All Forum Posts by: Ryan Howell

First, what are your goals - invest for retirement, build passive income, gain finanical independence by age XX, diversify you investments, etc?  Get very clear on your goals and then think strategy.  Goal setting should be independent of the "how", then align a strategy to fit those goals given your strengths, weaknesses and risk tolerance.

I also was in engineering for 13 years. An advantage is the W2 income makes you look great for the bank. So a strength would be the ability to leverage traditional financing. I would consider house hacking to start and consider the BRRRR strategy as you go as well. Maybe buy a 2-4 unit, live in one unit and rent out the rest. Good luck!

I recommend finding an agent who is also an investor, perhaps at a local meetup.  A lot of this feedback is spot on.  I started as an investor, wanting to see properties well below the average price in my market and wanted everything spoon fed to me up front before making an offer.  Its natural when you're getting started, but agents know that 90% of "investors" who reach out to them getting started aren't ever going to do a deal.  That said, build relationships with agent investors at meetups if you're serious and they can coach you.  In my market, by the time you get done asking all the questions on a good deal, it will already be under contract.  Serious investors can look at a property, do an estimate and know that they gain all the leverage in the deal AFTER its under contract, so they make offers with limited information and negotiate on the back end when they have the property tied up with a contract.

Echoing what everyone else has said - House hack or live in flip...minimize your risk, learn as you go, no time pressure as you will have with hard money.  When you're done, you may even be able to buy and hold it as a rental and move to the next deal while taking advantage of the owner occupant loans from living there.

@Patrick Bavaro - Way to go!  Careful, its addicting!

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When I first started, I needed questions answered.  As I've gained experience, I don't come with questions as often but to help others.  Similar with our real estate meetups.  At a certain point in the journey I think we all realize the benefits of the networking way outweight the immediate question we may have that we want answered.

Way to go!  Mindset is powerful and the first step is the hardest.  Once you start you’ll find it’s addicting.

@Ben Morand - Have you talked with your landlord about breaking your lease and what they would charge you?  I wouldn't right off a house hack only on the basis of being in a lease.  Compare the costs.  They may charge you $XX to get out of your lease, but you could save significantly more buying being able to get an owner occupant mortgage instead of an investor type loan, plus the opportunity costs I discussed above.  It could still be worth it.  Remember, successful people don't say "I can't" but "How can I" - I think that's a Robert Kyosaki quote (not sure), but I've learned to ask myself that in every decision I make and it has made a huge difference in my decision making ability.

I'll go first.  I only have LTR's:

vacancies - I had poor timing with 2 vacancies that took from March to June to fill.  I had a third unit being remodeled, that I just listed and had a huge amount of interest (July), so it seems that things have picked up a lot from June onward.

Payments - all tenants paid April, all but 1 paid May (-9%), all paid June and July.

Overall, vancancies were ill timed (end of February/early March), but I haven't seen much impact from those that were filled being able to pay.

How about everyone else? I know there seemed to be a bigger impact in the beginning to STR's but maybe picking back up now too?

I typically buy small multifamily with inherited tenants. My experience is mixed. The first deal the tenants were destructive and not paying. If that's the case, get them out ASAP. Also, if the house is not "livable" I also would. If it is livable and the tenants are paying and happy with the condition, then it comes down to strategy. If I'm trying to BRRRR and I need to remodel to get my money back in 6 months, then maybe you need them to vacate. If financing is not a factor and the current rents are cash flow positive, I would keep them there until they leave. Rarely does pushing for market rents justify the vacancy expenses in my experience.