All Forum Posts by: William Sing

Hey there! Recommend Emily Baldwin for insurance needs. Hope she can help! https://paynewest.com/colleagu...

Might want to look at the HUD Site for your area. It gives more preference for non-cash buyers. If you are competing against cash offers then purchase price is really all you can do besides waiving inspections but I don't really recommend that. You will take an initial loss but there will be a point where it doesn't make sense for the cash buyer. 

Hi Roy, I usually just use apartments.com since it is free and does a lot of what you are looking for. If you start to get 5-10+ units it might make more sense to use rentredi or something else that you need to pay for. I also found a property management company that does a la carte activities like lease-ups, etc. This helps me not focus too much on the small stuff. 

If it is your first deal usually getting a property manager works better at scale once you get past 5-10 properties so not sure if that would be as helpful. You could put some more into renovating it to look nice but if the other units in the area are not that nice it won't help as much. Unfortunately, location is not something you can change for the condo. Unless you can cater to a different class of people like mid-term rental or something like that you may need to lower your rental standards (just not too low). 

As for the LLCs, I think this episode nails a lot of them - 

If you have a separate bank account and everything for your home and are paying your "rent" through that and it is fair market value you might be able to write that off as well. Also if you work from home a home office would also be an option. 

I think a CPA would be good for setting up your books initially. They would be able to let you know a bit more about the other options. 

Hope this helps!

I think calling animal control might be the best solution! 

I think this depends on what your ultimate goals are. I think that another option might be just to put a portion of it down for a property in the area you are wanting that is only 1 door but then spend half the year figuring out your team and getting everything settled. Then buy a quadplex or something else so you can get the economy of scale. Also depends on how much free time you and your wife have and the connections you have. Investing out of state takes more systems and you can't just go see the property whenever, unfortunately. If you haven't invested in out of state, make sure to go a bit slower so you don't lose your shirt if things go sideways. 

@Oswald Oswald, congrats on taking the first steps on moving and looking at investing!

As for an answer it is, it depends. 

Overall, a lot of investors avoid condos due to the HOAs and potential special assessments. They can drastically increase and you usually have little to no control over that unless you are on the HOA board and have influence over other members. This can kill your cashflow quickly and with condos and they usually have a slower degree of appreciation than SFHs. It is still an option, but keep that in mind. If you are looking to still move forward with the condo take a look at if the HOAs have any rental caps, restrict STR, and understand their finances. Usually, HOAs (at least here in Oregon) have some sort of financial study that is about 30 years out. You are also correct that HOA fees have a negative effect on price appreciation. It doesn't mean they are horrible investments especially if you turn them into STR since they can bring a lot of profit. You would just need to make sure it is the right situation.

Honestly, I'd see if you could just buy a SFH now and get roommates to help pay the mortgage. Not sure if that'd fit with your lifestyle but you'd probably be able to pull out equity later on to buy the next home. Just a thought! Let me know if you want to chat further :)

I'd probably lean more on the side of the lawyer. The timeline seems pretty clear. The only other potential out I could think of is if your state/contract has a financing contingency or maybe a seller property discloser contingency. The financing contingency would probably be the better option and if the roof has an issue the lender might not lend on it. From my knowledge, Appraisers will not actually appraise the property if it is not livable or the major systems (including the roof) are not working. I'm not an appraiser though so you'd have to double-check with them. The SPD contingency is likely to void since banks are usually able to waive those since they don't know. 

Given how banks operate, you may be able to slide this past them but you still have a chance of you losing the earnest money. 

Hey @Quiana Berry, For a lot of first-time investors I highly recommend doing something in a place you feel comfortable with and also doing owner-occupied. You can utilize better loan programs (owner occ) and is a lot more forgiving. Areas that appreciate a lot more will also lower your overall risk as long as you can hold on to it in a 5-10 year time frame. It is a good way to use "training wheels" and will give you a better idea of what is needed when you invest out of state. Just my two cents!