All Forum Posts by: Payton Haight

Hi Richie,

I have had 3 mid-term rentals in the midwest since 2022. It has been a great experience so far. See my responses to your questions below:

1) FurnishedFinder and Airbnb. I prefer FurnishedFinder and that is where I get ~80% of my guests.  For reference, most of my guests are traveling professionals (nurses, utility workers, relocating faculty from local universities, etc.)

2) Consider your target guest - For example if you are renting to traveling nurses, they may work night shifts and sleep during the day so you will want black out curtains in the bedroom. A few other things I provide:

- toiletries for ~1 week

- coffee

- Netflix and live tv subscription (Youtubetv or Hulu live tv)

- lawn and snow removal services

- sound machine

 3) I would recommend getting smart locks for your exterior doors. This will allow you to remotely set a code for each guest and do not have to give the guests any keys

Good luck!

Hi Michael, it sounds reasonable you are looking in to switching property managers. Lack of communication is extremely frustrating and makes you wonder: how responsive are they to your tenants? As you mentioned, read through your contract with them so you understand where you are at. 

As far as finding a new property manager, I always prefer to meet people in person, but if you are far away, you should be able to vet property management companies from afar. To be honest, property managers are likely going to prioritize their clients with more properties, but you should be able to get a hold of someone within a reasonable time frame.

A couple of questions for you: 

1) Where is your property located in Ohio? 

2) Have you considered managing the property yourself? It is not for everyone, but once you have the property leased, you should be in good shape if you have a reliable handyman and agent (or some other form of boots on the ground). I self-managed my first few properties in the midwest when I was in California - it was a relatively low time commitment. 

That makes sense. You could look around to see if you could get an investment property HELOC. I was curious what those rates and fees looked like not too long ago and was quoted 9.5% for 3% closing costs on one of my properties by Better Mortgage. I believe their minimum HELOC size was $50k though.

Hey Weston, that is awesome. Where in central Illinois is your friend buying properties? I am from central Illinois and have a few properties in the Bloomington area. Don't see too many people from that area on BP.

12% is expensive, but could be cheaper than continuously paying points on hard money loans if you are flipping properties quickly. Are there any origination or other fees to open the line of credit? Do you have a low interest 1st lien on the property? I assume that is why you are not looking at a cash out refi.

that is a beautiful home - congrats Marco!

Hey Eli, congrats on the successful deal! How did you end up with so much equity in 7 months? Did you buy under market, rehab, etc.

My advice would depend on your specific situation. If you would still be in a strong financial position after refinancing & deploying cash on a new property AND you have a steady flow of deals to buy, then I would say go for it. I would not do it if you would be spending all of your money on another property and spreading yourself thin - that could put you in a bad spot quickly.

Hi Tom,

Awesome that you are looking to get started with a house-hack. 

Personally, I would wait to close on a property until you return from your trip. It will be your first property and you want to make sure you have the time to get things started on the right foot. Perhaps you can negotiate to close on a property after returning from your trip? This will depend on the deal and the seller. It will need to make sense for the seller.

If you are going to buy a tenant-occupied property before leaving on your trip... I do not think the PM route would make much sense for such a short period of time - if you can even find one that would be willing to take that on. Paying someone you trust would probably be the best route. In my experience, tenants seem to have the most issues for the first few months after purchasing an occupied property. It would be advisable to give yourself time after closing to make sure all of your tenants are set before you hand things off to someone else. 

Hope this helps - Good luck!

Hi Fabio, since Texas is a non-disclosure state, meaning sales prices are not published, your best bet is probably going to be working with a real estate agent with MLS access.

Nice - Thanks for sharing the numbers! Looks like a solid deal if you were able to get it turned quickly.

Also, good to know about Investorlift.