All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Joscelyn S Johnson I'd recommend dropping the per room rental rate to $500 a month. That's more the going rate for a room rental. It's possible to get a one bedroom apartment for just over $700 a month in that area. So consider your competition when setting your price. Another option would be to list the rooms on Air BnB to get some short term renters in there. If none of that works it might make sense to list the whole house for rent to cover the costs and rent something more affordable. That way you're cost of living is affordable and you can still build equity in the house.

@Joscelyn S Johnson so are you living in one of the rooms and renting the others? I'm familiar with the area and know it relies a lot on air force renters. With COVID PCS season basically didn't happen which means you haven't had a lot of people cycling in or out of the area. What avenues have you taken to get the rooms rented?

Hey @Josephine Wilson it looks like you've got some great answers already but here are my 2 cents. 

1) Yes if you are a member of the MLS and an agent you are entitled to the buyer's agent commission. You will typically have a commission split with your broker.

2) You can decline to be represented however at that point you will have to trust an agent who is not representing you to take care of the contract and forms you are signing. If you are going to have one agent handle the entire transaction to me it would make sense to at least have them represent both sides so they at least owe you a fiduciary duty. The listing agent will get what was offered as a co-broker commission as their marketing brought the buyer and the buyer did not have an agent. A non-licensed person can not be paid a commission for the sale of real estate in Arizona, even if they are representing themselves. Because the seller is still paying the total commission there really is not any financial incentive to them to lower the price by not having an agent. 

3)You can contact the owner directly and make an offer as you are not bound to the Realtor's code of ethics (which would prevent that) but the seller would still owe the listing agent a commission. 

My suggestion is obviously biased. But if you are considering buying a property on the MLS I would network with an agent who is experienced in working with investors. Their job is not just putting together a contract and then waiting for the closing to get paid. They should know how to negotiate and how to leverage the contract for those negotiations to get you the best deal possible. I also think a lot of people discount the amount of time a good agent is spending on the back end of a transaction to get it to the closing table.

None of the national lenders come to mind when considering who I might use over a local lender. Most lenders have the same programs. The differences, based on my experience, come into play on the service side of things. Large national lenders tend to shuffle you from person to person and take longer to execute, but typically can offer lower rates due to their size. Specialized mortgage companies like Guild, Nova, Summit, ect in Tucson typically offer a much higher level of service but the rate is a bit higher. They also tend to participate in more first time home buyer programs and down payment assistance programs that may not be for the seasoned investor but could be great for someone looking to get into a house hack and do their first deal. Then you have your credit unions who, to answer @Cade's question, tend to be your portfolio lenders. They are very similar to a mortgage company in operation but they are not selling your loan to the secondary market. That means they don't have to have as high of a loan to value ratio to make things work for them. It also means they can be more creative with the structuring of the loan. So all lenders have their place in the market. The most important thing is identifying your goal. Once you have that in focus have a discussion with all of them to identify how they can help you get there. 

@Cade Olof I'd recommend reaching out to a portfolio lender. They can bend rules conventional lenders can't because they aren't selling the loans in the secondary market. Credit unions are a great place to start. I'd have a conversation with a few and once you find one you like establish checking and savings account so that when the time comes they see you as an existing member. This can usually be helpful when applying for the loan.

Hey everyone. I'm looking for tips on finding or referrals for a virtual assistant. I'm looking for someone mostly to formate data and then que it up in dialers and other marketing platforms. For example the first job would be formating data on about 16,000 property owners to run through a skip tracers and then getting it uploaded for use in a couple marketing platforms. Any ideas or recommendations?

Hey @Ashley Vellon

Typically I have the contractors I work with include pulling permits in their quote. Then I just confirm they are pulled prior to work starting. However I did have to pull permits for a full house repipe with the city of Tucson a couple months ago. I submitted everything one week, got the ok from the city the next and they came out to inspect 2 days later. Typically all you can do prior to permitting is demo. While I don't have a recommended contact at the permitting department I highly recommend calling down there if you haven't already. They're all super helpful in my experience.

@Josephine Wilson there are some A class rentals in midtown. What's got you so focused on class A properties?

I'd be cognisant of the current inventory of college rentals in the student housing market. That submarket is boarding on over served and saw flat or slight rental rate drop offs prior to covid. Now with the student population reportedly down by 15% due to covid I've seen a lot of student rentals with signs out front that would have normally been rented over the summer or even prior to the end of the spring semester.

@Josephine Wilson in my experience most of the small multifamily listed near the university ends up being a rehab/management play to raise rents or a house hack senerio. There are also a lot of new investors focusing on the downtown area who aren't accounting for a lot of expenses. I'd suggest looking off market as mentioned or taking a look at other areas of Tucson that offer better returns.

Hey Patrick, as others have suggested the market in Tucson is still strong. It is always a good time to buy a property you plan to hold for the long term but if you plan to turn it over quickly you'll want to make sure you are staying conservative and have multiple exit strategies. That being said based on the fundamentals of our market I am still flipping homes. As far as the rental increases I would make sure you have drilled down on the unit and rental comps to make sure you can do those rent raises successfully. Class C rents in Tucson tend to be skewed when comparing properties with evaporative cooling and central air. Also if you want to drive the higher end of the rental rates for the area is your property going to be one of the best? How do the units that are currently getting what you want in rent square with your units? Also having experience in C class rent rate increases in Tucson I would say be prepared for a large tenant turnover even if they tell you they would love to stay. If you've gone through all of this then you're good to go.