Bobby-
“Right now, the only solid investment that I see is owning property. So i'm in the process of buying a fixer upper. I have the know how to do pretty much all the work myself along with my brother. Then after everything is in good shape, I'm going to rent the property hopefully to
college students. Is this the route I should go? Anybody have any advice if you have done this or should I stay away? Thanks.”
I really like doing MFRs.
CSW-
“I invest in fixer uppers. It is great but you do not want to rent your property to
college students. It will be a nightmare. When they leave you will be fixing your house up.....again and again if you rent out. I fix up and sell. It's the way to go. I bought a Foreclosed house for $30,000.00 and fixed it up. I will have had the property for about 4 months. I'm selling in a month for $80,000.00. I have only put in about $8,000.00 but you have to learn how to do everything. See if you rent and want to rent again, you will have to refinance the rental property (after you have fixed up), then your small monthly payment you have is now a big one(if you take the equity money and use it to buy another property). It will be hard to have 3 mortgages...you know what I mean?"
I like renting to
college students.
Look I buy a MFR [Multi-family-Residence] like a Tri-plex, Quad-plex, 5-plex, 20-plex building. I buy them with HUD FHA no-money down loans [they are called first-time home-owners loans].
I buy them, loaded with renters, leaving only one unit empty. I move my family into the empty unit which is usually the bigger ‘Manager apartment, and I collect the first month’s rent BEFORE the first mortgage payment comes due.
Two units will normally cover the mortgage payment, and maybe some part of the property taxes, by the time you are holding 5 unit’s rent money, you have covered all expenses and just need to begin making repairs from the money in you hands.
These MFRs can be used to keep you fully-tax-sheltered. So that you will never again pay income tax.
College students should never be rented a nice complete apartment. Rent to them a dorm room, but keep in mind that their lease is going to be different, they are only in the building for 9 months a year. You never have to evict them; they are gone at the end of each school year. But never give them anything they can break.
Patching the holes in the walls and re-painting is just standard, but it is not hard.
I don’t like ‘flipping’ houses; you have to pay taxes on that money.
When you buy a MFR with no-money-down, it will pay for itself and it will provide you with a home for your family. It will build equity for you, which you can re-finance and use as you wish, all without paying income taxes. MFRs will also have a huge depreciation, which will keep them ‘losing’ money on paper. That loss of money is subtracted from your AGI [Adjusted Gross Income] so that it shelters you from income taxes. They don’t just shelter the money that you made from that MFR, but they shelter all your other incomes from taxes too.
By ‘flipping’ some old fixer-upper, you make money that once. And it is not guaranteed that you will make any.
A MFR makes money every month, every year. Ten years later they will still be making you money.
The ‘First-time-home-owners’ loan, requires that you buy in a slum neighborhood, requires that you agree to live in the building for the first year, and they may require that you rent to ‘low-income’ people. They also require that this be the first time that you have ever bought a home in that state ever.
We have done this in Southern California. And in Connecticut, and in Washington, and Scotland.
It works.
:-)