All Forum Posts by: Sheena Drake

We buy ugly houses only......or at least thus far.  We are about 1 year into this retirement plan and quickly learning that houses being sold for $40,000 or less in this midwest town are where we are doing well.  We bought an auction house from Auction.com........  A bit of a process, and their right hand does not know what the left hand has already accomplished, but it was worth it.  $27,ooo for a 3 bed 2 bath that was filthy.  We cleaned, rehabbed almost all of it ourselves, except for flooring and HVAC.  solid bones home from 1880 with great roof, newer siding and no one wanted to touch it as previous owners went to prison???

total cost to get in $51,000. ARV $90,000. Renting for $1000/month. We have never had a deal this good come along since. This town rarely markets rentals above $1200 so buying an "ok" home at $60, 000 does not make since for us. STRs are not a hot item here. We will stick with the ugly stepsister plan at this time. Don't be afraid of it.

thank you.  They are great resources but finding the time to pick their brains is limited.  Appreciate the feed back

Does anyone have experience or a great site to provide education on using CDs to purchase rentals?  I have 2 friends who have done such but one is a realtor/wholesaler who has long been in the game and the other has a wife who works for the IRS..........so both have experience and wisdom backing up their decisions.  I'm very interested.

I am a physician and my job entails taking up to 36 hour shifts.  My husband is an engineer in a past life who became the house Dad when we left our home state to complete residency.  I use downtime to scout for long term rentals.  We always tour the property together. He is great at estimating costs, and most of those rehab jobs he can complete himself.  Through books purchased via bigger pockets, I am the one who is now running the numbers to see if the expected rental income makes sense.   He does most of the rehab but I assist on anything that I am able to and have the time to.  We are both doers and not spenders, just the way we were raised.  Luckily his skill set allows for this.  Even though I'm more of the final opinion on color scheme, etc....  I love to take a rundown home and make it presentable.  But all of our finances are 50/50 in this marriage so I find working together, making decisions together really hammers home "for better or worse"

Just my $.02

I will absolutely discuss the long term rental.  Any suggestions on who to go scout out the property?

OK  I will pass all info on to my partner.  Thank you for that information

The area was presented over the phone and we live in Missouri. So the realtor in Missouri is trying to present this as a buy. Being stuck at work will prevent me from traveling to see this property. Buying sight unseen makes me skiddish. Wondering if others use PM to take a look for them and if people run into huge problems with HOA restrictions/fees for this area.

working with a partner on out of state rental condo.  Is the area of 27 Arbor club Drive in Jacksonville, FL a good area?  Any PM that would be a recommendation?  Any known restrictions with this area for short term rentals (say by the week for airbnb)?

Thank you both.  I actually found a coworker that volunteered to help create these sheets in Excel.  Onwards and upwards!

I am frustrated with trying EXCEL.  I would love to know if there is a good old fashion blank spread sheet for rental property income/expenses and another for Cap Ex?  I would prefer to take a blank sheet, fill in the numbers and compute my own cap rate, etc.....   Please let me know if this available.