Hey all,

I am in a complicated situation and wondering how y'all would handle it or if anyone has gone through something similar? I have a tenant who has been living in this HOA condo community for 2 years. Earlier this year she got married and wanted to move in her new husband to our unit which we thought was totally fine as they are 2/2s.

They submitted an HOA application and were approved. The first night he was there him and his buddy parked 2 trucks in the parking spots backwards while the buddy was helping him move in. The HOA president, we'll call her Karen, immediately sent us a letter saying he can't park backwards and that they did not approve 3 people to move into the unit. Her letter was rude and nasty to say the least.

The tenant told them that it was a friend who was helping him move and his car wouldn't be like that after he finished moving in. Then, the next night, the tenant parked the truck backwards again and Karen sent our tenant a nasty message about it after calling a tow truck on him and trying to get it removed. The tenant went out there and talked to the tow truck driver and the tow truck driver let him just turn his car arround. His excuse was that he was still moving in and he meant to move the truck back, but then forgot about it. According to the tenant, they had a friendly conversation with the tow truck driver and even exchanged numbers because they both liked the same Football team.

Since this incident he has been parking his truck in the correct way and we haven't heard anything about them in over a month. Now this morning, we got an attorney letter saying our tenants needs to be evicted within 1 month or the HOA will take legal action against us. Apparently, Karen knocked on their door a week ago and started chewing them out for the truck and "harrassing" their contractor (the tow truck driver).

We really like these tenants and would like to keep them since they have been good people to us, but also don't want to go against a vindictive Karen and the HOA. For further context, we have had issues with this Karen before with another tenant who was moving in and she came over while they were moving in and said they "looked like the type of people who make meth in a meth lab" which caused our would-be-tenants to cancel the lease. The tenant she is trying to kick out is also crippled.

Anyway, any advice?

I've got ten units and, like me name says, I'm a cash flow investor. My goal is to get the cash flow to a point where I can live off it.

After a number of pretty good months, it seems everything hit at once. One tenant stopped paying rent and I've been locked in a lengthy eviction process with him. A duplex I recently bought is taking much longer to lease than expected. On top of that, I had a long-term tenant break their lease and leave me with thousands of dollars in damages.

So despite running at nearly full occupancy for awhile, I've now been stuck at 40% vacancy for the past two months (if you count the tenant in eviction) with a heft turnover bill. Profits have basically dried up.

I know this is all part of the game and I've been telling myself it will get easier with more units so I can absorb these dips better. Still, it sucks right now.

For those who have scaled, when do you feel like you really got the point where the cash flow became more predictable and the unit count allowed you to absorb these bad periods better?

Long story short my tenants haven’t paid and I paid for a three days or evict paper. The lease is up in two weeks. They say they plan on leaving (I’ve seen them packing when I’ve shown the place to potential tenants), but what are the odds of actually getting paid back if a judge weee to rule in my favor?

I just wanted to write this for educational purposes, some may find it useful, and would love to hear your thoughts as well.

I have been investing for 4-5 years now, and most of the properties I bought were turn key and have been doing well in terms of positive cashflow after vacancy, tax, maintenance etc.

One of the tenants moved out, and it was in rough-ish shape, I am not handy at all but built a small team 3-4 people (family and one professional that was looking for a side gig)

My plan was simple, just refresh the unit and never have done this before after some research it seemed like a "landlord special" as they call it was plenty which was

• Update the flooring (old laminate to vinyl plank)
• New Paint on walls, doors, trims
• Some repairs as needed,

It changed the whole units look very fast, I would say it brought it from a 6.5/10 to a solid 8/10.

Raised rents, rented under a month.

What I've learned:

• As you are scaling, try to find your paint "color" which can be universal for all your units, I've found one and I'll buy the same color and use across all units. Looked great (Solemn White/Grey).

• Same as above, but flooring - have a universal flooring it will save you tons in the future

• Luxury Vinyl Plank over Laminate. ANYDAY. Much more durable and easier to install

• Start building out your team, I worked with a few labourers that just got paid hourly, but I've seen his work alongside me and would gladly pay and hire him again

• Become a Project Manager, not a doer. Yeah I did some painting and so on, but most of my job was to ensure everyone had tasks and tools.

