All Forum Posts by: Ron Rohrssen

Welcome aboard Dannon. I grew up on the Mississippi in Dubuque. But, Marion is my home now. My wife's family lives in and around Oconto, WI.

Getting started at your age is going to be a great benefit. Keep at it. The rewards can be fantastic.

Do you have a plan on what you want to learn? Do you plan to stick strictly with rentals? Or, learn about things like tax lien acquisition strategies, flipping, forced appreciation, and a flurry of other ways that real estate can make money and build wealth?

It's this perspective that kept me out of tax lien sales in Iowa. I'm not saying that you're right or wrong, as I didn't participate in any tax sales.

I spent a lot of time studying tax sales processes for Iowa and other states. In Iowa, it just seemed like a LOT of effort for a small investor with a small chance of success for exactly the reasons that you've stated @Jeremy Goemaat.

Does your lease have any language on the amount of trash disposal included with the rent? What's a "reasonable" amount of trash will vary by family size and lifestyle.

it may be reasonable to expect that furniture, appliances, and tires are not thrown in the dumpster. 

You might consider implementing some restrictions in writing to all tenants. Remember to include your reasons for the new rules. It's ok to say that their rent is based on expenses related to trash collection, etc. Is it your expectation of 2-45 gallon bags per unit, per week? Something else?

Include language about a possible increase in rents to cover expenses. By the way, you're probably not going to get away with an increase until it's time to renew.

I hope that this helps.

I have a document of our rental criteria that clearly lays out credit scores, criminal background criteria, and income criteria. I review this with each applicant before they apply. Usually the biggest issue for my applicants is hitting at or above my minimum credit score (600). I also direct them to self check credit scores,  and court records if they have doubts. 

I only take fees from the first applicant and give them 24 hrs to complete the whole process.  Others go on a wait list. 

So, by walking people through my rental criteria I've avoided a LOT of rejections.  In fact,  in 6 years I've only rejected 2 applicants. 

@Charles Willie Harris It might seem overwhelming and a bit daunting to get started. I love BP. It was very helpful in getting me started. But, I also purchased an education package from Robert Kiyosaki's training program. RK's training helped me understand different ways to invest in real estate. It's not all just residential, single-family-home investing.

I'd highly recommend Brandon Turner's book, "The Book on Investing in Real Estate with..." It's in the BP book store here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/... That introduces you to several different types of real estate investing. But, reading the book is a bit like licking the ice cream cone. One taste and you just want more. It's a starter book, and you will become acquainted with concepts and terms while being inspired by Brandon's enthusiasm. 

If you haven't yet read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Kiyosaki, do so as soon as you can. Consider his book, "Cash Flow Quadrant" as a must read, but at a lower priority than the other 2 I mentioned.

I've basically had to set aside almost all business activities for about 9 months now; leaving rentals rented and unable to pursue anything new for awhile. Something that I should be able to turn around during the rest of the year.

I'd recommend finding a local REI group. I suspect you will have success finding one in your area. You might consider the IA Landlord Association as well.

https://www.iareia.org/

BP has a small list of Iowa clubs as well: 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/iowa-real-estate-investment-clubs/

Take these steps and see what piques your interest. That will help guide you to explore other areas of interest.

Want more? Let me know.

Hi @Justin O'Malley. Congratulations on taking the first step toward a rental. I see that you have some great feedback already.

I don't see that you mentioned the town where you are planning to purchase. That property tax seems very low. Check out the property tax with the county assessor's office. Sometimes information on Zillow is incorrect.

I have yet to pull the trigger on a property manager in my area. I've interviewed several. Each of them wants the first months rent. In your case that would be your $1,400. Then they charge for maintenance calls, and more. So, wherever you invest, make sure that you interview the property managers that operate in that specific town, and even that specific neighborhood. In larger cities, property managers have areas that they don't service.

Best of luck!

Many don't even cover an entire city. They have pockets where they will/will not operate. 

This has been an interesting thread. I'm kind of late to the game.

I have 2 condo units open now. One is a new acquisition and the other is a turn over. YES! January is slow. But, I've been pleasantly surprised to have an average of 4 people interested/week with 1-2 showings after pre-screening.

My pre-screening is similar to others. I restate the terms (ie no pets, no smoking, income 3x, etc.) and then proceed to schedule a showing if all looks well. As someone indicated, it's a funnel. You might get 6 responses one week that results in a showing. 

There seems to always be an increase in interest around the mid-point of each month when people are staring down another month in place, or changing their situation.

When I started doing this, most of my responses came from Craig's list. That suddenly changed over to about 90% from Facebook, 2% Craig's list, and the other from word of mouth/Trulia/Hotpads.

Facebook does give me that advantage of checking out a person's profile. It's especially handy when you see someone posting photos of their pets. Heads up! They aren't likely to abandon their pets to move into a no pets unit. There's a lot more that can be gleaned from someone's social posts. But, I don't disqualify based on that.

Here's one of the sites that can be useful in understanding an area and coming up with market segmentation.

http://www.city-data.com/#data

You can drill down to cities and zip code data. 

It's helpful to a point. But, in my area I find too much market variation within zip codes. I can get some broad brush data from City Data. But, neighborhood information on property types, past sales, and current sales is more useful to me.

Wow. That might seem like a simple question. But, it prompts several other questions in my mind.

1. Are you inclined to do some/all of the work on your own to save money? Then you might only have material costs.

2. Even if you are able to do the work, you mentioned that you're moving. Do you want to take the time to do the work?

3. If you have some experience. You can probably come up with a pretty decent material list. Add a percentage to that like 10-15% for unknowns or things that don't typically get accounted for. (e.g. the extra sheet of drywall, nails, tape, paint, primer, new trim boards, etc.)

4. If you want to go the contractor route, try to get at least 3 quotes and references. Be prepared to give them good details on what exactly you want done.

You know the scope of work better than me.

When it comes down to thumb in the wind estimates you can find national averages for almost any type of rehab work. If you don't have a decent lumber yard/big box store near you then materials are probably a bit higher, but labor might be cheaper.

Just a quick google came up with this. (I'm not vouching for credible numbers here.) Home Advisor Remodel Costs