All Forum Posts by: Ron Rohrssen

@Brandon Levi Eagan This discussion might interest you as well.

@Jim K. Hmmm.... check out the Song of Solomon and grab a decent commentary to help with the imagery of the days when it was written. Pretty steamy. 

@Brandon Levi Eagan take a look at what @Nathan Gesner says above; good insight.

Welcome aboard @Brandon Levi Eagan. 

Wow. I guess I struck a nerve @Nathan Gesner I could have done better in emphasizing that my preference is toward a cloud-based solution if you have access to broadband. I did say that, but perhaps it wasn't clear enough.

For anyone with broadband access (which is the majority of US Citizens), this isn't a problem and using cloud-based backup is great.

If you don't have fast speeds without restrictive data limits, I'll stand by my recommendation of 2 external drives. You can purchase a 1TB (1000 GB) drive for under $100. One of the major big box stores in the U.S. now sells a 1TB for drive fro $55 (not sale priced). So, setting up a 2 drive system can be done for a little over $100.

BitLocker (encryption) is built into Windows (except the Home edition). So, that's free. You will have some cost in time to learn/use BitLocker. There are a lot of online resources to help with that.

The digital divide, specifically the lack of broadband access, still remains in rural America. I can't provide a breakdown on what areas are affected. So, perhaps Wyoming is better than Iowa in general. 

Until last year, I spent 13 years < 8 miles away from the 2nd largest metro area in Iowa. In that time I switched Internet providers over 6 times; always trying to find a speed that wasn't data capped. Some of the solutions included (satellite multiple providers, 4G for Home (Verizon), microwave (tower to tower), and DSL. The DSL really wasn't an option. I was on the edge of the maximum distance, but the phone company thought it was worth a try. My normal Internet bill ranged from $100-$300/month for these types of services.

Some of the satellite based services I used initially had data caps < 1G. Yep. You couldn't stream a movie with the speed provided, and even if you tolerated the buffering you'd likely blow your whole month's data allowance. Later, that same satellite Internet provider went to 20G. That meant we could budget a few movies/month for the kids. The situation in rural areas (around here) is improving.

Earlier in 2019...

In the words of the FCC chairman, “If you live in rural America, there’s a better than a 1-in-4 chance that you lack access to fixed high-speed broadband at home, compared to a 1-in-50 probability in our cities.”

In an effort to address the problem, the FCC in February 2017, created the Connect America Fund allocating up to $4.53 billion over a period of 10 years to advance high-speed 4G LTE wireless internet service primarily in rural areas. Guidelines regulating the fund will make it easier for rural communities to get federal subsidies for advancing internet availability.

That's from: 

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-digital-divide-introduction-4151809

Interesting that there hasn't been activity on this thread for years. 

Here's what I do, and recommend to my I.T. clients as well.
1. Store your business data on an encrypted drive. If you can afford a RAID drive system, even better. (If you don't know about RAID drives, Google is a good source.)

2. Keep regular backups on a local external drive that is also encrypted.

2A. Swap the backup drive with another external drive of the same make, model, size. Store the swapped backup drive off-site. Something like a security deposit box is great.

Cloud storage is great. But, some of my IT clients, like much of rural America, simply don't have the Internet speed or reliability to make that practical. So if you are fortunate to have acceptable Internet service, consider something like Carbonite.

You do bear some responsibility over your applicant/tenant data. So, consider that with your data storage where that is paper or electronic.

@Matthew Hollister that's impressive. I've stayed away from rural areas on the advice of some mentors. But, I like your numbers. Well done.

@Nathan Fraser Hello and welcome to BP/Iowa. I'd agree with others that Iowa brings a good amount of stability in your investment properties. I'm in the Cedar Rapids/Marion area (2nd largest metro area in the state). 

There are opportunities. I don't personally experience great appreciation in my properties. Last year was the highest that I've experienced at around 4%.

I find the best deals are off-market deals. IMHO the MLS has far fewer deals than foreclosures, investor to investor, and other off-market sources.

Best of luck.

Ah. Thanks for clarifying @Darson Grantham.

Before I had experience with this @Edgar Rodriguez I had the same concerns. However, I've had to move people into rentals in January and even during the holidays. It happens.

Life goes on with job changes, households splitting, etc. So, the need for housing is still there.

As in any deal you should factor in vacancy rates and consider that you may at times have 1 or both sides unrented. It depends on the town and neighborhood. I generally use a 10% vacancy rate in projections. My average is lower than that. So, it works out ok.

Is this duplex currently empty? Leased or rented? That can help with the income side as you take over the contracts, and security deposits.

Remember you can also try to take possession toward the beginning of the month. You will get the pro-rated month of rental income and zero mortgage. That's a big help.