All Forum Posts by: Walter Bowser

Congrats on purchasing the investment property! Love the house-hack method! My biggest piece of advice is to run it like a business especially with the tenant next door. Although they are section 8 and the payment will be coming in automatically, don't fall in a trap of sob stories or nonsense with requests from the tenant. Always be empathetic, but at the end of the day its a business for you and you have to run it as such. 

Turnkey is great for a first time investor. I typically recommend a new construction for a true turnkey property as the builder typically has some sort of warranty. This means for larger ticket items they will cover some maintenance or repairs on them. 

If its home that went through a remodel, typically there is not any sort of warranty and you will still experience some work orders come in.

Either way, great option for some investors and currently there are still some deals out there that you can walk into equity with, which is typically why you'd want a non-turnkey property.

Hi Trent, to take on a project like that I would want to be very confident on the location. Meaning its on path for gentrification and increased rents for the foreseeable future. In my experience one of my biggest lessons learned when dealing with older properties always expect more than you initially thought. 

For example some items during the rehab might need to be brought up to code, completely replaced or might break from other rehab going on due to old age. I would be cautious taking on a project like this for the first time.

Awesome! Congrats on this!

From my experience, the way the property looks and feels when a tenant moves in (especially curb appeal) sets the standard for when they move in. If they move in with a made ready home they are more likely to take care of it while they live there. 

I would eat the costs and fix the yard and either install a sprinkler or pay a PM company to water it. Just remember, Real Estate is a long term investment and you are ultimately enjoying the appreciation and principle reduction. 

From my experience, there have been more cons than than pros. The biggest pro, is typically you will have a higher rental rate, if your home is already furnished and you have no place or desire to store it, it might be worth it. 

From my experience, it causes more headaches than anything. From furniture breaking and needing to be replaced, and it being a he said, she said on who was responsible for the damage. Unfortunately, I had to pay to replace the furniture during the lease because it was difficult to say for certain if it was normal wear & tear or damage caused by the tenant. 

I found this one off of Investor Lift. They had it priced too high at first, but then I made them an offer where the deal made sense for me to do it at. They ended up taking it. It was an odd one though because the house was actually in good shape and did not need a lot of work.

Hi Chani, 

These fees seem a bit high to me, specifically the leasing fee, on-boarding fee, Multiple quotes requests, HVAC filter supply, early termination fee, vacant property termination fee, and transfer to another manager fee. 

The property managers fees should be philosophically aligned with your goals as the property owners. 

Awesome, congrats on the new venture! I own a PM company here in Oklahoma.

Hi Ken, I would say in the vast majority putting down 25% on an investment property is the safest way but there are ways to put a lower down payment and sometimes little to no money out of pocket. 

For example, I just bought a property out here in OKC that I got under contract at 80% of the appraisal value. I was able to secure a DSCR loan that allowed me to put no money down on the property. I just had to pay for some minor rent ready repairs like replacing the carpet and painting the interior. This doesn't happen for me often, but there are deals out there like this.