First time landlord of 11units.need help

[Mike Malicad]

Hi fellow bp! Do you know where to purchase fridge and electrc stove for rentals. Our property is located on south side of chicago. This our first real estate investment. We did some minor rehabs and now is ready for rent..but dont have any idea qhere to get good deals for kitchen appliances..

[Martin Works]

Are you looking for new or used appliances?

[Joel Owens]

Mike I don't do SFR but some of my friends by brand new (dent and ding) appliances from the large stores.

There is usually not anything wrong with the appliance but that it has a scratch or dent somewhere on it but works fine and is brand new.

You can sometimes have specials for credit cards opening an account at zero to low interest rate for the first 12 to 18 months. Keep payments low while hopefully building up cash flow from your units with good tenants that pay on time.

The dent and ding are often substantially discounted off of retail prices because the home consumer will want in mint condition paying full retail.

If your rentals are not super high end then having a scratch or ding for middle income to lower income tenants shouldn't be an issue. Make sure you focus on brand quality and sustainability over how cheap it is.

For example 2 different brands dent and ding and one is 70 bucks cheaper initially but is very inefficient and breaks down quickly and is a no name brand. The other cost a little more upfront but is built better,more energy efficient, has been around for decades, and parts are more readily available if something breaks down. Some of the cheaper special deal brand companies might go out of business and finding parts is tough it impossible and then the whole thing gets thrown away.     

[Mark Ainley]

@Mike Malicad Don't buy them and have tenants provide.  We started 2 years ago doing this after providing them for 6 years.  We reduce our non refundable move in fee from $500 to $250 when we dont have them but it is well worth it.   And if you do end up buying them buy them new.  There are plenty of used appliances stores tenants can go buy a set and have delivered fror $250-$300 and then they own them.  

Our portfolio is located on southside and 54% CHA.  Right before we stopped providing them we did a study on the previous 3 years of work orders and found out that 24.8% of our work orders were appliance related and we bought all new appliances.  As our new units come online we dont provide them and as old tenants move out we keep the ones we had in circulation for parts or spare units for the ones we still have in there from a few years ago.  

I can go on and on with this subject so let me know if you have any specific questions or dont see the value.  

[Dumitru Anton]

@Mike Malicad,

first please re-read what @Mark Ainley said. the average life for oven/range and washer is 2-3 years (from brand new) with a large tenant family.

now for buying new, and new card offers with 1 year/2year 0%:

-sears or sears outlet (for scratch and dent)

-talk with the local homedepot/lowes/menards, especially the manager on duty or appliance desk

-abt

-all of them deliver southside, and they may even install + remove old appliances (for a fee) (if your metal garbage collectors are not active in your area..)

-i think you can depreciate these on the taxes

for used: 

-you need to talk with the used appliances store around your location

-they may offer 3 months/6mts warranty