All Forum Posts by: Sejin Kim

Quote from @Trent Reeve:

there are no mountains  near Disney

Corrected.  I guess it's forest view? 

Hello, 

we are trying to buy our 2nd STR property in Kissimmee/Orlando area.

we currently have 1 bed/1 bath condo in Kissimmee and it is doing well so far. ( been 2 month) 

I am wondering anyone has 2 bed 1 bath property? How's it going? 

I am debating should I buy 2 bed 2 bath condo or 2 bed 1 bath will work as 2 bed/2.bath. 

current 2 bed 1 bath we want to phrachse, is on good location. Near Disney and has mountain view which gives privacy. Whereas little far from amenities like pool or gym. 

What do you guys think? 

Thank you so much for your opinion 

!

Quote from @January Johnson:

Quote from @Sejin Kim:

Hello, 

we decided to sell our short term rental property in Sacramento area. 

what will be pros and cons of selling without a realtor? 

we had that property under 2 years and we pay a lot of mortgage. 

If we hire a realtor, we will be paying more than we get from selling it. 

House already has smart lock, clean... Will it be too hard to sell without realtor? Too much work? 

Any opinions? 

Save your money on the listing and pay a flat-fee listing agent to put it in MLS (WITH PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS AND A GOOD AND ACCURATE DESCRIPTION) and then pay 3% to the agent who brings you a buyer.

 Thank you. 

so far no luck. We hired realtor who is also property manager. 

Hello, 

we decided to sell our short term rental property in Sacramento area. 

what will be pros and cons of selling without a realtor? 

we had that property under 2 years and we pay a lot of mortgage. 

If we hire a realtor, we will be paying more than we get from selling it. 

House already has smart lock, clean... Will it be too hard to sell without realtor? Too much work? 

Any opinions? 

Quote from @Randall Alan:

Quote from @Sejin Kim:

Hello biggerpockets! 

I don't know what to do with my property. 

I and my husband bought our first house in October 2022 when there's a lot of changes in interest rate. ( 5.5 % with VA roan? 5 bed 3 bath house )

For unexpected changes, we couldn't afford mortgage, we rented as Short term rental. 

Luckily my house has swimming pool, spa and it is very specious, surprisingly it was very popular. Even though we were nor in tourist place, house seems almost more than 50% occupancy rate except winter. ( In winter we had mid term tenants) 

However, even though our property is popular, because we pay a lot in mortgage, many times it is negative cash flow and pool seems constantly leaking. We had to put temporary line, it costed $600, and I don't know how much it will cost when we do permanent repair. Also sprinkler breaks, we had to repair... 

At that moment we started to rent, we thought that's the best option for us. 

When we bought a house we were first time home buyer, so we didnt have a lot of knowldge, and we didnt know how to negotiate. ( Realtor didnt really help to negotiate, and lessson learned. ) 

We don't have a lot of equity in it. 

Probably we will lose money when we sell.. 

Also, even though we make negative cash flow, since its big house and income from house is a lot we had to pay more taxes. 

So at this moment, I am not sure if we should continue to airbnb. 

With long term rental, we coulnt cover mortgage at all, with short term rental, there was possibility to cover mortgage ans sometimes it did. 

My husband wants to wait until interest rate goes to down so we can finance but I am not sure if it will ever happen... 

Thanks for reading and any comment will be appreciated. :)

@

@Sejin Kim

Many of the things you describe are completely normal.  Repairs happen, and must be done.  You don't say what changed to make the house unaffordable... I'm going to guess loss of income on some level.  At that point you pivoted to AirBnB, and you say that is sometimes covering the mortgage.

I personally don't see a reason to stay in the house.  Even with renting it out, you sound frequently upside down.  As for mortgage rates coming to the rescue... I would suggest you can expect mortgage rates to drop by a quarter of a point at a time (when the Fed meets)... and the way it's looking, probably not starting until 2025.  Point being - it will take the better part of 2 years before you would likely get to a rate where it made sense to refinance (where your new rate was say 1 1/2 to 2 points lower than what you have now.  And even when you do refinance - it will take a year or more to recover the costs associated with the refinance (the closing costs they charge for the refi).  So to me, the refi seems a ways off and probably isn't good justification to hang onto the property. 

Options you might think through would be appreciation - is your area / property  appreciating to where it might make sense to hold onto the property for it to build value.  This can be directly offset by how much you are having to put into the property though.  So that is a question you have to evaluate.

I think I would probably cut my losses and buy into a more affordable house for yourself. 

My 2 cents.

Randy

Thanks Allan. 

Yes, income changed. Currently we live in the apartment and we are renting out whole house. 

Yes, it is good area so I think it will appreciate, just we already bought with high price so not sure how much appreciated. 


I am going toward keeping the property for now expecting appreciation and refi. 

thanks.  

Hello biggerpockets! 

I don't know what to do with my property. 

I and my husband bought our first house in October 2022 when there's a lot of changes in interest rate. ( 5.5 % with VA roan? 5 bed 3 bath house )

For unexpected changes, we couldn't afford mortgage, we rented as Short term rental. 

