I can’t find any comparables in my specific town. Is it fair to consider comparables that have better/worse school systems in neighboring communities?

I have been doing a lot of research lately and trying to materialize my plans. I have read a lot of stories about pitfalls and failures, which has lead me to rentals (flipping seems to be riskier, and I know I don't have the skillset for it). Now I could afford to put down 20% on certain properties, but I was thinking about house hacking with 5%. I work remote and have no kids/family anchoring me down, so I can really move/buy property anywhere in theory. I am also leaning towards MFH instead of SFH, but not totally against SFH.

I know the data shows most RE investors don't beat the SP500, so I wan't to make sure I am maximizing profit, and not just investing in RE for the sake of it (side note, what is the appeal of turnkey properties vs just investing in SP500?). From reading it sounds like to maximize profit you need to look for areas that are on the come-up. Also, smaller cities in general. I would prefer to live in a major city with lots to do(Chicago, NYC etc), but seems like everyone says deals are way harder to find in those locations. Is it pretty much a pipe dream to expect to find a deal that cash flows in a major city that isn't in a warzone?

Just wondering what others would do in my position? Am I correct in that my next steps should be talking with lenders to see what kind of loans I would be able to get. Then choose a city and start watching the market closely, so I know when a good deal pops up?

Any advice or insight is appreciated!

Trying to decide whether selling or renting out my single family home is worth it. I can’t really find any comparable rentals in the area (4br, 2bath, fenced in backyard). Current mortgage is $2.2k and kinda similar rentals are asking 3-4k. My fear is that supply is low because demand is super low. I live in central NJ, so it’s not in the boondocks.

Is it easy to find renters for single family homes?

$280k SFH. Currently have 2 loan options:

1. 10/1 ARM, 75% LTV, 6.95% interest rate, prepayment penalty over the first 5 years. (Also an 80% LTV with a rate of 7.450%, other terms the same) Also recently came across some not so great feedback about this lender on BP, etc, some investors losing deals over timeline, escrow problems, etc.
2. Traditional 30 year, 8.125% with buy down options.

Thoughts? What would you pick? Why?

Thanks!

Edited to add: ARM has a 5/4/3/2/1 pre-payment penalty.

Next week I'm probably going to go look at a 30 unit building with asking price 1.8m that is legitimately listed on MLS and has been listed for 180 days. While MLS is a strange place to see a building like this the weirder part is that their current rent/proforma show relatively decent cash flow - not great, but decent numbers - numbers that become good if a small concession is made by the seller - so obviously everyone has seen it and the entire market has decided to pass. The area it's in isn't great, it's not in a ghetto but it's in like... C-/D+ territory although the building looks to be kept up and the units are renting at approximately market rate. So the reality is the pricing is roughly fair market value for a fairly maintained building collecting fair market rent which you would expect to go relatively quick. Now - I asked for all the financial documents and the listing agent sent the proforma (I asked for PnL statement for 2 yrs and was told 'I'll see what I can do'), so my biggest concern is that inflation is squeezing a lot of people in this area and that vacancy loss due to non-payment / evictions, etc... are a lot higher than projected by the proforma. So, I guess for people who're familiar with this, any thoughts on how you would try to get a better picture of late and/or missing rent? Would you try to force the current owner to provide that information, or would you try to estimate it from alternate sources?

Hey all! I need advice here. So basically I’m buying a house remotely from someone who does turn key flips. We’re two days away from closing.

I flew in to do a walkthrough yesterday. I was not pleased. Seller claimed that one unit has two bedrooms, but it has one bedroom and one is living room (whom he claimed to be a bedroom). The other unit he claimed to be three bedrooms, but the third bedroom is an attic that only kids can fit in (super low ceiling).

The condition of the house is far from turnkey. Rotten woods in the exterior and interior windows. A bunch of repairs he promised to do but his contractor has not finished.

Anyway, how do I back out of the contract now? I think I have plenty of grounds.

So my father recently got some money for a settlement , he’s looking to invest it into buying a second home to rent out. However he needs a co-signer to get the house he’s eyeing , he asked me to co sign for him and says he plans to take me off the loan after about a year and in return he’ll pay me a sum of $15,000 for helping him out .

I’m currently renting with my girlfriend and don’t plan on purchasing within the next 2-3 years. My biggest worry is that in co-signing for him , I would lose any benefits I would receive as a First Time Buyer status whenever I am ready to purchase my first home in the future. He says that the $15,000 would be the help I need when I’m ready to buy a home given I don’t spend it all in one place lol .

