All Forum Posts by: Riley Holt

Thank you all for your sincere replies. I am trying to keep my expectations realistic. I am looking into 2 bedrooms right now so maybe I won't court the "families' with kids causing issues. I guess in the grand scheme of things any and every tenant has the potential to be trouble. I guess having a strong vetting process in place will help limit the potential damage. And as a follow-up, I guess I was more surprised that the landlords never felt the need to fix the issues or I guess weren't made aware of them. Who knows.

So I have been actively looking for good investment properties for the last two months. I went and looked at two yesterday that were still tenant occupied. The standards of living are so crummy at the houses that I wonder how people live like this. I want to get a rental and make it nice. Decent floor. Functioning toilet and shower. No significant holes in the walls. The people living in the current houses that I viewed seemed quite content to live in these "crap holes". It makes me wonder if my standards are too high. I'm not trying to make these places flips or super fancy but I do feel like if I have a decent property that I could find decent tenants. My friend who has a ton of rentals keeps telling me "Even if this house is not a rental, the tenants will turn it into a rental fast." Is it just poor tenant management and selection or is this something y'all see across the board?

Thanks for the information guys. @Tony Wooldridge thanks for the encouragement. Yes I am starting out but am gearing up to start actively offering on properties once financing is in place in the next month. Yes I want to make it fair enough for both my brother and I. I appreciate everyone’s insight. 

So I understand the private money lender as it pertains to say a flip. I find the deal, private money lender pays the down payment plus rehab or something close to that, once done I sell the house and after the investor recoups is investment we split the profits. But how does this work with buy and hold? We split the profit of monthly rent payments? What about the money that should be set aside for repairs and vacancies? I just can’t figure out how that works?!  Sorry if this is a stupid question but I’m about to enter into this next scenario with my brother and I want to make sure we are both getting a fair shake. FYI he lives in a different state and he wants to invest where I live  

I too am curious if you gleaned any wisdom from all those seminars. Glad you are here. I am new as well but excited for the journey. 

Thanks for all the input guys. I definitely will try to shop around some banks. I ended up passing on the property. I do appreciate everyones input. And yes, I do NOT want to become a slum lord. I can see the appeal of getting cash with lower investment but at what cost?!

Well the reason I didn’t think it would work is that I don’t have much cash to buy it outright and the bank only want to do 15 year notes. I ran all the numbers through a program called DealCheck and that was giving me the loss of investment information. I guess the major question I have is are y’all making the properties something to be proud of or as purely a money maker and the condition of the property, as long as the tenants are paying, doesn’t matter as much?

Wow. Thanks for all the support everyone. As it stands I have already spoken to my bank and am working on getting all the financing established so when I find the right property I will be ready to roll. @May Emery thanks for the tips. I will definitely be putting them to good use. @Brandon Pierce I would love to use real estate as a means to wean myself from the grind of Wound Care to hopefully be able to spend more time with my family. Baby steps though. 

So a friend of mine is into real estate and he has been doing it for years. He currently has like 12 SFH, 2 mini storages, 2 warehouses. He brings in like 18-20k/month from all his stuff. He wants me to get a house that is like 26k, pretty dilapidated, but already has a renter paying 440/month. I did my due diligence and it doesn't work but he is convinced it will. How do I proceed? I feel like he thinks I should be buying in like D neighborhoods when I would prefer c or b neighborhoods. Thoughts on this situation?

I could understand that. I guess my hang up is this. Say we rent a property for $900/month. After all is paid up we get a cash flow of $200/month. But say there is an issue that needs repair or something. How do we address this kind of issue?