Yesterday, via a realty agent, one of my rental houses was listed for sale on the MLS. If you want to see the listing, go to Zillow and type in the house address,...1906 Adams Street, Gadsden, AL 35904. Listing price is $45K which is based on current neighborhood comps and my agent's recommendation.

Looks like a solid house. Good starter home.

What are your numbers on it?

How did you get it, how much? Rent and for how long?

NE,

NE,

Roy, by a bandit you mean sharing how well you're going to do on this investment? If that's the case, no shame in that. The one who get it will support you and the ones who don't get it can _______.

NE,

Roy, your numbers (rent and purchase price) already show on Zillow's "price history" feature, which I'm sure 90% of us know already...so I'm not spilling the metaphorical beans. Plus those of us who know you know what you pay for houses.

Sid,

You are not kidding,...I checked Zillows price history thing and sure enough, the $3K price I paid for this house is listed. I guess I have no more secrets to behold. It is what it is though.

Roy, the value of your sweat equity is reflected 2 ways. They market value of the house now and the sweet check you deposit at the end of the closing. Good for you.

Post it on the marketplace forum of the pockets website. List yourself as a "turnkey provider" if the house is in retail ready shape. House hungry tech millennials from California will snatch it up site unseen -- offer to manage it for them as a rental for only 10%.

Roy, for the future, if you don't want the sale/purchase price disclosed simply tell your REALTOR (if using one) or closing agent and they often won't report it unless your state has laws requiring it. I specify in my contracts: SELLER and BUYER and/or agents working on their behalf will not disclose any purchase details including but not limited to the contract sale price, except as required by law, to any other party. That way if someone "goofs" they are legally obligated to fix it.

How to value sweat equity? Establish a value of your time. Maybe it's $40/hour, or $80/hour, or maybe it's $2500 labor for bathroom remodel; $1500 labor for electric upgrade. What would you have to "pay" someone to do it for you if you didn't do it yourself? Record your hours/jobs at the time completed and keep tabs in your records for each property. This will be purely for your own internal perspective: your buyer and Uncle Sam and don't care what the value of your time is....although....

The sucky part is, since you didn't pay for this labor, now when you sell you won't be able to add the cost of labor to your purchase price basis, which would reduce your net profit and cause you to pay less in capital gains taxes. You do at least get to add any non-fully depreciated supplies and materials, so that helps a bit.

Uncle Sam gets his pound of flesh, that's for certain!

To give an example, I now "pay" myself for managing my properties. 10% off the top of all rents each month, plus 50% of 1st month's rent for a new lease. Whether I keep that money in my business account or "bring it home" via writing myself a check, I account for it so that my end of year internal analysis of the performance of my properties has the same ROI perspective that a hands-off investor would calculate.

I hire out 95% of maintenance, so that's pretty much a non-factor.

I know a lot of land lords who buy themselves handyman or property management jobs with their rentals, and after you take out all their "free" labor, they make little or no ROI. Their profits are consumed by what they'd have to pay someone else to do the tasks they do.

Rathdrum,

For me to manage rental property for other investors, I would need a RE license, which I do not have. There are advantages to not being licensed, especially when you are on the buying end.

Very adorable! You've put some good work into it. :)

ROY:

NC Investor,

I will not vilify you for any reason, regardless of what happens.

I have been on the 'buying end' of RE since 2006. I buy them cheap, spend the necessary money to fix them to B- standards, and rent them out for a juicy cash flow. That has been my 'game plan' for 12 years. I have always known there would come a day in which I would put a house on the market and find out what it is like to be a 'seller' instead of a 'buyer'.

Most investors that I know, always start out with FSBO and when that fails,..then they call an agent and list it. I am just the opposite. I called the agent first and listed it. I gave the agent 60 days to sell this house. No contract in 60 days, I will just re-rent the house at $700.00/month. That is what I know best,..renting houses instead of selling them.

WMH,

Yikes! Can I get Jeffrey to remove this entire post or is it too late for that?

the "how much do you have into it" brings to mind this reply: "You can share in my profits when you share in my losses".

Roy:

The house looks great.

I wouldn't worry about having your purchase price listed. Anyone can see the purchase price on just about every city/county public records tax website. I can even look at the mortgages for every property in the past 15 years.

The only people who will try to negotiate on what you paid vs. listing price are investors and as noted they have no idea what your investment in the property is.

I am curious though why you think there is a benefit to not being licensed when purchasing a property.

"I am curious though why you think there is a benefit to not being licensed when purchasing a property".

Most of the houses that I have bought (via my Handyman Ad) were never advertised for sale to the general public. One reason for this was the homeowners did not want to deal with a RE agent and pay a 6% commission. If I had been a licensed agent, by law, I would have to disclose that fact if I intended to make an offer,...is my assertion correct here?

In other words, if I had been a licensed agent, most of the homeowners I negotiated with,...would have never given me the time of day and/or sold me their house at a discount.

Charlie,

I would agree with you. Licensed agents/brokers have fiduciary responsibility to their client and/or practically anyone they come in contact with in regards to buying or selling RE.

cjo'h [CT: Yes, as a licensed broker I am required to disclose whenever I am a principal party in a sale or purchase. And for that reason I would neither buy or sell to an unrepresented party.

ROY: If their reason for selling direct was to avoid paying a commission your having a license wouldn't have affected that. Yes, you would have had to disclose but having a license doesn't require a commission, giving or receiving, in a one on one transaction.

This seems to be a popular look for houses in your town.

53 W Tuscaloosa Ave,

Gadsden, AL 35904

Sisco & Kyle,

My agent took the photos. I assume she uploaded the same bedroom photos more than once?

That house has Allure in the living room and kitchen. The rest of the house is VCT. In the last 5 years, I have had to replace some of the VCT tiles and have not been able to get an exact match for that one bedroom tile. The tile in the photo is actually a 'peel & stick' tile instead of VCT.