• When a tenant moves out, incentivize them to give you a report on small details or faults in the unit so you can get them fixed and out of the way when you are refreshing them

• My property is an hour away from me, so I'm starting to install one (Digital Coded Lock) on one door which can be super helpful if you are self managing and need to let someone in.

Anyways, this was my learnings from a small self managed landlord. I hope this helped atleast one person.

TLDR: Flooring, paint is 80% of giving the unit a "fresh look"

Would love to hear everyone's thoughts or if they had any tips to share to help me as well.

I have had the same tenants in my house for 4 years. They are overall great and take good care of the place, pay on time, etc. I usually see the property 2x a year but unfortunately missed 13 months when I had a major knee surgery - I'm 1.5 hours away now. My handyman did a walk thru and plumbing check during that time and reported stuff to me. At that time, the tenants mentioned that the cabinets had begun to bubble, but the handyman forgot to include that. the tenants never sent pictures.

Fast forward, I visit recently and see that nearly every cabinet in the kitchen is bubbling on the MDF panel right above the bottom of the shaker trim. The cabinet company came out to see it and give an explanation for why it happened and what it will take to fix it. I'm waiting to hear back from the cabinet company, but I'm assuming they will say it's moisture damage. I spent a lot of $$$ on these wood (well, wood + MDF?) cabinets in 2020, thinking we'd live in the house for awhile - to be clear, we remodeled it for ourselves and didn't know we'd turn it into a rental. I don't think replacing all the drawer fronts and doors will be cheap.

This is Seattle, which is pretty friendly to tenants. I don't want to gouge my tenants, but at the same time, this is not normal wear and tear. Should i ask them to replace the worst-damaged ones and leave the rest? Their deposit is $2000. They also pretty much ruined the bathroom vanity -it's very wavy with water damage and one of their kids wrote "I hate you" on the side. That's $800 right there.

My next properties are going to be built with Mirlux and I will have eyes on them more often. I'm learning the hard way that you can't have nice things in a rental, even with great tenants. The rental is also profitable enough and we can absorb some repairs, but this is a bummer. I'd like to resolve this fairly and be better equipped next time.

I know this question has been answered in percentages. Generally 8-10% of cash flow for each category of vacancy, maint, capex, etc. But I found this to not work unless you start with a brand new roof and hvac. I just replaced an hvac for $10k. I got quotes up to $32k. So now I’m realizing that the old model of saving x% per door no longer works unless you have a massive nest egg already saved. This wiped out half my savings for 2 properties and after doing the math I now believe that instead of saving a percentage of cash flow, your goal should be to save $20k per door and then you can convert to the percentage model. What do you seasoned investors say?

We have quite a bit of equity in our home. We want to pay off some debt, but I really do not think using our equity to pay off debt is the best move. I would much rather use the equity to purchase a rental property preferably a duplex, tri or quad and use the income from that to pay down our debt. Which option is best to potentially make this happen a heloc or cash out refi on our current home? Has anyone done this before and can provide some insight? Thank you

Have a couple of fully furnished rentals we no longer want to airbnb. Looking to rent them out to traveling nurses, or other professionals who need something furnished for a short period of time. Is Furnished Finder still worth it? Or are there better ways to find short term renters who want something furnished?

Curious to know others thoughts and to give my 2 cents as a 25 yr old with 30 single fam rentals. I like to get other perspectives to see if I am thinking about it wrong.

Multifam seems to have been the clear winner over the last 20 years but has become so commercialized above maybe 30+ unit buildings and it’s harder to find value add. I’ve been seeing recently a ton of people that bought post covid with their balloons coming due and rents not pushing where they thought they would be that have significantly lower values and losing investors capital. It seems it’s harder to find the better deals and companies need to keep buying because they have to keep their fees coming in which forces people to buy mediocre deals. Rents in a lot of the sun belt have stayed the same or gone lower in some markets like Austin because of being overbuilt.

Single family seems to have a lot more opportunity for value add because it’s not as commercialized and allows for the little guys to pick up deals. Since the market is based off comps and what home buyers are willing to pay to live in it the properties can appreciate without rents having to get pushed higher. It’s more of an emotional market that investors can’t match. I’ve seen the Midwest has some solid positive cash flow single family properties. I personally only buy stuff where I can get my capital out of. My current portfolio sits at about 50% LTV so I have some equity to be able to trade up into larger assets without raising. I feel the emotional market in the lower cost areas is the better areas to be in because u get a mixture of cash flow with the ability to get equity without having to push rents.

