All Forum Posts by: Reece Iovine

$10,000 is more than enough if you plan on owner occupying a property. I started with a duplex, lived on one side rented out the other. Bought for 170K 5% down 4K back at close. I was out of pocket 7500...great way to get your feet wet :)

Have prospective tenants fill out some minor qualifying info first before offering showings then charge fee when they actually apply. 

I use tenantturner.com and they pre qualify leads before allowing them to schedule a showing. Anyone who is not willing to give their name, phone, credit, income before a showing is not worth your time :)

I should also note for more complex renovations an architect and engineer would be involved in the plan creation process.

Write a scope of work and draw out a floor plan with the changes you want to make. Then make an appointment with the columbus building department. They can help you with the plan paperwork and are the ones who will approve the plan. Once the plan is approved it will also state what items need permits/inspections and which don't. For a single family home you can pull the permits yourself and do the work if you want or you can get licensed contractors to pull the permits against the plan for you.

Cap rates vary based on many economic factors. I live and work in columbus ohio where job growth is generally strong with a diverse employment base and growing population. This leads to high investor interest and lower cap rates vs Cleveland which is 3 ish hrs north of Columbus. Cleveland has generally declining population growth except for downtown, and a more narrow employment base which leads to higher cap rates. I think you can invest successfully in both areas but i preffer columbus for the apreciation and the ability to still find cashflowing deals

I believe your 400K budget will go a long way here in columbus. I got started with a 165K duplex and it has been great so I bought 2 more. In B neighborhoods you can find duplexes from 125K-300K depending on bed count and rehab status...

I don't personally invest oos since my market columbus ohio is great, but there are a lot of pros to investing oos. I don't believe it is more difficult, what what it does is forces you to focus on building a business and bringing team members into that business. Instead of doing a renovation yourself and probably wasting a lot of your time, you need to find a great contractor, instead of managing the property yourself and wasting a lot of time, you need to find a great PM. OOS investing has some great benefits in addition to obvious cons.

Nice!

FHA is an expensive option, for owner occupied 1-2 units I have a lender that does 5% down conventional no pmi... In all reality its wrapped into the interest rate but rate is still usually lower than fha with out the fees and yo ucan refi later once at 25% equity...

Depending on where you're located you might be able to find a low down conventional option as well better than fha.

Are you going to live in the property? If its turn key sounds like a good investment, also 50% rule might be too much on a duplex if you are living in one side, it has all those capital improvements and you self manage. 

I usually look for value add but if you just want to get in the game I think its good