BiggerPockets

few questions I have...how do you figure in vacancies? also not sure how to figure misc. expenses?

With vacancies the 15 yr mortgage does not leave much cashflow...may have to look at 30 yr. at a little bit of a higher rate

@Craig Montesano - one question: are all the utilities paid by the tenants, or some by the landlord? That's a big factor, especially somewhere with cold winters like PA, if the heat were paid by the landlord. Also, the 50% rule that David mentions above assumes that the tenant pays all utilities. You have to add more to the expenses if the landlord pays utilities.
-Harry

@Craig Montesano - what numbers are you coming up with? It looks like a pretty good deal to me.
Price - 105000

Down - 26250 (25%)
Closing, etc - 3000
Total cash invested: 29250

Gross rents - 1580
Expenses - 790
Debt service (30 yrs, 4.5%) - 399
Cash flow - 391
Cash on Cash return - 16.04%
Total ROI (includes mortgage paydown) - 20.38%

By the numbers, that's a really good deal. The only reservation I'd have is that at 395/month, you could be getting some pretty rough tenants.

-Harry

Think the sellers are looking for a quick sale....may be able to get for around $85K.

Yeah, I know $395/month is pretty cheap and could attract some riff raff. 3 out of 4 of the units are currently rented. When tunover occurs I am think of bumping rent to $425ish. That seems like the going rate for 1 bedroom units in that area

Originally posted by @Craig Montesano:
Thanks Harry....I was able to run my numbers fine on my single family homes, but this one is throwing me for a loop. At first I thought it was a good deal, then I didnt. confused???

Your numbers helped alot.

I think the problem is I was concentrating on a 15 year fixed at 3.5% and with Prin., int., taxes, ins. I was coming up with a $880 (roughly monthly payment)

I need to look at a 30 year. Looks like a better deal going that route. Does your 399 mortgage inclue taxes and ins?

ALso, could you recommend a good mortgage calculater.

Hey Craig, the 399 mortgage payment I came up with doesn't include taxes and insurance. That went into the 790 I put for expenses.

I just ran it with a 15 year loan and 3.5% interest, and the P&I part of the mortgage goes up to 563, cash flow down to 227, for 9.3% cash on cash, but 23.2% total ROI when you factor the mortgage pay-down.

My opinion is that 15 year mortgages don't make a whole lot of sense for investing in RE. The difference in interest is usually only around 0.5%, but in return you're agreeing to make this extra principle payment for 15 years. That extra principal payment would make a much better return if it was used towards the down payment on the next property. And there's nothing stopping a person from reaching a point where they have enough properties, and then voluntarily paying down the principal on the mortgages. That just seems like a lot of flexibility (and potential return) to give up for about an 0.5% difference in interest rate.

Regarding mortgage calculators. I'm not sure if we're supposed to post outside links here, but if you google "mortgage calculator" or "amortization calculator" or "amortization schedule" it will come up with a bunch of them.
Do you have excel or open office? If so, you can you can use the PMT function to figure it out too.

-Harry

Even with 30 year mortgage at 4% (which I think is the rate my local bank would give me) it seems like a sour deal. I would escrow taxes and ins. which make the monthly payment about $730.

Gross rents are 1580
Property manager - $158 (10%)

With half vacancy rents are only $790, which would barely cover the mortgage.

Im I looking at this wrong???

Thanks guys for all the help and insight...

For rents around $500, there is a quick and dirty rule of thumb called the "2% rule" - rents should be 2% of acquisition costs. That would make total acquisition costs (including repairs and rehab) a max of $79K. Now for rents below $500, a higher percentage is more appropriate, since the $100 cash flow per door is a bigger chunk of rent. And those lower rent tenants can be more management intensive ...

And you don't have to exactly follow any rule of thumb ...

Thanks Ryan...very cool spreadsheet. Where can I find that?

As much as I dont want to, I think I will need to walk away from this one.

There are a few duplexes in the area that might be more profitable.

On the 15 year mortgage note...I did my 2 single family homes at 15 years which had a lower rate. I wish Id done the 30 year....Id have twice the cash flow. oh well I guess there has to be some kind of learning curve and in the long run I will save some dough

Thanks guys for all your insight...this site is great.

@Ryan Halverson - what "taxes" does that spreadsheet refer to? If those are supposed to be the property taxes, then your sheet wouldn't do the right thing in many areas. For example, in my area, taxes are based on the assessor's valuation of the property (and not on the actual sales price as might happen elsewhere), multiplied by a millage rate; essentially, the taxes are fixed except that they raise the millage :) Might be something for you to consider as you evolve that spreadsheet.

@Ryan Halverson - the assessor's value is not necessarily "old"; they will increase for any improvements where a permit was pulled and that improvement changed their valuation. Just saying that any fixed percentage being calculated will likely be inaccurate when compared to the actuals from the assessor.