I know that my father has enough income to support both the mortgage to his home and his new home , so I’m not worried about him falling behind. I don’t know what other cons would come with this decision other than losing my First Time Buyer status therefore I came to this Reddit to seek advice.

He’s my dad and I would love to help him but of course I would like to hear your opinions ! Thank you !

Down payment choice decision.

Hello I am planning on purchasing my first real estate investment.

It will be a fixer upper house hack that I will live in and fix it up while living in it. After a year I plan on moving out buying another fixer upper and renting out the house long term.

The market I’m looking at is not too expensive. I am looking to buy a place for somewhere between 150-220k. I expect rental pricing to be 1.7-2.2k depending on the house.

My question is what should I use for a down payment. My current finical situation is as follows:

No debt Monthly Paycheck after taxes before deductions: $7300 Monthly Employee stock purchase plan: $1095 Roth 401k monthly contributions- $730 Monthly paychecks after deductions- $5475 Average monthly spending without rent/mortgage- $2000

Monthly savings before mortgage- $3475

Liquid cash- 20k Roth 401k- 40k Individual stock portfolio 65k

Option 1: 401k loan Take out 20k on a 2yr loan probably interest 10%.

Option 2: Sell some stock to use as down payment

Option 3: Use cash for small fha loan

I think I’m leaning towards option 1 as I like the idea or paying myself the interest and it allows me to use my current cash to put towards rehab budget.

Let me know what you think or if there is any other option I haven’t thought of.

I plan on trying to apply for first time homebuyer grants but just want to plan for the worst.

Thank you for reading this and helping!

Hello,

Is there a way to buy the unit I’ve been renting from the landlord without buying the whole building? For example, this building has 50 rental units and I would like to purchase just one, is it possible? Thanks.

Appreciate any insights here on renting or selling. Home purchased 2007, $299k, Paid it off. Estimates Selling~ $480-$490k based on comps Estimate Rental~ $3000. I did rent this same house out early on while I lived out of state (3 different tenants)-no real issues but house was still very new. I didn’t hire a property manager at the time. Now 17 yrs old- still pretty new but of course things come up now.

I decided to leave my work to explore other areas of interest. Risky I know! So no cash flow coming in at the moment. And I’m really over the area where I live, so consider moving often. Perhaps I should just wait until I get cash flow going again but I often wonder if I could manage renting this house and getting another home. But not sure how I would go about doing that and if the bank would give me a loan if I wanted a home that was $600K for example. Thanks for sharing any thoughts!

I’m about to close a deal on 2 duplexes. 3 out of the 4 units are rented and I don’t think it’ll be challenging to rent the 4th one.

I’m going to buy one of the properties in cash and I’m debating if I should buy the other one in cash as well. Here’s my reasoning:

• I have the cash to do it and it won’t put me in a risky position
• better cash flow
• mortgage rates are high now. If they go down at some point I can get financing then
• when I decide to buy more properties I can get HEL, HELOC or simply get a mortgage on that property then. In the meantime cash flow is better
• There’s also some renovation to be done. Lowering closing costs and better cash flow will allow me to mitigate it and return the investment faster.

Am I missing anything? Is there any reason to finance the 2nd property that I’m missing? Thanks in advance

I mean the Harris County tax sale in Texas. I do know the other important thing is actually looking at the land yourself, not just trusting google maps street view.

Does the auctioneer tell us if the title is clean? How would I know?

About to rent out our condo in the Los Angeles county area. Where best to get landlord insurance?

So I have a sfh that I rent out, I've had it for a little over 2 years. The tenants are good, and the house has been solid. The tenants are maybe a bit messy but there's 3 teenage boys in the house. Right now I am cashflow negative to keep them happy and respect my house. This tenant could possibly be there forever, which means never having turnover.

I am thinking about selling and taking the equity I have to buy 2 places in a bigger city that will be slightly cashflow positive.

Should I cash out and re-invest, or should I hold onto it?

I have a tract of land owned outright in the middle of a small town. The town in question is in need of housing, so there are some possible grants available but they're only maybe $10,000 in value per unit. So it's not like they'd cover the whole thing but still a little discount.

What I would like to do is build a 6 or 7 story highrise (is that high enough to be called that)? About 3 floors would have 2 or 3 units each and the top 2 or 3 would be single units.

I've done some basic math and am pretty sure I can make this profitable.

