All Forum Posts by: Daria B.

@Account Closed 

to the point of contacting listing agents, if they are the listing agent it's in their best interest in selling it is not? How would they help me if it's their listing?

Although, yes I know what I'm looking for, I feel I need representation not just on ensuring the contract is what it is when that times comes, but also knowing that someone isn't just going to give me a bunch of not-in-my "criteria" listings (honestly I find a lot myself and I know there are properly other sources I have no access to).

I do read through contracts and my local-agent already knows what to put in for things like my contingencies to speed up the process. You know the going back and forth, please add this, take out that......

I'm already committed to looking at these homes this weekend. It's not a complete waste of time since I get to see the properties and do-the-thing-I-do. Also connecting with a friend whose wife is a RE agent who works with another guy. I "just" found this out so I need to find out more about her and her contacts. She may also be "new" I don't know. He said she was freelance and I didn't understand what that meant and didn't ask.

This also may lead me to speak again with the broker/owner as I would be tell her this isn't working and why.

Thanks all for your comments and I take them to heart and will use this information as I move forward. Have a blessed and wonderful weekend!

Hi @Account Closed

Nice to meet someone close to my area. My cousin lives at the Villages so I'm down there often - well often enough. 

I'm looking in Tallahassee for MFR and SFR.

I thought the broker / owner would be the person I would be dealing with since she herself has property. She's told me a couple of times that she has 20 though on the appraisers site I only see 16 between her and her husbands name. Anyway, this guy is getting his queues from her/his team. 

I'm leaving tomorrow night to drive up to get a fresh start Saturday.

I hadn't thought of realtors that handle foreclosures and short sales - I may have to give that a try - need to see what happens this weekend.

Thanks, I will be sure to talk to you if I decided to go in that direction.

I would be upset if explicitly having them agree to terms and they (PM) went against that agreement.

And what's this about, "oh while we are here lets get a list of things to fix".

Before the tenant moved in did you or the PM do an inspection? That's what my PM does, with pictures. 

The “out of area” for me is 2 hours. I don’t see how others do it if it’s in another state far away or in the same state more than 2 hours.

I’m finding this to be quite daunting. I like to drive areas to see if I really want to proceed and then send over to my agent the particulars. She’s great because she may know something I don’t like foundation issues (something never seen in the descriptions on the real estate web sites), which we then move on to the next property. So, yes she doesn’t just do the “robot” thing: “I’m only going to give you what you asked for.”

With homework and spreadsheet results in hand I plan on looking at some properties this weekend after my 2 hour trek.

Originally, when I asked my local-agent if she could recommend or find someone that I can work with in this area, she got back with me and gave me a name.

I called and found out that the realtor is a very young guy that unfortunately shows he has not been doing this work for very long (1 year to be exact, is being shepherded by his broker/owner more than what I thought would happen). I gave him what I was looking for and what I wanted to achieve in rent (of course that is not always doable given the market). We also talked about my expectations and I asked what he needed from me and if I send properties over what would work for him. So, initially I thought we determined what would work for both of us.

I met him on a trip up that was more for seeing friends and using that time to drive around the areas to lay eyes on. While I was there we had already pre-arranged to see one  property, unfortunately the property was trashed and beyond what I wanted to get involved with as an investment.

After that trip and more conversations to ensure both of use still had the same objectives, I ended up speaking with the owner/broker because he couldn’t answer any of the questions I had like giving me an ideal of which areas I could look at (of course without going against any ethical things that realtors have to abide by), rents I could get, area sales. Yes, I did the “web search for crime”, looked up some rental rates, and tried to narrow my areas to a smaller net of homes. By nature I am a researcher so if I say this is what I want then know I’ve already done my homework and have decided. There is a ton of information out there and I looked at learning a new area before dealing with any realtor. Maybe all agents work differently but my expectation is from my experience with my local-agent that is a forward thinker and communicates well and is well versed in her craft.

The conversation with the broker/owner he works for flooded my ears with cap rates and expectations on areas like students populate here or more professionals in this area but some grad students, if I am looking at student rental then I need to be weary of the cycles (in/out when they look for housing, etc). Wow, ok this is what I was asking for…..Ideally, the purchase price for as low as it can be bought and the rent that will cover the expenses and still have cash flow, and being rentable is the investment.

