All Forum Posts by: Nathan Hall

@Filipe Pereira my wife and I do this, I believe it was a "splurge on a gift for your spouse whenever you acquire a new property" mantra. My wife is onboard but appreciates it all the same!

@Christopher Lane You mentioned her job and salary. What is yours? I don't ask that to be combative, only to fully understand your scenario. It sounds like real estate is your passion, and I get that. You've also stated that divorce isn't an option. That's a tough situation. Are you building property management into your costs? It sounds like, growing up, your parents (and you) were hands on with your properties. Being able to demonstrate positive cash flow with little to zero interaction with tenants, in your scenario, is key though. If you can't do that, you'll need to find a deal where you can. YOU have firsthand experience witnessing, through your parents, how real estate can change your life for the better. Your wife very likely does not, and only understands the higher wages/benefits package role as a way to get ahead. All she knows about landlording are stereotypes from movies and late night ads, other than what she may have picked up interacting with you and your family. If you have your own income and a separate account, I'd say sack away enough until you have a down payment for a property that you can purchase with a manager, still cash flow, and have little to no heartache on. That will be your proof of concept. Don't buy it without telling her. Explain your deal analysis and that it is a proof of concept, and let it speak for itself. Get her buy-in to see something work, without risking what she's worked for. You have her trust, but sometimes you have to earn a little more trust when it comes to joint ventures. A marriage is no guarantee of a real estate partnership. I know it feels like it is slowing you down now, and it might be, but when you are both onboard you'll pick up the pace twice as fast. If you aren't both onboard, things will go south quickly.

@Shanese Francis I'm new at this, but I try to position myself in the market so that I'm excited for a recession. All of that is to say that I try to never overextend myself and find deals that make enough sense that even with a downturn, I don't feel the hurt in my W2. I postulate lower rents for worst case scenarios and if it still makes sense, it makes sense. I'm buy and hold. Should have led with that.

@Phillip Massey You actually just made me stop and think about something that my brain has been working on in the background a lot. I listen to a lot of podcasts and books, and you are correct, they do seem to tout multifamily over SFR. And they make good points. Right now I have a mixture of both that are working well (nothing crazy; duplex and SFRs). And I do get the point about multifamily providing more insulation on the payment if something goes wrong, but at the 2-4 unit level I think this is somewhat mitigated. And both of my SFRs are home runs right now, while the duplex has had hiccups. But it's also my breadwinner when it's working. I'm curious what the "insulation" benefit of multifamily is for a thing below five units, or if it is. At my level I'm working all the math as a sum of a whole. At what point does that not work, or at what point do I "graduate"? I've got a contract on my next duplex and while I'm sure it will make me money in cash flow, I know that certain things will need replacing soon. Is it fair to myself to think of the entire portfolio as a multi-unit at this point? Why, or why not?

@Cerelia Bennett it sounds like your prospective tenant is well off but not looking to provide for their future, with a history of steady qualifying income and demonstrated fiscal responsibility to their debt. An earlier poster mentioned that the tenant is living outside of their means, but I don't think we have enough information to determine that. They could easily be living within their means and just not saving for their future (admittedly, not ideal, but also not necessarily the makings of an unreliable tenant). They're living comfortably in the now, so to speak. Depending on how friendly your jurisdiction is to landlords and how difficult it would be to evict for non-payment, I don't think that I would pass on this tenant. A proven history of responsibility and ability to pay bills on time trumps a credit report that essentially states that the person has too high of a debt to income ratio. The tenant had to apply for and be approved for that level of debt. If creditors are willing to risk it, why shouldn't you? That's just my thoughts though.

