All Forum Posts by: Randy Johnston

@Andrew Smith welcome to BP, you've come to the right place for gaining knowledge on real estate investing. I also invest in buy and hold properties, we should meet for coffee sometime soon and talk real estate.

As for the breweries in portland, you've just scratched the surface. If you haven't tried any of the breweries and/or brewpubs on the East Side, you must take a trip over there. I live on the West Side and there are new breweries, bottle shops, growleries, and brewpubs popping up all over the place. One of the benefits of living in Portland. :-)

@Chris Masons I'm curious as to how you handle your roommates. Is each roommate on a separate lease agreement? What if the other two decide that they don't want another roommate, do they still pay the entire rent split between the two, or do they each have their own rent amount (1/3 of the total rent) for which they are responsible, or are the roommates responsible for the entire rent regardless of how many live there?

 Who would've thought. Though I have to admit that there are a lot of lazy pet owners out there who think it's someone else's job to clean up their pet's waste. I have two dogs and we always pick up after them . . . even late at night.

@Al Williamson Grabbing DNA from a pet to determine if the pet waste belongs to the tenants pet??? That seems extreme, and expensive, I'm not sure the fee to the tenant would justify the expense of running a DNA test. :-)

@Roy Gutierrez This being a short sale, the actual purchase price may end up being higher if the bank hasn't already approved the asking price.

As for the numbers, the devil's in the details, and if you don't do your due diligence, then you may find yourself in a negative cash flow property. You'll need more info then just the taxes and insurance. I found the following article very helpful when analyzing an investment property.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/01/19...

Also, do a search on "buying a rental property," there are a lot of excellent articles on the subject.

@Marcia Maynard I 100% agree with you about bank owned properties. If the banks were at all interested in community building, they would work with investors to move these properties and get them fixed and sold to someone who wants a home that they can take care of themselves.

As for distressed properties found on the MLS . . . there are plenty of people looking to buy them, fix them up and live in them, they feel that otherwise, they may not be able to afford a home.

@Sarah T. Congratulations on finding a Realtor with whom you can work, I personally feel that it's important to get a Realtor who knows the area and can help you through the plethora of paperwork and disclosures, which seems to change almost yearly. :-)

@Christopher V. Welcome to BP, you've come to the right place to get your questions answered. Not sure I can help you out on the introverted issue, but my first suggestion would be for you to get involved with the Northwest Real Estate Investor's Association, they have at least one of their monthly meetings in Salem, other meetings are in Portland (mostly on the West Side) and Eugene. You'll find some very experienced investor's and they're willing to share their knowledge with new investor's.

As for the LLC, you can either set it up yourself on the Oregon Secretary of State's website (not recommended), or you can work with an attorney (one who specializes in real estate would be best) to set it up for you (recommended), which should run you around $600 initially (depending on the complexity) and $100 a year to renew.

Good luck.

@Miska Paulorinne  One suggestion I would make is for you to attend either the NWREIA meetings and/or the RareBird meetings. There you will find Realtor's, myself included, who are real estate investors as well as real estate agents. Also, the members of these organizations are very experienced and knowledgeable, and they freely impart their knowledge to the newer investors.

That said, there are a lot of investors in the Greater Portland Metro Area and they're all looking for the same properties as you on the MLS (a lot of competition for the good properties, of which there are that many). But, the more successful investors find the majority of their properties through marketing directly to homeowners and not on the MLS. This means getting out there in your car and driving your farms looking for distressed and vacant properties. Once you find something that looks promising, contact either your Realtor or title rep to get additional info on the home, such as the name and address of the owner. I, as a Realtor, can run a trio for any property.

@Ross Ellington I recently discovered (through a friend) a nice site that grabs the posts from several other sites, such as Craig's List, Postlet, and Appfolio, and lays them out on a map of the local area. I've not used it much since my properties are all rented out at the moment, but it appears, at first glance, that it's going to be a great resource. You can find it at http://mapliv.com/.

@Jason Williams My wife and I held on to our very first home and rented it out when we bought our second home. It's now paid-off and we are cash-flowing $950 a month and own two more investment properties. :-)

If you ever decide you want to sell it, you can move back in and live there for two years to get the tax break.

It also sounds like you have enough equity that you can get a HELOC, or refinance to pull out cash for additional investments, as long as it cash-flows positive or break-even. Remember, your tenants will be paying your mortgage.