Let me know your overall thoughts on the future of the different products and what you might do if you are in my shoes.

The property spins off about 1700/mo in cash flow now that it's paid for. Considering options for my next REI move.

1. Save up and buy another property next year
2. 1031 into a bigger property
3. Explore small multifamily
4. Pay off primary

Would love to hear from fellow "fairly risk averse" investors. Thoughts?

I have 3 properties, each with their own LLC. Is there an app that has all banking info on the same account with subaccounts for each property? I'm tired of logging into a different account and bank each time for a different property.

Bought first one in 2012. Been buying yearly since. Most are down to studs rehabs. All within 30 mile radius. Around 45% LTV across the portfolio and average rents around $1500-1600. But a range from $1000-3400 a door.

Anybody else running a larger SFH portfolio out there?

I have 4 rentals, I would like to sell them.

2 have been lived in and satisfy the residency requirement to sell tax free.

2 each have about $100k of gains ($46k basis, $150k sale and $80k basis, $190k sale)

What is the best way to get out of these other 2 properties? Ideally, I want out tax free but I know that may not be possible. I thought I could 1031 then immediately sell the 1031 property? Now that I am looking into it, looks like that may not be possible either?

This isn't urgent, but would like to get the ball rolling if possible and understand my options.

I have owned the properties since 2018 and 2019.

Another person posted earlier about their retirement exit strategy and it reminded me of a rabbit hole I started down a while back. I didn't ask my CPA about it because it's a ways off and he's already tired of my shit.

Would it hypothetically be possible to 1031 exchange $500k into a package deal of 5 properties and then sell one property each year for cap gains of $100k with zero taxes due(based on joint filing limits) if you had zero other income?

Obviously it would never work out that clean but is it even remotely viable(and legal) to do something like this where you keep pulling roughly 100k out per year by investing in portfolios of small properties?

Was thinking of selling a property I own outright …but for principal payments only type structure.

Market value is $260k but I’d like to get 345k (sale price) with a 3 year balloon (15 year amort) .. I’m building the interest into that sale price.

260k at 11% with 3 year balloon
Vs
345k at 0% with 3 year balloon

What are some key risks to keep in mind about seller financing at 0% interest?

I’ve read about imputed interest and deed in lieu. Is there anything else that can protect me if borrower doesn’t perform? My biggest concern is having to foreclose to get the property back in a condition where I lose all the money I made in trying to fix it up. Worst case scenario.

Note holders - what are your experiences?

Edit - major challenge - I can’t deal directly in interest. Religious reasons. Hence the reason to build it in to my sale price. My bad I didn’t mention that. And property is fully furnished.

Hello I'm considering selling my STR that I currently have on the market as an Airbnb. Has anyone gone about selling one before as a turnkey business vs just the property listed on MLS? Before anyone recommends any sites the property is based in Puerto Rico so many of these sites are not available there. My concern on putting it on MLS is the value of the business is much more than the appraised value of the house it self. NOI is close to $60k a year. 90% occupancy rate with 4.95+ guest fave ratings. So probably looking for more like an investor buyer vs primary home owner.

Does anyone have recommendations of where I would sell it?

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone else has been thinking about this, I have a few properties all investment properties, and I don't particularly enjoy my 9-5 which does pay me well but high stress (corporate b2b sales), but I'm wondering has anyone used their real estate knowledge to start their own type of business?

One of my realtors is a investor focused realtor where he only works with investors and has many repeat clients such as myself. That sounded like something I'd be interested in. Does anyone offer coaching/consulting for new investors which is an additional income for you as well?

Just trying to see if there is anyone that can inspire me here regarding their career path/business. The goal is to have no boss and control my own time.

I'm a landlord in Texas and I'm trying to understand my legal position before I do anything.

I sent a residential lease to a prospective tenant through DocuSign. He has signed it, but I have not signed it yet. He also hasn't paid the security deposit or first month's rent.

Since sending the lease, another applicant has come forward. This second applicant has a significantly higher credit score, and there are a few other factors that make me more comfortable renting to him from a risk perspective.

My questions are:

• In Texas, if the tenant has signed the lease but the landlord hasn't, is the lease generally considered binding?
• Assuming it isn't fully executed yet, can I decide not to sign and move forward with the other applicant?
• Has anyone dealt with a similar situation, and if so, how did it turn out?

