All Forum Posts by: Rosston Smith

@Rosston Smith

No, you are not required to have a professional management company. You can manage it yourself, however, a property management company will significantly reduce your time spent managing the property AND mitigate your risk for you. Having a proper lease, qualifying tenants, managing maintenance and repairs, and unforeseen issues are time-consuming. 

How much free time do you have & How valuable is your time are questions that you need to answer for yourself when determining to hire a property manager. 

I currently have around 200k in cash that is yielding 5 percent in my brokerage account. I'm thinking of using that same money to potentially buy a rental property that could yield more and appreciate in value over the years. I figure it could be a decent time to buy soon while it seems to be somewhat of a buyers market given high rates as I could be cash buyer. I am however, a total newbie when it comes to real estate investing and it would be my first rental. That having been said, I want to avoid any rookie mistakes. I'm in Atlanta, GA which gives me fewer options with that budget unless I go with condos with HOA's that allow rentals, or venture out to towns outside of Atlanta like Macon, GA, Athens, Lagrange etc... That having been said, are there any tips from experienced investors in Georgia with suggestions of where I should be looking to buy? I even get tempted out of state in places like Alabama, South Carolina because real estate is so much cheaper there but continue to hear its best to have a rental around 45 min away or so.. Any tips/insight much appreciated! Thanks so much!

Hey all,

I'm currently looking to buy short-term rental in the next few weeks/months. I'm a high income W2 earner and I don't have much time to manage properties. I'd like to invest in a short-term rental before the end of the year for tax purposes. 

What I do have is capital to invest and can help analyze locations and finances. Are there any folks who are willing to partner up?

@Rosston Smith I am with @Vinnie Da silva go with a HELOC. But for what ever he buys it doesn't matter but HELOC are a bit more simple. However at that age would he be better off selling and just renting so that he has no maintenance to worry about? Or would selling leave him with too little to continue the life style?

I recently flipped a property with a reverse mortgage. The owner didn't need to make any payments on the reverse mortgage as part of the agreement. He didn't do any maintenance on the property and he would just watch Judge Judy all day long. Not my life style, but it suited him. With the neglect over the years, it was not a property that was suitable for the MLS without substantial renovation, which he couldn't afford. Since the property had gone up in value over time, he received cash out equity when I bought the property from him even though I used Subject To. He then went to live with his daughter (he was 94)

He could have used the original money from the reverse mortgage to invest for cash flow. 

His kids could have sold the property after his passing, paid off the reverse mortgage and had some cash in their pocket. If the property hadn't gone up in value, they could have just let the bank have the property.

Just be aware that with a reverse mortgage, if the borrower moves out of the house or dies, the loan is called due. I had it on a Subject To, he moved out of the property, the bank found out and called the loan due. I paid off the reverse mortgage and evrything worked out fine. Just have a plan in case you need to pay off the reverse mortgage.

There are lots of other ways of pulling equity from a piece of real estate and reverse mortgage isn’t the cheapest.