Hey friends, I just figured I'd finally introduce myself. I got into BP's podcast about 1.5 years ago due to a longer commute for work, and have been a lurker/occasional poster on the site for about a year on and off. But I never did a proper introduction that posted successfully, so I figured I'd do one now. Quick facts: 39 Male Happily married 3 kids Former military Work in Northern Virginia/NoVA Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad in college, loved it, and didn't bother pursuing any of its tenents or suggestions until a few years back :) From a real estate perspective, in January 2008 I landed my first real civilian job after spending the previous seven months homeless, unemployed, and freshly divorced (it was a culmination of bad luck/decisions/timing, and leaving the service to boot). I didn't own or owe much, at that point.The new job paid well, I had a cheap studio apartment that I used infrequently due to overseas deployments, and things were looking up. In late October/early November 2008, I was in Mosul, Iraq and finally noticed that the economy was going poorly (I'm slow at times), so I decided that if it was still tanking by December when I returned home, I'd buy a foreclosure and get out of my studio. There were a lot of foreclosures. I did that and got a 5 bd, 3.5 bath in Manassas, VA for $149.9k (1968 sq ft). I lived there for the next 9 years, through another not great marriage and into a really happy one. In 2016 I was blessed with the news that my current wife and best friend was pregnant, something that I didn't think was in the cards for me. And I had two awesome stepkids to boot, already! Couple that with what had become an obnoxious 11 mile commute and one day, after 1 hour and 49 minutes in the car coming home, I just told my pregnant wife "let's pack our ****, we're moving to West Virginia." I don't expect this anecdote to resonate with anyone who hasn't dealt with NoVA traffic or seen the Eastern panhandle of WV, but I'll eat the commute for less people and a nicer home. Happily.That was my second house. It was a short sale that my wife found, a historic property from 1884 for $325k, no repairs needed. 6800 sq ft, 9 bd, 6 ba. $1772 a month out of pocket for PITI. Done deal. And I managed to rent out my Manassas home for positive cash flow of $350-ish a month. I love this new house, and it will probably be the last home I ever have an emotional bond with thanks to Bigger Pockets lol. Since finding their podcast I've gone all in and listen to inordinate amounts of podcasts, lectures, courses, and books during my commute. Plus other, non-RE stuff when I know that I can't make a move on the market. Thousands of hours of learning, honestly. After a couple of months following the move, though, I was Zillowing and noticed what seemed to be deals. To cut a too long story short, listening to BP and analyzing things, that year we also purchased a duplex 3/1.5, 2/1, $96.5k) thanks to a 401k loan. It cash flows for about $900 per month (we even had to do an eviction and learn some of Brandon Turner's tenant screening tips first hand, but I never went out of pocket).Two months ago we bought a single family 2 bd, 1.5 ba and immediately cash flowed it for $450 a month (another 401k loan, $39.5, 2 bd, 1.5 ba). As of yesterday, I have another duplex under contract with tenants in place that should cash flow for around $400 per month in the short term, then $700 in the long term (2 bd, 1 ba; 1 bd, 1 ba, recently renovated clean space). My question, I guess, if one is allowed in introductions, is...am I leveraging too much? I don't really care about my 401k because I don't contribute (right now, I probably will next year to offset income) so it is mostly employer money. I have no faith in 401ks or pensions. I'm fine/not encumbered with the payroll deductions. I'm paying myself with the payback and interest, after all. The down payment for this latest though is from a HELOC; the cash flow is still there as outlined above but I am curious if I missed anything. The payment is a minimum of $63, I think, for the interest only period. I plan on just paying the $300 (rounding up) for the bulk of the loan and paying off the balance when I sell the place in Manassas. It still works by my math. One last note is that I've been putting 25% down on all of my properties, with the understanding that it reduces my "profitability" but if I can afford it, it also buttresses me against any future downturn until I can do the RR portion of BRRRR. Thanks for reading if you made it this far, and I appreciate your thoughts!

