Multifamily Strategies and Brainstorming for additional income

Multifamily Strategies and Brainstorming for additional income

Investor · Frostburg, MD · Member since 2015 · 46 posts · 26 votes

Hi Everyone, I'm Steve and I'm new to BP, but have been investing in multi-family for 24 years. I'm looking for other seasoned multi-family investors to brainstorm on how they generate additional income streams.  As everyone knows, if we can create value added products (for ex: laundry, vending machines, etc are the basic ones) that saves the tenant money and also generates additional income for us, that revenue stream can be huge when we multiply it by the number of tenants..plus it gives us an advantage over our competition.  I'm very creative and have several, but thought it would be great if several of us can provide examples of what they're doing, because if all of us come away with one additional revenue stream idea, that's easy money for us... who's interested??? 

Alright... I'll start.... I originally upgraded some of my units to stainless steel appliances.  I charged $25 more per month.  It cost me $750 for a stove, refrig and range hood and I sold my old stove and refrig for $100, so the net cost was $650.  It will take 2 years and 2 months to re-coup my initial investment of $650 and then I generate $25 per month.  In addition, my turnover was less in these apts, so I saved on turnover costs.... plus my ad says Stainless Steel Appliances, so I'm beating my competition.  I now have purchased stainless steel appliances for all of my units.  It's been over 2 years since I did this, so I'm now generating a decent income stream and have re-paid the initial re-investment. 

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  • Real Estate Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2014 · 286 posts · 159 votes
    10y

    I buy marble on close outs and when it's time to redo my bathroom floors, I use marble. Ads saying "marble floors" is nice. I've also toyed with the idea of monthly maid service in the rent. I figure less clean up when they leave.

  • Realtor · Dubai, UAE · Member since 2015 · 45 posts · 30 votes
    10y

    Thats really great ideas! Thanks for sharing 

  • Real Estate Broker · North Richland Hills, TX · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 607 votes
    10y

    Reserved parking

    pet rent

    clubhouse rentals (or conversions to addtl. units)

    reserved parking

    rent for optional W/D in unit

  • Lender · Dallas, TX · Member since 2015 · 283 posts · 128 votes
    10y

    Steve

    Two perspectives -

    One - if your goal is simply to increase cashflow, there are many things you can do. Fees are becoming a real income source, especially for management companies. I recently saw one project where the tenant was charged $75 per person application fee plus a $285 lease setup fee plus a $50 move in fees. So the tenants for a two bedroom unit paid $485.00 plus a security deposit. Most times these fees are not bankable when underwriting but they do add substantial cash flow.

    Two - Your example above with respect to getting an additional $25 per month has far more impact. Your analysis that it will take you more than two years to recover may have an immediate impact on cashflow but the real value is in refi and sale of the property. $25 per month is $300 per year.  If you capitalize that at even a 10% cap rate, you have added $3000 to the value of your property. I would happily spend $650 to make $3000. Additionally, it is a lot harder to reduce expenses than raise rents. I think that your on the right track to focus on delivering an exceptional rent experience. Our company has always emphasized tenant value as the real source of property value.

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