To the point of looking “out of area”, I am traveling to see properties and want to utilize this time effectively to see as much as I can given the fact that I can only do this on weekends. He asked, “which properties are you most interested in so we can *just* see those”? Well,…..I’m interested in the list I gave over so that I can lay eyes on the property and investigate if it’s worth pursuing. Is that unrealistic?

I had 12 properties initially that I would have narrowed down, but, it was narrowed down for me because 5 now have pending offers. I re-listed my list and every day one gets plucked from my list. Nature of the beast! I don’t think it to be unrealistic to see 7 properties in two days since I don’t live in this area. Am I going about this all wrong? I don’t think I am?!?. How best else to utilize the time knowing I only have a few hours to make a decision on what to pursue *if* to pursue at all. I’m utilizing the same mind set as if I were at home and found properties to look at, doing the same steps; it’s just a 2 hour distance away.

It took a little longer after getting comps to filter through and then just do some web searching because he gave me properties that were a year to 3 years old. How those would be comps, I’m perplexed. If there isn’t anything in the immediate area then don’t they have to go out of area to another sub-division/location? The last property I purchased, that’s just what happened, both the realtor upon giving me comps and the appraiser when it came time to do the loan, went further.

I’m an avid believer in helping someone and honestly, everyone is “new” at something at one point or another in their life. We all have to start somewhere. I’m just not sure how this will turn out. Of course the spreadsheets look good for the analysis but realistically, getting out and seeing the property and the area are what will for a greater percentage determine if it’s worth pursuing.

It was suggested to me I should let this pass and find someone else and that he’s not going to make it as a realtor. I will find out after this weekend and I hope for both of us it’s productive.

@Buck Savagethat is an interesting strategy. @Tim G.has this been something you are familiar with?

Is it also true @Brandon Hallthat for losses there can be no more than $25k? That might also be something that @Andrey Y.needs to consider and be aware of.

@Andrey Y.I see  you are in Hawaii. I was there in Maui and it was beautiful and while on vacation I was thinking of investment property but thought it was too far, I'm in Florida, to try and handle. There are a lot of homes that I found owners have as a vacation property and they lived in California.

Hi @Andrey Y.

I stumbled upon your question when searching for repair information.

What I've done with my last two properties was to take care of what needed to be taken care of prior to the tenants move-in. I do this so that there are no further issues down the road for those things that can easily be taken of after closing.

A qualified tax preparer can elaborate on the 'cost basis' and if for those items you mentioned would be included into the 'cost basis'. I wonder, it seems as though it would just be listed as a repair without being added to the 'cost basis'. But again, a qualified tax preparer would take the guessing out of this and can give you a definite answer.

And because this is probably more tax related you may want to post it in the tax forum.

Hope this helps.

I would be weary of the HOA that never goes away and will surely increase. I have a townhouse that is subject to HOA that I bought to live in years ago and it turned into rental when I moved away.

As an owner I accepted the fact that I had to pay but now as an investor and making that choice, it would not be to purchase another property that has HOA.

Yes, I can write it off on my taxes but that is not really an incentive. I don't have a note on the property so the cash flow is very good, which is why I keep it and the appreciation is also good.

But if I were to consider purchasing one today, I would not just have the HOA I would also have a mortgage that my cash flow would be going toward.

You should look at all the pros and cons and decide if you are "ok" with the cons of either a SFR or condo.

@Kevin Beresyou may also want to determine what you want to cash flow per month. That may help as well. And by all means check my numbers....I do all the time and if others see something please point it out.

I hoped I've helped in some way.

Have a great day.

@Kevin BeresI'm not sure of your numbers since you want to manage it yourself, I still put in 10% for PM fees. You may start out managing but if you don't continue then you will not have budgeted for future PM.

First you said, "15% Repair & Cap EX COMBINED" then you said "Repairs are being budgeted at $150 a month" so I was unsure of what percentage you ended up doing.

I did 10% vacancy, 5% cap ex (which is low), 18% R&M because your last statement was budgeting $150 per month.

Our calculations may differ as I take the vacancy from the Gross Rent to achieve my effective potential (some may call it something else) and then begin deducting things like Taxes, Ins, PM fees, utilities (IF they apply).

Since you didn't put taxes nor insurance I put $1000 for each. But you should include these.

I also assumed 30 yr term. The monthly expenses based on this is $406.07

Again, my calculations may differ from others or what you did but I would think they would be close.

If I just did 50% rule (as a lot of people do) it comes to $175 positive cash flow.