All Forum Posts by: Crystal Smith

Hi everyone,

My partner and I live in Durham, NC, but we have a strong attachment to Chicago, IL. I did my Ph.D. up at Northwestern, and I fell in love with the northern neighborhoods (Rogers Park, Edgewater, Andersonville).

Long term, he and I want to own a place in Chicago. The goal would be to acquire an investment property that we can rent out when we’re not in Chicago, but that we can use for ourselves whenever we’re there (e.g., for the summers, parts of the fall and spring).

We have 150k of investible capital, but we’re at a loss as to how to invest it. Initially, we thought we’d buy a condo in Rogers Park and then list it on AirBnB when we weren’t there, but it looks like AirBnb laws make this strategy complicated. Another thought was that perhaps we could try to move forward with a multi-family unit and rent out all but one of those units—but 150k doesn’t seem like enough capital to move forward with a multi-family unit. (We can handle some cash loss per month, but not a ton; ideally, we’d like to do something that results in cash flow.)

Any advice that this group has for us would be deeply appreciated. I’d also love to work with an agent, if anyone has good recommendations.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Chris

I hear a lot of people say something like "just buy a duplex every year" when it comes to househacking but is that actually possible?

This is hearsay but I heard a story about someone saying they tried to buy a 2nd househack after their first one but they couldn't because they needed "20% equity" in their first home. 

Is this an actual concern or is it just not true. And if it is a problem that you are most likely to face why haven't more people talked about it?

I am torn with the difference of the two. Anyone who wants to do some explaining here?

Hello everyone, I posted on here a couple times a little over a year ago asking for some advice from many of you. I got lots of great feedback and support! most of it was to keep learning and studying real estate so when I do get into the game I'll be well prepared. kept watching the market and learning about real estate like many of you told me to do. I read a lot of books and watched lots of videos and listened to the bigger pockets podcast everyday of course. I just did some summer sales and did over 6 figures I put most of it away in a Roth 401k and some CD's. I have about 50k left over, I've been watching and waiting for some time now to get into the real estate game. I've had a goal for a couple years now to pick up my first property when I'm 18. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do that. I've been trying to figure out a way where I can qualify for financing, I know there is creative financing out there like seller financing and among other things. I just don't have consistent income, I have good credit for being 18, 740-760, but Is there any way you guys would go about this differently or any ideas that I just haven't thought of/learned about. Any feedback would be great!

I'm moving overseas with my wife and daughter to be closer to her family and I'm trying to figure out the best way to proceed.

I work in remote sales so as of recently, my commissions have been great. That said, while we're abroad, I'm trying to take advantage of the time we have when we have good income to set ourselves up nicely from a financial perspective.

In order not to "burn any bridges." We're planning to keep our current primary residence in the states and potentially list it as an STR. That way we have a home base if and when we decide to come back for a few weeks/months.

Doing some research on Airdna, there are only a few properties that have the same features/amenities as us (8 in the whole city) and they range from $250-$1,100/night in the winter.

We'd be one of the only properties in our city with certain amenities (gym and hot tub) So my rationale is that we'll be able to charge highly for a unique experience. My only issue is that our mortgage payment is quite high as we never intended to make our current primary residence a rental in the next 5-10 years. So in order to break even as a STR, we'd need $4,200/m (15% management fee - $3,500 for mortgage + utilities)

Likewise with a LTR we'd break even past $3,200/m which seems more than attainable since comps come in from $3,500-$4,000 for similar listings.

My 2 questions are;

1. Would it be worth to try a STR or just go to LTR for the property to make less revenue but also have less expenses?

2. Since we live overseas and our monthly expenses are much lower, would it make more sense to pay off all or a portion of our home in the states or just look to expand our portfolio?

I feel like I would regret not at least trying a STR for our property as it could work out well for us. At the same time, I to minimize my downside in investments so LTR's would be a more consistent cash flow option (at least to me)

Something my wife and I have thought about doing is at least reducing the principle balance so that whichever option we go for, we at least aren't losing money every month.

Really looking for some clarity here as these next few years are going to be very important in order for us to set ourselves up well for the future.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and advice on this topic!

Hey all, 

This is an introductory post. I'm Jeff, active military, as well as a husband and father. I'm looking to expand my SFH and Scale my portfolio throughout the remainder of my career to reach financial independence and to create some level of generational wealth for my children. Currently I only have 1 rental.

My goals for 2024 are to continue my education, and hire a CPA as I consider new ventures. I will accumulate rentals across the country as I progress which I could foresee being a little more challenging as I have to build new networks in each region.

I am Interested in networking with other military investors as well as reading the expertise from other long standing members within the group. 

I'm hearing differing opinions from realtors/investors. Nashville's DOM are about 50 right now. Used to be 14. Lots of inventory that buyers are selecting from, hard to get them to choose your house.

Is it better practice to stick to your guns, price at comps, and let it sell in 3 months? Or price aggressively and get it sold right away to take advantage of the initial hype?

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I heard an analogy yesterday from an agent. He said imagine in front of you is a white sheet of paper. On that paper are hundreds of horizontal lines. Some lines start before the paper and end on it. Some start on it, and end on it. Some start on it and end after. The paper is your listing, and the lines are buyers. When you first list the house, all those lines that started to the left of the paper are the motivated buyers, looking for the right house for a while, and ready to move. But after that first 2 or 3 weeks, they either bought yours or didn't. And from then on, all the buyers coming to see the house are new, tire kickers, feeling it out, etc.

So his point was get that thing sold right away. He's a flat rate broker so he gets paid on the front end whether house sells or not, so that helps his advice to not be as biased.

But other realtors tell me you'll get full price or close to it at comps pricing, you just have to wait.

Hi guys I need some help structuring or understanding how to run and manage a wholesaling business. My plan is as follows 

1.Get llc 

2.Build a team (lead manager, acquisition and dispositions managers, cold callers) 

3. Manage business 2-4 hours each day. 

Questions:

What systems are successful wholesalers using 

What systems should I have in play 

How does payroll work? if up to me do I hire an accountant to pay them? 

 I plan on getting PropStream with team add on. 

What other softwares/systems should I have? 

I am familiar with Salesforce/leftmain and work for as acquisition. 

Could someone help me understand how to structure and maintain a healthy business? 

I believe that Tenants have the right to keep and bear arms. Is it appropriate as a landlord to mandate that a tenant have insurance such as LawShield, USCCA or AOR and to provide proof of such?