Multifamily in Milwaukee, are folks paying rent with Covid

Investor · Shoreline, WA · Member since 2021 · 22 posts · 12 votes

My wife and I are looking to invest in small multifamily housing in Milwaukee, WI. We are finding a lot of properties (especially duplexes), but the thought occurred to me, are tenants paying their rents with eviction moratoriums in place around the country? Would it be wise for me to wait to invest here until eviction moratoriums are gone? Is that why there are so many on the market? Thanks in advance for your responses.

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Rebecca KnoxBusiness Member

Specialist · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

@Adam Frantz before purchasing, if the unit is occupied, I ask for an estoppel to be completed if no hard copy of lease on file or lease is unclear and Addendum R plus proof of payment for the past 3-6mos. If the property is unoccupied, I don't worry about it. Probably so many on the market because the market has been hot so many investors are selling high on MLS in hopes of buying low towards the end of the year/2022---just my opinion of course and based off the buzz I hear in these REI streets :)

If you're from out of state investing here, I recommend building a strong team that you can trust and are knowledgeable with resources and how to evaluate good deals---my first calls would be to property managers.

River West, Washington Heights and Martin Drive are still top areas. You may want to check out the radius of those areas such as Harambee or Halyard Park which is still slightly rough but competitively priced although rising....radius of Washington Heights (zip codes 53208 and 53210 are big duplex investor areas). I also like Walnut Hill and Piggsville neighborhood. For your price point, you could also possibly check out West Allis. Wikipedia defines the neighborhoods of Milwaukee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Trulia crime map is exceptionally accurate for Milwaukee and I find Redfin Estimate to be good starting point as for some reason, it's much more accurate than other sites.

Good luck with your REI adventures!

Captain Save-A-Home LLC

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David Mo
Lender · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2020 · 109 posts · 115 votes
5y
@Adam Frantz
Adam, I think that if you purchase a property with tenants in it, so long as you check their payment history through covid, you shouldn’t worry about it. If you’re looking to place a tenant after you purchase a place, your screening should pick up most red flags. What area are you trying to purchase in? Depending on the price point and area, I would be more or less worried about tenants not paying rent too.
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Adam Frantz
OP
Investor · Shoreline, WA · Member since 2021 · 22 posts · 12 votes
5y
@David Mo
Thanks for the reassurance David. We are searching around still trying to isolate the exact neighborhood in Milwaukee to invest in. So far, we are looking in the $100k-$150k price points for duplexes, which keeps us out of most of the really nice areas, which is ok because the price to rent ratios don't work out as well there anyway. We are also avoiding houses that are dirt cheap ($20k) and areas that have a bunch of dirt cheap houses because these don't seem like nice enough areas to us. We have been looking in River West, Washington Heights, Martin Drive, Park View, and surrounding areas.
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Marcus Auerbach
Investor · Milwaukee - Mequon, WI · Member since 2010 · 5k+ posts · 7k+ votes
5y
We have more listings now than we had 3 months ago, both duplexes and SF, but only a fraction of what used to be a historic normal. We had zero covid losses last year in our holdings, because gov programs have covered the gap where needed even though we had to be patient.
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Rebecca KnoxBusiness Member
Specialist · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
5y
@Adam Frantz before purchasing, if the unit is occupied, I ask for an estoppel to be completed if no hard copy of lease on file or lease is unclear and Addendum R plus proof of payment for the past 3-6mos. If the property is unoccupied, I don't worry about it. Probably so many on the market because the market has been hot so many investors are selling high on MLS in hopes of buying low towards the end of the year/2022---just my opinion of course and based off the buzz I hear in these REI streets :)
If you're from out of state investing here, I recommend building a strong team that you can trust and are knowledgeable with resources and how to evaluate good deals---my first calls would be to property managers.

River West, Washington Heights and Martin Drive are still top areas. You may want to check out the radius of those areas such as Harambee or Halyard Park which is still slightly rough but competitively priced although rising....radius of Washington Heights (zip codes 53208 and 53210 are big duplex investor areas). I also like Walnut Hill and Piggsville neighborhood. For your price point, you could also possibly check out West Allis. Wikipedia defines the neighborhoods of Milwaukee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Trulia crime map is exceptionally accurate for Milwaukee and I find Redfin Estimate to be good starting point as for some reason, it's much more accurate than other sites.
Good luck with your REI adventures!

Captain Save-A-Home LLC
Website View Page
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Brock Mogensen
Real Estate Syndicator · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 907 votes
5y
Location (A,B,C,D) definitely plays a huge role in collections. The C and D spaces are experiencing lower collection rates compared to A and B. My motto now is to focus on buying properties where the tenants actually care about their credit score.
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