All Forum Posts by: Frank Jiang

Your loan has nothing to do with the value of the property.  It is only dependent on the value of the property when you purchased it.  That value can be flexible depending on work done and improvements but a refi has no bearing on the value of that property.

Yes, when I bought in this area, I had monthly rent to price ratio close to 1.5%.  Not sure what the market is like today.

I also think that this rent / price ratio is an awful metric that drives people towards low-value houses that cash flow on paper but are money sinks in reality.

Don't buy pieces of crap (sub 50k houses).  Go east to Raleigh/Barlett where the tenants actually pay rent and don't destroy your property.  They're not much more expensive and are orders easier to own and manage.

Turnkeys are a fine way to start and dip your feet into the pool with minimal risk.  It helps you learn what it's like to actually own and manage a rental.  I bought three out of state properties and had good experiences with all three.  I've divested two and even somehow managed to get a capital gain in midwest cities and I will likely sell the last next year.  That being said, I think that there's no real scalability in owning out of state turnkeys and would recommend against it as a true strategy.  Here are my reasons:

1) You lose control of your investment.  Control is completely handed over to the property management company and you don't actually get to make real decisions to impact your investment.  Poor choice in the people you trust to manage your investment can be massively painful.  Search for Morris Invest for an idea.

2) It's not half as passive as you'd think.  Nobody cares about your investment as much as you do and you will have to pick up the phone to resolve any real problems.

3) The risk/reward profile just isn't there.  You can get similar returns for less risk and you can get higher returns for similar risk.

It depends on your tenant.  If your tenant lives hand to month like many others, I would personally recommend against this because the tenant will be disincentivized from doing repairs or even informing you of major repairs even when absolutely necessary.  The problems that arise from not performing necessary maintenance can be much more expensive than a few hundred dollars of maintenance and I personally see it as penny wise pound foolish.

For the sake of your wallet and your sanity, stay far away from Morris Invest.

I would suggest basing your investment decisions off of analysis, thoughtful consideration, and hard work.  I would not suggest basing your strategy on catchphrases, general sayings that everyone says (if everyone says them, why isn't everyone rich?) and flippant remarks whose origin can't be verified

Read this guy's experience.  It should provide you with some good insight on this path. Best of luck.

Www.nomoreharvarddebt.com

Why not just get him to sign a liability waiver?  I see a lot of people quickly decrying "professional tenant" when this tenant is probably just annoyed about a landlord who's getting too deep into his personal business.

I would recommend the gel in addition to using boric acid (both tablets and powder).

There were a few roached in my primary when I first bought it.  I placed boric acid tablets (Harris Roach tablets) around the problem areas in addition to using two different types of gels (Advion and HotShot).  Cleared up the problem right away.