Luckily my house has swimming pool, spa and it is very specious, surprisingly it was very popular. Even though we were nor in tourist place, house seems almost more than 50% occupancy rate except winter. ( In winter we had mid term tenants) 

However, even though our property is popular, because we pay a lot in mortgage, many times it is negative cash flow and pool seems constantly leaking. We had to put temporary line, it costed $600, and I don't know how much it will cost when we do permanent repair. Also sprinkler breaks, we had to repair... 

At that moment we started to rent, we thought that's the best option for us. 

When we bought a house we were first time home buyer, so we didnt have a lot of knowldge, and we didnt know how to negotiate. ( Realtor didnt really help to negotiate, and lessson learned. ) 

We don't have a lot of equity in it. 

Probably we will lose money when we sell.. 

Also, even though we make negative cash flow, since its big house and income from house is a lot we had to pay more taxes. 

So at this moment, I am not sure if we should continue to airbnb. 

With long term rental, we coulnt cover mortgage at all, with short term rental, there was possibility to cover mortgage ans sometimes it did. 

My husband wants to wait until interest rate goes to down so we can finance but I am not sure if it will ever happen... 

Thanks for reading and any comment will be appreciated. :)

Hello, I am a beginner investor and thanks to all of you, we got our 1st long distance property contract signed. 

However, when do you recommend to visit property if your property is out of state? 

I live in CA and we are investing in Florida. 

We visited place, checked out a few properties, came back, made an offer, negotiated and finally property is under contract! 

Its cash offer so our real estate agent recommamded to close in 3 weeks. 

we have inspection scheduled this week. 

So I dont think I will visit when inspection is done. ( There is tenant living and propert looked well maintained. Just need some cosmetic repair of kitchen sink and bathroom sink to me) 

After phachase, we plan to furnish and do short term rental. 

Do I need to visit before closing? 

I trust my realtor, he seems very honest, so I am plaining to visit after furnishing ( we will hire someone to furnish my place) before picture taken and make sure furnishing is well done and be there for picture taken and do last work ( organizing or cleaning...) 

Howeve it is our first inevestment property and it is out of state, I am not sure if that is okay. 

Can anyone advise me? 

Thanks. ( We are using realtors inspector) 

Quote from @Alyson Gordon:

There are many free calculators out there from those that do this professionally. I use one from STR Secrets https://www.skool.com/str-secrets-starter-pack/about and would also suggest checking out the one from Tony J Robinson https://alphageekcapital.com/Calculator/. Buy slowly after you have all of the info so you don't have regret! :)

 Thank you. :) 😀 

Quote from @Shawn McCormick:

@Sejin Kim Need more information. Are you financing? Is the home located in a community/city/HOA that allows the property to be used as an STR? Sellers motivation shouldn't factor in what you can afford, thats a bonus if they will negotiate, but your numbers have to make sense to you and work out for multiple exit strategies (str, ltr, sell etc)

Running the purchase numbers is pretty straightforward, use almost any online mortgage calculator, make sure you know taxes and insurance (taxes will go up a bit if it is currently owner occupied and you don't plan to live in it) Once you know your mortgage amount then start looking at other STR's in the same area and same size/amenities and see what they are getting per night and how many nights a month they are rented to calculate what you MAY be able to get. Take that number and subtract your mortgage and that will give you gross revenue. You still have utilities, HOA, replacements, sundries, pool cleaning, property management etc.

Hopefully this help a bit. I'm in Orlando too if you want to reach out. 

Best of luck!

 Thanks! 

we are going to use family fund. And we will pay 5% interest rate so which gives us we can make better offer. 

because of house being increased and high interest rate, we are calculating CF from STR. With long term rental, we can't make any CF.

So our exit strategy is only STR or Mid term rental and selling later.

Property we want to phachase is in Kissimmee. So STR allowed and close to disney.

We live in CA and we go to Orlado quiet often so we thought buying investment property in Florida is good idea. 

luckily property we saw doesn't need a lot of repairs when we saw it. Just cosmetic repair in kitchen cabinet. 

HoA maintain amenities and outside area of property well which we liked. 

Just when we calculated ROI, it doesnt seem make good number , but if our goal is only cash flow , then with STR we will be making little bit of CF.

does it make sense? Sorry about my English. I am immigrant ;) 

Thank you so much for your comment.

Quote from @Joe Villeneuve:

Quote from @Sejin Kim:

Quote from @Joe Villeneuve:

Rent minus expenses = Cash Flow.  The formula to find out what to pay for a property is this:

Rent - Expenses - CF goal = Mortgage Payment.  The mortgage payment is based on the interest rate and term.  Fill in those two numbers into any online mortgage calculator, and it will tell you what the maximum loan is.  Add that to the DP (20%), which actually means divide the maximum loan by 80%, and you have your maximum offer.

I don't negotiate. I calculate my maximum offer, and make that offer.  If it doesn't fly. I leave it with the seller, but move on.  If they come back I win, if they don't I don't lose.

Thank you so much! I really like the property and I see it's hard to get cash flow these days because of interest rate.... We are planning to do STR so that it covers mortgage and make some cash flow..

we are looking at Condos in Florida. Do you think 1 bedroom condo will be hard to sell later? 

Why do you like the property?

It's in Florida, has great view , close to disney attractions! Good amenities.. 
:)