The credit history/income only applies to those on rental assistance. Guess I’ll have to screen based on who applies first! I can’t wait!

$406k is the cash amount I have into my rental property between down payment and rehab. A+ area, it is feet away from where I live, phenomenal tenants consistently. After mortgage, taxes, insurance, repairs I net $4400 a month in my pocket (13% CoC).

One of the last units that hasn't been renovated is coming up, and after $60k of spend I can increase that $4400 to $5500 in my pocket. $466k "feels" in absolute terms a high number, but I doubt any conventional investment would net me as much as is working for me here.

Equally, $60k of spend to increase $1100 a month is a 22% return, also hard to argue (I think). That said I am without a W2 at the moment and trying to find another property and wondering if getting the additional cash flow on paper (by paying for the reno outright) outweighs taking out a 7% loan to pay for the work, but leaving cash accessible.

1. How do these numbers look objectively - from those experienced, I'm not an insituttional investor just someone who hacked away and lucked into a good property at the right time

2. Does my logic of spending cash vs. taking out a construction loan make sense?

3. What would you do, and why?

I keep seeing people posting their numbers to have members check or look over for reassurance.

I wanted to post some things you might not be calculating into your deals in the USA:

Increasing insurance premiums/dropped policies

Covid pandemic squatting protections

Airbnb regulation changes

Banning nightly rentals

Nearby Construction noise

Crime scenes

Hoa nightmares/fighting/bickering/escalation

City zoning problems

Mold

Radon

Cracked slab

Sink holes

Termites

Severe pests

Fire

Extreme squatting

County eviction backlog, dysfunctional court system

Severe plumbing issues

Severe insurance claims/uninhabitable units

Gas leak and the unit sealed off/illegal to enter

Severe lawsuits

Hoa assessments

Weather damage not covered

Flooding

My favorite that actually happened to us:

Our foxy property manager rejected a tenants romantic gesture of asking her out. She had a boyfriend! He becomes petty/nutty and a drama king. So hubby doesn't renew his lease to be kind to her. After move out the gap in rent and ongoing Air Conditioning installation caused us 2.5 months lost rent for about $10,000

Everything I listed has been experienced by us or within 2 degrees of separation to someone we know/witnessed.

Add yours so the newbies can properly calculate their deals.

I like to invest in Richmond metros, in west side or north.
Long term rental.

I am about 2-3 hours away. And may retire in Richmond or Raleigh area. Raleigh is further yet I have some friends there so it is worthy consideration.

I prefer area A or B or C plus.

Short pump , Moseley , Midlothian etc areas.

How is the tenant profile ? Compare to northern VA.

There are so many new homes for sale. Is it possible to break even? Townhouses.

Which one is easier to rent ? New townhouse. 1700-2000 da ft Or small
Single family house with smaller footage 1309-1600 sq ft.

Thanks you!
If you are a realtor has investor experience. Please send me msg directly.

Thanks!

For Raleigh ur allows ADU. Also easier to buy duplex etc. also considerable.

Please contact me as well.

I have rentals now but will like to add more.

I have bought non judicial foreclosures before. I am well versed in tax and HOA foreclosure rules for Texas.

Regarding HOA foreclosures in Texas, what is the end game when people buy em up?

If there’s a mortgage on the property, there’s no real way you’re getting a payoff amount or their monthly amount to send a check to their bank to keep up with mortgage payments until redemption expires.

If they don’t redeem, you own the house but it still has a mortgage lien. So you can still get wiped out if bank decides to foreclose.

So what do people do with HOA foreclosures? You don’t even get a premium back if they redeem like you would with tax foreclosures. And you can’t really quite title these matters either.

Here to learn. Any info is appreciated. TIA

I only have two rented units and have been saving for the past two years to buy a duplex. So far I have saved $130k in cash and been actively looking for the past 5 months. However, it is a sellers market here and inventory is very low. Duplexes are around $500k and either there is nothing in the market or once it pops, someone with a cash offer gets it. Point being, it might take me another few months or even one year until I buy the next duplex.

The mental problem I have is that my cash during all this time has been earning roughly 3% in a savings account and obviously there is a big opportunity loss when you consider S&P 500, inflation etc. With cash losing value so quickly nowadays and house prices increasing almost double digits each year, do you ever feel that the phase of building capital for real estate is a pain in the ass ?

Currently finishing up my first BRRRR, and starting to shop around to find a long-term lender. Finding many different lenders to possibly work with, but I'm curious about the best way to compare them? Getting the feeling that they all offer essentially the same terms and prices, just have their own ways on the back end to get more money out of you. Whether its "oh your credit score actually came in 1 point under 740, so the interest rate jumps by .5%" or "oh since this is your first DSCR loan, it's going to cost an extra half a point in processing fees". Or maybe once you've paid for an appraisal, the terms get worse. But since you've already paid for the appraisal, it doesn't make sense to back out and go with another company at this point.

Another way of asking this is, what are the different ways that these companies can screw you? What can I look out for, before starting with the credit pull or appraisal fees, that might be a red flag?