The question is how do I pay for it? The land is owned outright but I do have a mortgage on my house (Probably about $150,000 owed on a $300,000 home.) My credit is good, but probably don't have the capacity for a huge loan given I'd only have maybe $200,000 to put down and aren't a multi-millionaire or anything.

I'd also be open to partnering with either an investment firm or a developer if that's a possibility, but would like to know more about how such an arrangement might work.

What would you suggest? If this seems feasible, I'd like to move forward at least with architectural plans and getting a better estimate of the cost of the project.

Columbus, Ohio Area

I have a home I am putting up for rent. I pay about $1050 for mortgage (taxes and insurance included). Rent around this area is around $1950-$2200.

I am looking on hiring a property manager for this property as I want to be more hands off. I found this one that is

Management fee: 7% of rent collected

Leasing fee: 70% of 1st month rent collected

Management and processing fee of 15% on top of all invoices received by sub-contractors/Vendors outside of (company) for repairs.

Is this common?

What else should I be asking before I select one?

I have a property with 3.5% interest rate $1350 monthly which is being rented to tenants around $2400 a month.

The loan is around 140k left of debt with 24 year remaining on the note.

I have the capital to pay off the loan but my goal is to add to my current portfolio.

Looking at the appreciated prices of homes today and cost of interest rates I feel like it’s not a good time to buy RE using the 140k.

Would paying off this note and saving the revenue for a purchase in a couple of years be better or should I just pull the trigger on a new RE deal now.

TIA

Hi there! I'm buying a fourplex for the first time. I do own a SFH rental that I use a property manager for, but I want to try to manage this new place remotely, and had some questions.

-What are some good option(s) for autopay? I'd rather not wait around for a bunch of checks if I don't have to. Low cost or free options are preferred, since I'm not managing a ton of units here.

-How do you keep an eye on the place when you don't live in the same city? I'm thinking of buying a Ring camera, but I'm wondering if there are better ideas. Thankfully the city is only an hour and a half flight from where I live. I do plan on visiting at least annually because I like the city, I just want to be sure this fourplex is in good shape when I'm not around.

-Some of the bedrooms doesn't have AC ducted to the room since they're an addition. Besides a ceiling fan (which I will be using), what other options do you recommend? I do not want to use a window AC unit, since these will leak and cause the place to look bad.

-Is there anything I'm missing here?

Any advice you can give would be appreciated. The building is profitable, newly redone and in a good neighborhood so those are helpful factors to be sure. Thanks in advance for your help and have a good day!

Tenant moved out. Left a huge oil stain (3’x 2’) in driveway (unreported to me, landlord); and only returned one(of two provided) keys. A few other small things: broken plate, missing drinking glass, mouse poo and broken toilet seat. Do I mention all of the things I’m not charging them for, and only charge for clean up (handyman labor) of oil stain + new locks and handyman install time? Do you nickel and dime for broken dishes (was rented fully furnished and otherwise left clean).

Hello all,

I'm new to the group and have been looking at purchasing a home for about $800k that is in a great location in Massachusetts. My plan would be to tear down the house and put up a two-family. Based on talking to the people on the planning board this will be approved (obviously not guaranteed).

I estimate $100k for the tear-down, and $700k in build costs, for total costs of around $1.6m. Based on the current market, each side would be work approximately $1.2m - so selling both units would net $2.4m - netting approximately $800k before fees, etc. - probably about $500k after all is said and done.

But I'll be honest and say I've never done a project like this, so I'm not sure how to approach it from a financing perspective. If I buy the house with a mortgage with $160k down, I'd be looking at mortgage costs of around $6k a month for carrying costs. I assume I would then get a construction loan (vs. a construction-mortgage loan), giving me approximately 12 months to get the job done. I further assume that I'd be paying interest on the construction loan - giving me a total monthly cost, during construction, of around $8k/month.

My questions:

1. Is this possible? Having never done this before I'm concerned what I don't know.
2. Am I understanding how financing would work? I'm not clear on how construction loans determine eligibility to get a loan like this.

Any thoughts appreciated - and apologies if this is NOT the right forum for this post.

I have 140k in extra savings. (TFSA Maxed/RRSP Maxed/158k in non-registered/140k in company pension). I have 1 house paid off(in a different country) and currently don't have a house in Canada as my work supplies me a place to live. I have a 2 rental properties. Should I invest the 140k into another rental or pay off the rental property? (the 2 mortgage rental properties are: 133k and 250k, the 133k rental property renews in August going from a 2.7% to 5.75%) Currently I have the 140k in a 5% savings account. 33 years old, married, no kids(can't have children).

