is the ideal exit plan?  As the days go by all I really want to do is get to FI.  I'd like to have that tomorrow with all the work i've done yesterday. The way I look at it is a monthly cash flow in 2018 dollars of $10k from our rentals while not touching any of our other retirement savings will work fine for our family.  Anything after that is gravy.  Seems investing in more properties could be more headaches and certainly will feel like a "job"  Short term goals are be available for our son before he flies the coop.  (Empty nesters in 4 yrs.) Many of you know how fast that happens.  Eat better, exercise more, live abroad and look for effective volunteer work for my encore career.  

Hi Michael.  Are you saying that you then refinance your properties after they double in value?  do you then purchase more properties with those monies and thats how you see more than your "$100 a month"?  

Chris Youssi

Hey Chris! I hear ya. I've been VERY happy with our SFR's as far as peace of mind and management expectations. Every time I see a mortgage statement with our balance declining I get a slight charge thanks to our ace tenants. However after studying daily about money models and listening to multiple guests on BP podcasts I'm trying to envision repositioning or reallocating our assets. After diving into BP I guess I'm trying to figure out how to maximize our assets and feel REALLY GOOD about the quality of life we get from them. It's been a great 14 yr. ride so far. Sometimes I think they should interview a regular guy like me to learn how I got to this point and what I plan to do moving forward. For every hotshot I read about on BP there are a 100 people in our network that are certainly competent enough to be solid investors but just lack that first step. I enjoy sharing our experiences with them.

We=My wife is funneling listings nightly usually thru Zillow.  We also have an agent sending us daily listings. 

wow.  just back from nice vacation with my family.  my head is spinning and might need to reread 2 or 3 times to get my head sorted.  today we went to our bank and met with residential loan officer who can preapprove on up to a 4 unit property.  she also has a commercial loan officer contact who I will reach out to learn much more about their rules.  we are looking at listings every night before bed.  I want to be ready if we find the right type of property.  one of our rentals is turning over and i've been over there working.  it's very nice and has super appreciation in this nutty Portland market.  Views, great layout, tons of storage, quiet dead end street, great schools, hiking trails. etc.  We think about renovating it and moving back in someday after I find out what the new tax laws mean for investors related to mortgage tax exclusion sale rule.  

ok.  so i just did some quick math.  seems we conservatively have $900k in equity in the 3 rentals and $36k Cashflow / yr.  so my basic math has that at 4% 

is that right? 

Hey Joe,  thanks for the great feedback.  i will work on getting my numbers buttoned up and let you know more.  I've been very interested in commercial but don't feel I know enough about that space to operate successfully.  will need to study up on that for sure.

Thanks Josh,  Can you recommend particular BP podcasts that talk about cap with examples?  that's new to me.   BTW i'm listening to episode 276 right now.  very good!