All Forum Posts by: Ryan Spath

Having been in your situation before with buying out of state and totally relying on other people is a tough one. 

The inspection will be the 1st thing you will want to look at with a fine tooth comb, understand the condition of the property and the expected life of the major items (roof, hvac, appliances, water heater, age of plumbing, last time painted)

Once everything here looks good, be sure you understand how much you need to save for repairs/capx when you are starting out, this can make or break your re business in the beginning depending on your financial situation. 

An Awesome PM, being that you are out of the area you are going to be relying on this company to screen tenants, provide affordable repairs etc. 

On the scaling note, this will depend on you. Do you have a high earning w2? Can you find great deals and bring partners? Did you buy undervalue, and you plan to add value and do a refi?

Focus on what you have and make it amazing, set a long term goal of owning X properties in X years and make the necessary sacrifices to achieve this 10 years comes and goes in an instant!

Best of luck, keep us up to date as to how this goes and what you decide to do next!

@Anissa Allen Congrats! Have you used the BP tool to find investor friendly agents?

This could be a great starting point for you!

Also, local meet ups are a great resource to find folks in your area that are helping people achieve what you are trying to do.

One of our properties in Florida is up for rent. We currently have a prospect that is 2nd in line (another application in front of them) and they are in the VA's HUD-VASH program.

I have spoken with the rep that is helping the prospect with this. Does anyone here have any experience with this type of program? At first conversation it seems like a great deal for the LL, the tenant is given a case worker that is assigned to the home and they drop by monthly to ensure cleanliness etc. 

To my understanding the program pays the rent directly via direct deposit. 

Does anyone have experience with this? If so, can you give any insight or questions to ask the housing contact should the other prospect not work out. 

Thank you!

This same thing happened to myself ~12 years ago we were using banks instead of mortgage brokers, the banks did not consider all the things our broker did.

Have you looked into DSCR loans? These products use the debt service coverage ratio of the subject property and it has nothing to do with your personal situation.

Correct me if I'm wrong but this sounds like something your PM should be versed on and would be handling. If they are involving you with the decision making process on this or asking you how to handle I may be looking for another professional in this arena.....

Do you have any type of language in your lease that states what the fee is if the lease is broken early?

Also, refer to your local laws as how to proceed from here...

best of luck, and let us know what happens.

We had a conversation about this the other day. From what we were told you are on the right track. As long as everything is separate and there are agreements in place we were told this 100% adds another layer of protection. 

If you find / hear otherwise please share / post 

thanks!

Great conversation! My biggest learning experience was not having an early termination clause in our leases. We had a tenant sign a lease and move in for a short period of time, they ended up purchasing a home and we had to re-rent the home in a month that is less ideal to have turnover. This cost both time and money, we now had to list the property for rent, screen tenants, move them in (at a lower rate).

We have since included a early termination clause in our leases that allows the tenant to buy out lease at a predetermined fee. This has made those conversations much easier when we are approached by current occupants that do want out of the lease early.

@Aman Raj this sounds amazing! Is it an app that would need to be downloaded and simply listens to your conversations and provides what you stated above?

@Robert Jones great question. Personally I prefer locations I live or have lived or a place I am familiar with. We like places with population growth, job growth, lower unemployment rates. When it comes to picking an area inside a location again in my opinion it is best to be your own boots on the ground and know the areas personally. Not saying it is impossible to do this remotely and never visit (people do this successfully). However, for myself personally if I were to consider investing my family's hard earned money in a new market I was unfamiliar with I would hop in the car or plan and spend a few days there. Meet with a realtor and possibly view a few properties in a part of town they referred. Interview a couple PM companies. I would also schedule my trip around the time when a local meet up was happening and be sure to attend. Best of luck!

@Sean Petrash congratulations on the rental! Contact who ever you have your personal homeowners policy through. Tell them you have a rental property and they will provide you with a policy. Next, consider an umbrella policy. This will help protect you in the chance something major happens and protect you.