All Forum Posts by: Russell Brazil

I always encourage people to go with a 30 year mortgage. You can always pay extra on it to pay it off quickly. But having that 30 year vs a 15 year gives you much more flexibility for when circumstances change.  On my primary home I had taken out a 30 year with the plans of paying it off in 15 years.  5 years into it I was right on track for that 15 year mark when I had a career change.  Being able to drop my mortgage payment by almost half since I had been overpaying it so much gave me so much more flexibility to leave a high paying job for a job I paid more.   

I think this advice goes the same for investment properties.  You may not need the cash flow now, but in the future you might, and that longer amortization schedule give you that flexibility.

I am in the same boat.  I just closed on a property and was hoping to have it rented for November 1 which is today. Hopefulyl I will get lucky and have it rented by the 15th.

It might be a bit harder renting in certain months but the key is having it priced right.  If you are even $25 over market rent in the cold weather months, it will be hard to fill.  My process is the same regardless of the time of year. Craigslist, Hotpads, Zillow, sign in the yard, and price it right.

yeah at van ness it will go quickly 

Hey Beau.....for the Boston area....especially if it is North Shore...I recommend Chad Myers (781) 656-5037.  He is a really good agent who specializes in rentals.

Welcome to BP

Hey Phillip,

As an agent Id love to send you some cash flowing properties.  But that might be premature....you would probably want to talk to some lenders first to see what type of borrowing power you have.  Ive had a lot of luck with Thomas Haley at Washington Home Mortgage in Bethesda.  He has provided me so much information, and he has been willing to meet me outside of business hours to get a deal done.  He has been great to work with. 

After you are able to determine your borrowing power then you can start to target properties.  DC and MoCo is hard to find cash flow, but Frederick County and Prince Georges County have lots of cash flowing properties.  I prefer Condo investing myself, since they are easier to manage..but you do run the risk of the dreaded special assessment.  

@Leland

I would not furnish it. You are more than capable of managing a studio condo yourself. There really isnt much management involved in it. I get almost all of my renters off of Craigslist, and I am a licensed agent...but its just not worth the effort to go through the MLS when you will get 10-25 applicants pretty easily. What metro is your studio near?

Thanks Payam....Im glad I came across this.  I wont be able to attend the October meetup, but I look forward to the November one!

I hold all my properties in my own name (and my wifes) and just have a huge umbrella insurance policy. The extra paper work and tax filings for an LLC just did not seem worth it in my situation. The purpose of an LLC is to limit your liability...and I find the cheap costs of an umbrella policy seem to mitigate my risks.

In my market...Washington DC...this actually would not be totally out of the ordinary.  We have plenty of qualified rental applicants in this area that do not speak english and work at one of the embassies.  These applicants usually have a high housing allowance from their embassy, so I would rent to them in a heartbeat.  But again this is specific to the DC market.