All Forum Posts by: Tom NA

I think staging is beneficial regardless of how hot or cold the market is. In a cold market, the reasons are obvious. In a hot market, you get that many more people interested in your property which can drive up the price.

I would say the level of staging and amount you want to spend on it depends on the price range you are in. Here in Northern California, with standard ranch houses oftentimes pushing $1mil or more, spending a couple thousand on staging is not unreasonable and is quite common. If you're selling a $40k rehab property in the midwest, obviously you probably don't want to invest as much in staging.

Obviously I know very little about your full situation but I'll take an initial shot based on what you wrote and state that you are looking for excuses *not* to invest rather than finding ways to make it happen. Specifically I say this regarding your stay-at-home status - it seems to be a crutch. Start slowly, use nap time to make calls. Use other modes of communication such as email where a screaming kid isn't noticed. Lack of potty training is no excuse for no daycare nor is a shy kid - I know it's hard but you have to cut the cord sometime. My 3.5 year old is just getting potty trained and that hasn't stopped us from finding daycare for him. All kids are shy and cling to parents but they adapt very quickly.

Anyway, my intention isn't to tell you how to raise kids - you're probably way better than me at that! Rather, I just want to point out that it feels like you are building a self-fulfilling prophecy here. I'm not really an investor like others here so it's hard to compare but I have bought a few rental properties and that is with myself and my wife holding full-time jobs + having 2 young ones so at some level, it definitely can be done. Just start thinking about how you *can* make it happen instead of bemoaning why you can't.

I agree that for low to maybe mid price properties that Ikea furniture may be adequate but I hope more generally, you're not equating Ikea design and furniture to what you would get from an interior designer who is helping you stage a property. Ikea furniture is what I would call economically stylish - it looks ok and doesn't hit the pocketbook too hard but if I'm buying a trendy high end condo, I'm certainly looking for nicer furniture than I can get at Ikea.

Hey ph, can you explain your comment further? Where is the tax benefit coming from?

Remember, you're limited as to how much writeoff you can take on your taxes (I think it's $3k) and if you make too much money, you can't writeoff anything - just offset your rental income. My experience is that the supposed tax benefits of owning income property (as a passive investor at least) is over-exaggerated. Any investor should know the tax laws (or have their accountant inform them) before assuming any amount of benefit on the tax front.

I don't live there so am not as well informed as others but I do believe that you need to watch out for property taxes in Texas. Last time I checked, they were in the 3%+ range which can pretty quickly cut into your expected cash flow if you aren't prepared for it.

Same problem here - I have to login everytime.

I would manage my own but they're all in other states so I depend on (and curse) property managers.

Btw, I wouldn't attribute your property manager's lack of communication with you as being a sexist thing as you mentioned above. As you'll learn from people all over this board, incompetent and unresponsive property managers are an epidemic, regardless of who they're dealing with.

I think we would need more information on the units to give the best answer. Specifically, how much rent do the 3 units bring in per month? My guess would be based on "standard" formulas (2% rule) as covered time after time in the forums, your units barely cash flow today if at all (would need to bring in $3k/month in rent). That means that if you try to refinance out some cash from this property, you will put this one in the red in an attempt to free up funds to invest elsewhere. In my opinion, robbing Peter to pay Paul doesn't make sense unless you have some *very good* alternatives for the cash that you're pulling out of house #1.