What's best for me at the moment?

you are evil and everything that is wrong with the world. you fucking pieces of shit.

god will not allow you into heaven.

I'm an experienced city/town planner and want to invest in real estate. I think my skills learned on the job make me uniquely qualified to excel in certain areas. Permitting comes to mind as I am familiar with most state land use and environmental laws, know how to navigate city/town hall, and how to read local zoning books. I have extensive contacts with professional trades like land use attorneys, civil engineers, septic designers, etc.

What type of opportunities should I pursue? My skills don't seem to become useful until a certain level of complexity is reached. Digging deep for overlooked land deals with complex permitting issues might be one route. It's likely my best opportunity to apply my skills. Typical deals like buy-fix-hold or flip don't need my skills; same with buying a single lot and building spec. The other skill I have is grant writing, and I'm familiar with a lot of programs out there, like USDA rural/farm loans and grants as well as affordable housing programs (which are crazy complex). I should note that I've flipped a few condos and owned a rental property years ago, so I'm pretty comfortable with investing, Now, I'm trying to identify ways to leverage my professional skills.

I'm curious to hear any creative suggestions or opportunities to look for. TIA!

I read on this thread that someone had a bank that would finance 90% of the LTV on a 10 unit and I’ve been lost. Every bank I use is 20-25% and I’d love to get to 10%. Are you guys seeing this with local banks? How do you find a bank willing to lend so high?

Hi all,

Due to professional reasons i'm moving out of state but I feel like it makes sense to at least try being a landlord with my current set up.

Home purchase price: $340,000 interest rate 3.25% (new build 4 years ago, 3bd, 2 bath)

Monthly cost: ~$1,500 (Principal, interest, and insurance)

Projected Home value:~$475,000

Projected rent: $2,500-$2,700 (have seen higher this is a conservative estimate)

Home is also part of an HOA where there is no maintenance for outside the house or landscaping. Essentially only the house will need upkeep but with it being so new i'd imagine it'd be minimal at least for now.

Based on these numbers does it make sense to at least try being a landlord (out of state)? It's tempting to take the capital gains exclusion but as i've lived in this home for 4 years i'm open to renting and becoming a real estate investor. I do not currently plan on purchasing a second house after moving and can afford to buy a house without needing the equity in this house. Only possible scenario is a year from now taking this equity to do an aggressive down payment on a primary. Thank you in advance.

So we currently own a SFH with a detached 2-car garage which we want to make an ADU.

The property is all one address and currently the tenant rents the property as is.

We want to make the garage an ADU and make it its own address. As such, is there a way we can adjust our property and then pull equity on it to finance the job? We don’t have the cash for it presently but we know we want to do this.

Thanks!

I am currently beginning to research the Salt Lake City Market and think this would be a perfect place to invest in real estate.

Pros

• Red State
• Landlord Friendly
• Low State taxes
• Loads of people moving there (more than double national average for growth)

Cons

• I don’t live there and would use a mgmt company (I would do this no matter where I invest)

Would love insights and opinions! Thanks

Hey everyone! My husband and I are in our mid-30s with good jobs and have saved around $150,000 for a down payment. We're currently two hours from Boise, Idaho, but our jobs will only keep us here for about 2 years.

Since we're not staying long-term, buying a house doesn't seem like the right fit. But we're worried about missing out on homeownership and rising prices.

So, we're thinking about buying a duplex in Boise to rent out as an investment.

Here's the thing:

Interest rates are high right now. We might have to cover some costs (around $1000) on top of the rent we collect. Our questions:

1. Is buying a duplex a good idea if we're only in the area for 2 years?
2. Any advice for first-time homebuyers, especially those considering a duplex?
3. We plan to find the duplex ourselves but hire a property management company later after we relocate .

Thanks in advance!

Hi, I have 5 tenants right now and hopefully over the next 5 years i can double them

Just wanted to understand how everyone manges the leases, rental, utility bill payments tracking, maintainance issues, etc.

I just want to hear your story. I currently have only $2000 in the bank of being broke, I live at home with parents still at 27, and my art career didn't work out and crazy layoffs are making it hard to stay in that industry. But my aunt does real estate investing (she's very well off too) and told me to look into it more if I'm looking for a career change.

I know this kind of field is the type you already need money to break out into so I'm just going to go into retail for awhile and save up and thats why I want to hear your different experiences.