All Forum Posts by: Ralph Justiz

The easiest way to determine what rent should be is to search for one bedroom units in your area and charge less than that. One bedroom units are the market space you will be competing in. If your rents are the same as an apartment complex the tenants would more than likely move to an apartment to not have to share space with anyone. I used this method in college when subletting rooms to roommates. We would split utilities evenly and if anyone wanted a private bathroom they would pay a more for that. Does that answer your question?

Congrats @Muhammed Mutahr! The first deal is always a learning experience. Good Luck on your journey.

@Isiah Smith I second what @Will Fraser said. There are a bunch of great meetups around the metro that can point you in the right direction. Meet-up dot com and biggerpockets are the first place you should start looking for meetup groups. I also recommend that you reach out to @Ron Harris. Ron has guided my wife and I throughout our REI journey and has saved us from committing a ton of mistakes. Good luck!

@Account Closed OKC is hot too! Traditional multifamily units are not as common here as in other areas of the country so that makes the market very competitive. But as with anything else if you're quick to take action you can find a deal!

From what I've found for investments it's 6 months of PITI in reserves. But FHA might be a whole different beast since your purchasing the property as an owner-occupant and not as an investment property.

@Katie Miller This will be my first year as a full time real estate agent! I hope to help fellow investor find deals and use any income I make from that to fund my investment portfolio.

What do you want to do with your real estate business this year? Why?

My goal for 2020 is to achieve 100K GCI as realtor. It won't be easy but I have systems and coaches in place to help me on my journey. 

On the investing side I want to increase my monthly cash flow by 1K with as few property purchases as possible. 

What are you going to do this year to move toward financial freedom? Why?

My wife and I have tightened our spending budget to save more income to put towards our future. We are also heavily into credit card hacking and hope to have a companion pass by the end of march so we can travel the U.S. for cheap!

@Lance Castillo It really depends on the area, the condition of the house, what features it has, and the insurance provider. I usually ballpark about $1 per sqft per year on a SFH and a tad bit less for multifamily. Ex: 2000 sqft house comes out to $2000 dollars a year.

@Cassi Justiz ran into a similar scenario when we moved out of Texas. We decided to keep our property and get a property manager. It's been almost 4 years since then and we have zero complaints. We debated selling after 2 years of moving out of state to dodge the a tax hit but decided against it because the property was cashflowing better than anything we could buy then and we had a long term tenants in place. Good Luck! 

It ain't easy or else everyone would do it! If you're looking to use traditional financing on an investment property you might look at investing out of state where you can get more bank for your buck. If I were you I'd definitely check out David Greene's book on long distance investing for a different perspective on investing in real estate. 

@Brian Nel do you need to sell the property to be able to move? If you sell the property in its current condition will you make money, break even, or have to bring money to close? Are you intimidated by the idea of being an out of state landlord?  If you move out and rent the entire property out will you cash flow? If you cash flow is it enough to justify holding the property? Do you have enough reserves in the bank to fix the property if something major breaks? You should probably be asking yourself these questions and more. Weigh out the pros and cons of keeping or selling. Do what is best for you. 

If it were me I'd keep it and rent out all the units and manage the property from out of state if I could afford it. If I wasn't an experienced landlord I'd hire a property manager for peace of mind and watch the checks roll in.