All Forum Posts by: Rob Roy

Hello!

My house has been on the market to sell in Chesapeake, VA for a few weeks now and we've already come down $10,000. If I lowered the price any more, I wouldn't even break even after closing closes and realtor fees. So being as I'l be carrying two mortgages come October 1st, I want to get a tenant in the house ASAP.

Looking for a GREAT property management company in Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Norfolk or Suffolk that is reasonable with their fees and will streamline the process on my end.  Any investors have recommendations for this area?

@Shelby Pracht Would you mind messaging me the same stats you have on occupancy, expenses and vanacancy rate?  I'm am looking to buy a property in the Tahoma region soon and would love to know all I can about that area-even if Truckee is a little north.  Do you know of any properties hittimg the market soon in the Tahoe City / Tahoma area?  Looking for a cabin in the $200s-$300s down there.  

Thanks!

Awesome @Matthew Wurst!  I'm in the same boat you are and am hoping to buy 1-2 multi-family properties a year to accomplish the same goals.

Also, @Matthew Wurst and @Joe Cusick I was born and raised in Emmaus, but live a little farther south now.  I'll very much be considering investing in the Lehigh Valley market in the upcoming months, if the numbers work for my budget.  But I sure do missing living in the LV!

Niklas I would be coming from Annapolis but am interested as well!

@Jon Crosby @Lisa Doud Thank you both! I've gone back and forth with this decision for a while now and have had other tell me to sell months ago - but it's hard when you put $0 down on a $300K+ house (VA loan) and have the potential to out it outright in 30 years. But I am going to sell, even if I only walk away with $10,000 in my pocket after all the realtor fees and closing costs. At least I can redeploy that money into a better market with the sole intention of generating cashflow, rather than trying to squeeze cashflow from a property that was bought solely as a primary residence.

Hello!

I'm about to leave Virginia and move up north, and am really struggling on what to do with my current property. I own a 4 bed/2.5 bath single family house in Chesapeake, VA that has a good sized fenced-in yard that backs up to a park in a great neighborhood. We are about 25 minutes to Virginia Beach Oceanfront and 25 minutes to Naval Station Norfolk.

The options as I see them are: 

-List my house for rent for 12 months and probably not get what I need to cash flow positive (I need $2350/month - *not including a property manager* and most realtors think I can get $2200/month from a long term tenant in this market).

-Put my house on Airbnb as a short term rental and "hope" that it rents out for enough weekends in September-March to get me through to the summer months (I could set high discounts to encourage long-term weekly and monthly rentals).

-Do a combination of the two - list my house on Zillow for under $2000 to quickly secure a tenant for a 6 month rental starting in September and then once April arrives, put the house on Airbnb.  I believe that the income from summer months would more than make up for the loss I would be taking in the fall/winter.

I've researched some on airdna.co, but don't really know if the numbers will be as accurate as they say.  My house is smack dab in the middle of suburbia and most of the vacationers come here for the beach.  Although we have several military bases and corporations in the Hampton Roads area and there are always people coming and going, but I'm afraid that my place is "too much house" for the average group traveling here for the weekend.  I've reached out to several Airbnb hosts in the area to see if they have gotten much business during the cold months, but most are brand new to Airbnb this year and haven't experienced hosting their house during this time of the year.  Also, in my experience people book last minute on Airbnb so I've really only gotten interest for Labor Day weekend in September, but nothing else as of yet.

I'm just really not sure what the sustainability of Airbnb will be through the "dead" fall and winter months here.  If anyone has any thoughts on a good solution that would be much appreciated! @Zeona McIntyre maybe you would have some insights on this that you wouldn't mind sharing...

Thank you!

In my recent search to buy a new primary residence in an out-of-state market, I wanted to apply what I think to be a great addition to the offer contract.  I heard it from Keith Weinhold on his Get Rich Education Podcast and literately stopped what I was doing just to write it down.  He said that in every offer he submits, he includes the phrase "The seller will pay allowable buyer's closing costs, prepaids, prorations and all lender allowable expenses."  Thanks Keith!

So naturally when I put an offer in on a house in Maryland, I told my real estate agent to include this.  She told me it was completely irrelevant - that part of my offer already included that the seller will pay 3% of the closing costs - the maximum allowed amount in that state.  And then I talked to the lender I was dealing with at the time (her preferred lender) and told him the same thing and he said that he agrees with the realtor as it's completely unnecessary.

Now, this was not a house I was going to flip, but rather a home that I would be moving in to (and they didn't end up accepting the offer anyway).  I have since parted ways with this realtor because we did not see eye to eye on a lot of issues, this being one of them.  I want to buy a primary residence that I can house hack and made it very clear I'm trying to purchase the property from an investor mentality and she clearly wanted a young couple to come to town, fall in love with a house right away and get her commission - but that's a story for another time.

Am I out to lunch here? I think it's a great phrase to include, even if it is redundant.  However, I am brand new to this and still don't know what I don't know, you know?

Thanks! 

So I had an epiphany just the other day...  I have a strong feeling that Annapolis would work (and work well) for Airbnb.  Based on everything I've learned about the zoning laws and with houses in Anne Arundel county renting no where near 1% RTV, I think Airbnb could be the answer I'm looking for.  Case in point- we found a split level townhouse 15 minutes from downtown Annapolis and it would be perfect to rent out the lower living area as a full-time Airbnb unit (living room, full bath, bedroom and separate entrance).  This could be our ticket to 'house hacking,' although not conventionally, and we would be able to seriously cut a big portion of our mortgage off while we live there. And after I move out of the place, I think I could rent the whole townhouse out on Airbnb and do well - almost certainly cash flow better than a traditional lease in that area, especially because I'll be putting either 0%, 3.5% or 5% money down to buy the house and not 20%. I need to do some due diligence on Everbooked and Beyond Pricing to really dig in to the sustainability of Airbnb in that market, but I was inspired by BP's recent podcast with Zeona McIntyre on the subject and had an 'aha' moment while we were driving to Annapolis to go look at houses recently.

Hey all!

Looking to see if any investors on here have Annapolis, MD Airbnb listings... From all the numbers I've crunched, it would be really hard to cash flow on a long term rental in a SFH anywhere near downtown Annapolis (using VA loan or up to 5% conventional financing to purchase the property- not 20% down). And it only seems to makes sense once you go further out and look at townhouses in the mid 200Ks in Cape St. Claire/Arnold. However, I have a very strong feeling that Annapolis would be a great place to have a full time Airbnb rental, as three out of the four seasons there is always something going on and there never seem to be enough hotel rooms available. If that's the case, it would change the type of primary residence I'm looking to buy with the thought of making a 'separate Airbnb unit' in the house while I live there and then list it as a full time Airbnb place once I move on (as opposed to a standard lease/tenant). From what I can tell on airbnb.com, there are certainly quite a few listings and my initial gut tells me it would make sense. Just curious if anybody has some experience with Airbnb in this market.

Thanks!

@David Marsceau Have you found a place yet?