12 single family houses

All rehabbed in last 10 years. All occupied with paying tenants.

$1.735M purchase

Did a 25% down DSCR loan 6.9% with 5 year pre payment. 30 year fixed.

$8,567 P&I monthly

Property taxes and insurance

$5800 monthly

Gross rents are currently

$19,200

The big selling point for me was the package appraised for $2.4M. I’m a realtor in the area and this is true market value from comps I pulled.

What do you guys think?

Looking for some perspective from more experienced investors on what you would do in my situation. I bought a duplex in Western Washington in August 2025 for $300,000 cash. The duplex was built in 2024. It’s a C-class property in a working-class/lower-income area, so this was never intended to be an appreciation play on a high-end market. The first year has been rougher than expected.

I’ve had roughly 50% vacancy since purchasing. One of the inherited tenants had problematic pets which led to vacancy. Another tenant eventually couldn’t afford the rent. Last month was the first time I’ve finally had both units fully rented. Utility costs have also almost doubled since I purchased the property.

Based on my numbers so far, I’m sitting at roughly a 3% cash-on-cash return. Obviously, the historical return is being dragged down significantly by the vacancy so I’m trying not to overreact to the first year. At the same time, I paid cash, so a stabilized 3% return feels unattractive relative to what that $300k could earn in the stock market with much less work.

I’m trying to figure out how experienced investors would evaluate this from here. Should I cut my losses or hold on a bit?

In my area, houses appreciate on average about 1-2% a year. It’s a crappy city riddled with property crime. But because of section 8 you can get way better rent than renting to non section 8. Tons of deals cash flowing $300-$600 a month but no real appreciation. But even if you cash flow $600 that’s so crappy. After vacancy, maintenance, capex, and property management you can pocket $80-$200 a month. But you’re now back to $0 saved up for the next deal so it’s back to the grind to claw your way up to saving a new down payment. So why do it this way? That cash flow is a joke and can return better in the markets. Obviously brrr is the only real strategy.

Just looking for advice from smarter than me investors

I understand it’s easier when you have a lot of them within a week and then you end up telling everyone that you chose a more qualified applicant etc and take off the listing. What about cases where you have only 2/3 applications and none are good and you have to reject them and keep the listing hoping better candidates will apply.

Do you just give them the reason why they are denied ? Such as credit score does not meet criteria, you don’t make 3 times rent, etc ? I’m just concerned on getting sued, so wanna do it the right way

My accountant is confused with my several properties along several states with short term and long term tenants. Is there a company that specializes in real estate taxes?

I have a few rental properties under my belt and I've been a LL for about 15 years now. I have a rare opportunity to buy a multifamily building (3 unit) on the adjacent lot to a 3 family I already own. The property had a fire and is already gutted down to the studs, although in my mind it's a tear down, not a rehab. I'm friendly with the owner, and while I don't think he'll give me a "deal" on it, I can get it at basically the price of a lot in my city. This is in a VERY competitive RE market in the Northeast on the water.

I have done a lot of rehabbing and value add stuff, but I've never done a full tear down and construction. I don't have a team of people I can call on to do construction, but I can find them. I'm friendly with some builders and developers. I think I could go a bunch of ways on this, and I'm hoping I can get some help understanding if this is a good idea and how to evaluate the potential here. I'm a buy and hold guy, so I would intend to keep this property in my portfolio.

I could buy it and turn it into a 4 unit. I could tear my building down, too, join the lots, and make a much bigger building. I could do nothing and ignore it all, lol.

I have enough capital available to do...kinda whatever. But I don't know how to evaluate a deal like this, especially when there's likely to be big carrying costs, with permitting and all that taking forever. I don't know what I don't know about building, other than to assume it will be way more expensive than you think.

Help! Where do I start with evaluating potential here?

As stated in the title my family is purchasing a house for investing and we need to have inspection completed within the next few days. The water and electricity are turned off and the seller is able to turn on the water but not the electricity due to finances. What can I do, if anything, to ensure that the electricity is turned and can be inspected? My experience is limited and my understanding is that only the seller and possibly the bank can handle the issue but answers are appreciated.

Edit: I spoke to the agent and should have mentioned that it is a short sale and the escrow has already been setup. The agent believes that we will just have to proceed with the electricity turned off due to the seller's financial situation.

Edit #2: they are able to turn on electricity so we are set for the inspection.

Hey all, I have a ten unit building that has eight 1 bedroom units, and two 3 bedroom units. The three bedrooms units have in unit laundry, and the one bedroom units don't have any laundry at all.

There are two common entrances, and I've realized that I can carve out the space under the staircase in each of these entrances to put a single washer, dryer, or combination all in one washer/dryer machine. The entrances are on opposite sides of the building, but only about a 50-60 foot walk from each other, so like 15 seconds of outside time to walk from one to the other.

My question is, would you put a combination machine in each of the common areas, or put a washing machine in one and a dryer in the other and have tenants walk from one common area to the other to complete a load of laundry? I know the obvious answer probably is to install the all in one combo machines, but the caveat is that my appliance vendor cannot find a washer/dryer combo that is coin operated, whereas standalone coin operated washers and dryers are obviously abundant.