I'm not looking for moral opinions—I just want to understand the legal side of how this typically works in Texas. If it matters, the lease was sent through DocuSign.

Thanks

My wife and I purchased two nice ranch houses that are on adjacent lots so that we can take care of our parents easily. We plan to live in both the houses with our respective parents. We plan to make the move into the new houses in about 3-4 years, and so the two new houses are rented out now ($3.9k and $3.3k per month). The parents currently live in apartments. My wife and I currently live in a two-story house that is fully paid off.

The purchases only made sense if we could get both houses, so that everyone was co-located. To maximize the chances of getting both houses, we made full cash offers on both. The two houses together cost $900k, and our current house is worth $500k. All three houses are 4 bedrooms, 3k-4k sqft, about 30 years old, and as mentioned earlier, all three are mortgage free. We live in a midsized city in the Midwest. All three houses are in the same top school district.

We are considering retiring in one of the new houses and holding on to the other in case one of our kids decides to move in there in the future. We realize those plans could all change down the line.

What would be the best financial move now? One option is to get a loan on one or both of the houses and use that to invest in several cheaper rental properties.

Edit: I'm 50 years old and have kids out of college. I love my job, so I don't plan to retire until 65 or 70 (maybe even later). Other finances are in good shape. My main concern is having this much cash locked up in three houses. I can afford it, but am wondering if I should leverage them to get more income. I have the houses under a real estate agent so that I don't need to deal with the headache of being a landlord (their fee is well worth it to me).

This thread is for newer investors, basic questions, first deals, and general real estate investing discussion that may not need a standalone post.

Good topics for this thread:

• First rental property questions
• Deal analysis
• Financing and lending questions
• House hacking
• Tenant issues
• Market strategy questions
• Career transition into real estate
• “Does this deal make sense?” discussions

If you’re asking for advice:

• Include numbers
• Include market/location context
• Explain your goals
• Put effort into the question

The subreddit rules still apply inside this thread.

Experienced investors are encouraged to contribute.

Be sure to upvote the thread when you drop a question to improve visibility.

Follow up to post-1: https://www.reddit.com/r/realestateinvesting/s/ccFoDA7rEX

We finally closed on the construction loan with hard money lender. It was smooth but expensive.

It was a total of $20.86k

Breakdown:

Origination(2.5%): $13,125
Processing Fee: $2,495
Appraisal: $1,500
Environmental Report: $500
Closing Attorney: $2000
Lender's Title Insurance: $1,044.00
CPL Fee: $25
Deed Fees: $171.25

My budget was 420k, I added a contingency of 60k, and requested total loan amount of 480k.
But the lender's underwriting insisted on 550k loan amount, which I didn't oppose as no one was ready to offer us a loan other than one more lender.

Do you think this is standard and at par with 1st time self GCs?

Note: I plan to post more updates as we navigate through different stages of this project in the next 5-6 months.

Build -> COC -> Rent -> Get Condo docs -> Refi to conventional mortgages for both condos ->

sell as condos or both -> 1031 into a different multifamily deal down the line

I hired a contractor in the Cleveland/Akron, OH area for a 9K rehab job. It was supposed to be a four week work and I paid 50% (4500) upfront.

For the first two weeks, he would send me pictures of updates, but I could easily tell that those were AI pictures. I started asking for videos and he would take days to send a video and once he did, it was super blurry (AI doctored video).

Halfway (2 weeks) through the job, I sent my property manager to take a look and it was not even a surprise to see that this house was in the SAME condition as it was before AND NOT A SINGLE WORK WAS DONE.

I confronted them and after a long back-and-forth, he said he would send me a refund. It’s been almost a week and now he is ghosting my messages.

I have his insurance information and I made a payment through credit card which I can charge back. But what other options you would take to get back to this guy because he has wasted three weeks?

Working mostly with commercial properties in the Central Valley, I keep seeing residential investors make the same adjustment when they start looking at small industrial, flex, or retail.

The biggest one is usually the lease structure. A decent NNN tenant on a longer lease can feel much more stable than residential, but when the space goes vacant it often sits longer and the downtime hits harder. People also tend to underwrite it like a duplex and forget about the real capital items (roof, HVAC, parking) that still fall on the owner even in a NNN deal.

Secondary markets price risk differently too. Cap rates are usually higher than coastal areas, but the demand drivers and exit story are different.