All Forum Posts by: Pete Krentz

You won't be able to find much that's great outside of going to the courthouse and paying for a list.  SD struggles immensely with information, digitization, and most importantly sharing. it's the same when I try to pull info on tenants for a screen and can't find anything. None of the government agencies talk to each other and therefore information is hard to come by. 

You were lucky indeed. And they are exactly why every tenant needs to be thoroughly screened!

To start Pit bulls are wonderful dogs. Before everyone was afraid of them it was dobermans, and before them German Sheppards. There is always the scary breed of dog out there. I worked in the pet industry for years and I'll be honest it is 100% the owner's fault if a dog is a jerk.  A primary job of pit bulls hundreds of years ago to take care of BABIES while people were out hunting/working. They are really not mean animals unless the owner trains them to be. That being said I've been bitten exactly 0 times by large breed dogs and had hundreds of encounters a day with them. I've been bitten dozens of times by the little yippie breeds like shitzus and the like. The reason you never hear about those is because they are a small animal and when they bite its a small bite but when a big dog bites it's a big animal bite that breaks skin.  That all being said as Greg S said above - it still an animal and that leads to a certain amount of unpredictability.

I kind of depends. I currently live at about 15th street or so on the west side of town. It's a wonderful neighborhood has great parks and the bike path runs through (just west of Marion Rd).  There are so big apartment complexes and some smaller landlord owned houses in the area as well. If you can find a deal of a house it probably would cashflow well but I feel like the markets a little overly inflated which pushes prices up and returns down making a deal more difficult to do(prices around 140+). As for the east side where I just moved from which would have been about 15th street again and just west of 229 (it was in my backyard). That neighborhood probably would rent a little better. It's older and more established so homes are a bit cheaper (around 120K or so) The block nearest to 10th street had an apartment building that had a lot of crime in it but I lived down the street a few blocks and never had a single issue. My neighbors were great and the neighborhood was nice and quiet even with the interstate.  Really the area north of 10th near the interstate has some nice little pockets of neighborhoods that are nice as well but the closer you get to cliff ave. it gets worse quickly. If you pay close attention to the crime maps (which are usually focused around the apartments in the area) you can find some nice deals there and probably land some good tenants.  There is a mentality in Sioux falls that the "west side" is the nice side and the east side is the trashy ghetto. Though I think most people that say that have never actually been in a real Ghetto.  The middle class is pushing out the west side, especially the south west side. The rich push striaght south and into the South Eastern sides near Harrisburg. It really depends on the demographic you want to focus on. If you want middle class families I'd shoot for the west side. If you want single guys that just work and pay rent the east side is probably better.

Most of the 10th st. area near down town is inadvisable in my opinion. If you look at the map of Sioux falls where 10th/12th street branch apart near downtown is basically the low income rental area of town. Really anything North of 10th between Marion and Cliff is in that ball park (which is a lot). Not saying it's a bad place to invest because there is serious money to be made there but it's personally an area I stay away from so I don't have to deal with the issues of the neighborhood. Sure I'm sacrificing some returns by doing so, but I deal with much less headache.

As an inactive realtor in Sioux Falls. Prepare yourself to educate whomever you choose. There is a baffling level of ignorance in the rental property landscape here. Each property they list they assume is a "great deal" but are generally terrible. Since you're planning to live in your unit first you'll have better luck with easier financing and such. Best of luck!

Congrats on Diving in! Feel free to join us the local REIC to talk shop as we'd love to have you with us! PM for details on that if you're interested. That being said, I personally like option 6 as it's financed fully by you without any sort of issues though i get the winter deal issue. Winter tends to pull prices in our area down a little. The HELOC is also a good option. Especially when you'll have the money immediately and can pay off the HELOC by March with your own money. It's kind of a best of both worlds option IMO.

I have trouble getting almost all SFR's within Sioux Falls to cash flow, it's a bit easier out of town. The market prices them out pretty easily IMO. Not to say it can't be done but it's more difficult. The MF's are working a little better cash flow wise. But something I notice in this town is that the majority of the MF's are old, decrepit, a dumps. Big old houses poorly converted to MF's with single LL paid utilities run into the ground by bad management and slum lords. The nicer ones a snapped up quickly. Look at crime maps. There are pockets in SF as with all cities that have high crime and tank rents because no one wants to live there.

Really run the numbers on the other home to see if it's a viable rental. The rental market is harder to cash flow in that people think and buying a property correctly is 90% of that game. My suspicion is that since it was a foreclosure you have a better chance of that but be very careful in repairs. Over estimate the repair budget as many inexperienced flippers drastically under estimate them. A cash out refi is how a lot of investors get started but your home payments will either grow or return if you've already paid it off. You're also now putting your own home at risk should you be unable to pay. But again if your numbers are solid for each piece, go for it!

I'd looked into them myself a few months back.  It also sounded too good to be true. I called the state trade commission after they seemed very hesitant to show me their documentation and the woman on the phone mentioned they'd already started to look into them and to be VERY wary of giving them any money.  I provided her the info I had and she said they were going to start an investigation following that. I'd stay away!