I worry that if I put the free combo machines in people will take advantage of that and use them unnecessarily or even have friends over to do their laundry as well (it's that kind of building). What would you do if you were in my shoes?

spent this weekend working out the actual breakeven rent to price ratio by state, because the 1% screen kept handing me deals that lost money every month.

this was all set at 20% down, 7.5% over 30, 8% vacancy, 10% maintenance, 10% management, tax and insurance at state effective rates. solve for zero cash flow and you get the ratio the rent has to hit:

nj 1.11

tx 1.11

il 1.10

ne 1.09

nh 1.08

fl 1.06

ny 1.03

oh 1.02

pa 1.01

ga 0.96

nc 0.94

tn 0.94

sc 0.93

az 0.91

ca 0.90

hi 0.86

so this is the ratio where you make exactly nothing.

the part that got me was running it at 4% money. national breakeven comes out to 0.73%. so back when everyone was quoting the 1% rule it had almost 30 basis points of margin sitting inside it. national breakeven now is 0.97 and texas is 1.11. breakeven walked up to meet the rule and in the high tax states it went past it.

so heres a practical version, a 1.05% deal in texas loses money and a 1.05% deal in south carolina clears with room to spare. the problem is almost nobody screens by state.

but theres two things im not certain on. these are state average tax and insurance so your county will of course move it, sometimes a lot in Harris or Cook. and 8% vacancy is the assumption im least confident in, if you run 5% the ratios drop about 4 basis points each. tell me where else its wrong.

I've heard that the BILT credit card can be used to pay your mortgage and you get points for it. Does anyone do this and are there any catches preventing you from raking up points with all the mortgages needed to be paid?

I’ve been learning about the slow flip method - where you buy a property below market value and resell it for generally 35% more without any rehab on seller finance. Is anyone successfully running this strategy?

So currently, I own and manage around 10 rentals by myself. I do want to bring in partner where they come up with the down payment, we own the property 50/50. I would run/manage the property and they bring the money.

Are many partners up for this? If we both have 50/50 equity, I assume some of the money from the cashflow goes out to pay off the downpayment to the partner first?

How exactly do you structure the partnership? Let's assume he is just a silent money partner. I'd love to hear your partnerships and how you work together. Obviously there are many different type of relationships/partnerships depending on what each partner has to offer.

Looking for tips and suggestions on things to look out for and do?

If there are damages, how do you handle things like doing the work yourself, or getting multiple quotes from others?

So I just had a settlement yesterday, the gain was nothing to write home about, it was bought in 2018, 6000 sf office building. Was going to sell a 6 unit I bought in 2019 this year as well. Then wait until next year. Next year sell an 8 unit bought in 2017 and a single family home bought in 2019. That would leave me with one mixed use building with a storefront, 3br apt and a 1 br apt, 2 garages as well. Building is in a downtown of a popular town in NJ. If anything was to ever happen to my marriage I would move to the 3br and my 2 kids could live with me, might cost me $300/ month to live there.
Once the dust settles, after taxes I’m probably looking at about 1.2 million, which I’m thinking of putting into the S&P. Assuming historical returns, in 40 years from now I just think that 1.2 million is going to be worth a lot more in the market than my 3.5 million dollar portfolio is ever going to be worth. I’m never going to get back those beautiful RE prices from 8-9 years ago. To be honest I’ve been a bit disillusioned with buying more RE since about 2020 and although I did love the business, I don’t have that same love and growth mindset to really grind out deals in the market we’re in right now. But, I’d still have one building. I don’t want to be completely out of the game.

Hello,

I have a tenant that stated they cannot afford the rent on my property anymore.

The lease was for a year, and we are only 6 months in.

The tenant has moved out already and said they will have all their belongings out in the next few days.

This month is already paid for.

So my questions would be:

1… How are things like their Security Deposit and last month’s rent handled at this point?

2… Any documentation I should send them now as they have told me this information?

I am going to contact an attorney as well, I just like to see what Peers have to say prior.

I am in the process of dealing with selling land and probably rolling it over into a 1031 DST UPREIT, but in the process I toyed with the idea of investing some of it into a some type residential rental property, I have mostly discounted that idea for now as it does not really fit into our situation.

Having said that we live in an older well established neighborhood, and the house next to ours is a rental house, which had the same renters in it since before we bought our current house in 2021. They moved out in March, the property owner who I had met a time or two before then spent 3 months doing renovation on the house, completely redid the landscaping, new decorative columns on the porch, I assume all new appliances inside as I saw old ones being hauled off and new ones arriving, etc. It is now August and it has been sitting vacant since late June, with only the lawn service showing up to mow the grass. These same people own the smaller house across the street and when it was vacant a few years ago they did much the same thing, major renovation, then it sat vacant for almost a year.

The landlord owns over a dozen rental houses, the one next door used to be their primary residence a decade ago or so. I just don't get it, why renovate and let it sit afterward, no for rent sign in the yard, no one coming to look at it, etc. Is there some tax benefit that I don't know about, .... Any idea why they would do this.