Hey friends, I just figured I'd introduce myself. I got into BP's podcast about 1.5 years ago due to a longer commute for work, and have been a lurker/occasional poster on the forums for about a year on and off. But I never did a proper introduction that posted successfully, so I figured I'd do one now. Quick facts: 39 Male Happily married 3 kids Former military Work in Northern Virginia/NoVA Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad in college, loved it, and didn't bother pursuing any of its tenents or suggestions until a few years back :) From a real estate perspective, in January 2008 I landed my first real civilian job after spending the previous seven months homeless, unemployed, and freshly divorced (it was a culmination of bad luck/decisions/timing, and leaving the service to boot). I didn't own or owe much, at that point. The new job paid well, I had a cheap studio apartment that I used infrequently due to deployments, and things were looking up. In late October/early November 2008, I was in Mosul, Iraq and finally noticed that the economy was going poorly (I'm slow at times), so I decided that if it was still tanking by December when I returned home, I'd buy a foreclosure. There were a lot. I did that and got a 5 bd, 3.5 bath in Manassas, VA for $149.9 (1968 sq ft). I lived there for the next 9 years, through another not great marriage and into a really happy one. In 2016 I was blessed with the news that my current wife and best friend was pregnant, something that I didn't think was in the cards for me. And I had two awesome stepkids to boot, already. Couple that with what had become an obnoxious 11 mile commute and one day, after 1 hour and 49 minutes in the car coming home, I just told my pregnant wife "let's pack our ****, we're moving to West Virginia." I don't expect this anecdote to resonate with anyone who hasn't dealt with NoVA traffic or seen the Eastern panhandle of WV. I'll eat the commute for less people and a nicer home. Happily. That was my second house. It was a short sale that my wife found, a historic property from 1884 for $325k, no repairs needed. 6800 sq ft, 9 bd, 6 ba. $1772 a month out of pocket. Done deal. And I managed to rent out my Manassas home for positive cash flow of $350-ish a month. I love this house, and it will probably be the last home I ever have an emotional bond to thanks to Bigger Pockets lol. Since finding their podcast I've gone all in and listened to inordinate amounts of podcasts, lectures, and courses. Plus other, non-RE stuff when I know that I can't make a move. Thousands of hours learning, honestly. After a couple of months following the move I was Zillowing and noticed what seemed to be deals. To cut a too long story short, listening to BP and analyzing things, that year we also purchased a duplex 3/1.5, 2/1, $96.5) thanks to a 401k loan. It cash flows for about $1100 per month (we even had to do an eviction and learn some of Brandon Turner's tenant screening tips first hand, but I never went out of pocket). Two months ago we bought a single family 2 bd, 1.5 ba and immediately cash flowed it for $600 a month (another 401k loan, $39.5, 2 bd, 1.5 ba). As of yesterday, I have another duplex under contract with tenants in place that should cash flow for around $400 per month in the short term, then $700 in the long term (2 bd, 1 ba; 1 bd, 1 ba, recently renovated clean space). My question, I guess, if one is allowed in introductions, is... am I leveraging too much? I don't really care about my 401k's because I don't contribute (right now, I probably will next year to offset income) so it is mostly employer money. I have no faith in 401ks or pensions. I'm fine/not encumbered with the payroll deductions. I'm paying myself. The down payment for this latest though is from a heloc; the cash flow is still there as outlined above but I am curious if I missed anything. They payment is a minimum of $63, I think, for the interest only period. I plan on just paying the $300 (rounding up) for the bulk of the loan. It still works by my math. Thanks for reading if you made it this far, and I appreciate your thoughts!

@Matt Michaelson If it's over $600, then it requires a receipt and 1099 to be above board from a Federal liability tax-perspective. I'm not saying everyone does that, but at tax time most investors probably wish that they did.

@Russell Brazil That's interesting, but as you can imagine counterintuitive for the layman. What are some reasons that they wouldn't take the "best" offer?

@Bill Dengler We went through something similar for a place last year, where the asking price (per the seller's realtor) was $24,900. After touring the property we went in at asking. The seller's realtor came back with "there are multiple bids, please give us your highest and best offer," which we took to mean we had one shot. We had crunched the numbers and were comfortable with offering $30k, closing within ten days but at seller's discretion. We heard crickets for two weeks, then the property went off market, then two and a half months later sold for $29k. No idea what happened but I suspect someone either had an "in" or some family stuff may have been involved. After writing all of that I realize that none of this helps you a whit and I failed to provide any sort of answers or clarity. My apologies! Consider this commiseration :)