All Forum Posts by: Tara Ballenger

I went from W2 to 1099 in the middle of 2016. I had some 1099 income filed on 2016 taxes, but not a lot (and I wrote most of it off). 2017 is all 1099 and I did much, much better. So, I have 1099 income for two tax years. Is that good enough to qualify for FHA (duplex or triplex) or do I need two *full* tax years? Will they just add my paltry sum from 2016 with 2017 and divide by two and count that as my annual salary?

Chris Mason does Home Ready require 5% for duplex or triplex, or just 3%? What does PMI look like compared to conventional 5% or FHA?

I lived in center city Allentown when I was a broke intern in college 10 years ago. Now I'm over on the West Coast and can't believe my eyes when I see how cheap the housing is in Allentown.

@Mark Gallagher is there a risk of severe depreciation for the row houses in the "war zones," (I take that phrase with a grain of salt...). And is there any chance that the area might see might see gentrification and massive appreciation in 20 years? The "war zone" properties that people bought for $40k 20 years ago in Portland, Oregon now sell for $500,000. 

I've tried to research Allentown's population growth and patterns, and gotten mixed data. But if there wasn't a high risk of massive depreciation, and if there was some chance of gentrification... my attention is piqued!

Hi guys! So, I started a Facebook group for Portland investors/landlords (or people who are interested in becoming one). 

There's so much stuff happening in Portland and suburbs all the time: new tenant protection laws, talk of rent freezes, ADU zoning/financing/taxation, AirBnB legalization and restrictions, plus lots of changing neighborhoods, new projects and gentrification. I wanna talk about it and brainstorm!

I'll be posting articles and information, but it's set up as a group so ya'll can join in and contribute. I plan on keeping it spam-free and helpful! Just search Portland Landlords in Groups. Thanks!! 

@Steve B., that is definitely the word on the streets. And I think Pdx gets a handsome cut, like 11% or something, right? Still, for many and varied reasons, including being a pdx landlord and a licensed Realtor, I feel it's best to keep it on the straight and narrow and to shore up goodwill, as they say. 

Out of curiosity, how close-in are your pdx properties? I have a general curiosity about how far out AirBnBs can be, and still be successful. So many similarities with rentals: anything can rent if you price it correctly, but to who and with what margins of profit are another matter entirely. 

Do you manage the AirBnBs yourself? 

Does anyone here own short-term rentals in pdx metro? I'm not all that interested in Portland proper because of their restrictive rules (you can only rent a bedroom in the home you occupy, and you have to alert the neighbors) but I'm thinking some of 'burbs might be a good option. I'm wondering which one would be most attractive to AirBnB travelers (I'm looking to rent entire top floor of a split level). If any pdx bigger pockets people self manage their own short term rentals, I'd love to meet up! 

Please include me - I'm very interested! 

Just updating the thread in case another Realtor stumbles across it later: I went with Placester for now. It's $5/month and is built on Wordpress. It includes IDX (MLS listings), which I don't think in this context will be a lead generator, but it does give an air of legitimacy to site, and you can't get most IDX plugins for $5/month, and Placester gives you the whole kit and caboodle for that. I also like that the blog is fairly prominently featured on the homepage (on the template I chose), since I intend to blog often.

I really have no idea how "clean" their site is or how well it plays with Google (they make lots of promises but I'm a natural skeptic), so my real motivation was price, easy setup and that it looked decent out of the box. I did buy my own domain name, so if and when I want to design my own site on WP, I can take that with me. I'll probably keep Placester for the first year, then I hope to get WP.org site with a robust IDX (like Diverse Solutions) and CRM integrated, so that the site can truly generate leads. For now, Placester is an affordable way to have a digital business card and a place to build up a blog audience.

I'll try to remember to come back in a few months let you all know what I think of Placester. 

I think @Jay Hinrichs broached some great questions to think about before moving forward in selecting your Realtor. Knowing what you want from that relationship before jumping in is key! 

Thanks @Keanan Koppenhaver and @Trevor Ewen for your input. I've been gong back on forth on whether to go with Placeter or not. I've heard reviews all over the spectrum. I do have experience with Wordpress.com and .org, but I'm not a developer. But then again that is the beauty or Wordpress, you don't necessarily have to be. That said, I can't wait to get to a point in my business where I can hire out things like web design and maintenance. But I am not quite there yet.