All Forum Posts by: Aaron Linden

Phillip,

Just did this myself. I got quotes from a variety of sources from $400-$600 per opening. These are ridiculous prices for replacement windows frankly. However, $150/opening is not enough. I doubt this would be a quality installation. A basic, double hung, vinyl, quality window costs that much. I think $200-$300 per opening around here is a fair quality installation price including window and casing the window trim in aluminum.

For what its worth I ended up doing it myself. Windows ~$150/opening and aluminum ~$20/opening. And they took about an hour to do. Ill work for $200/hr any day of the week.

Aaron

@Account Closed At the end of the day it is a personal choice. How risk adverse are you? What type of income do you have vs what you  need to service your debt.

My perspective is that it is a cash flow management problem. Lets say a bank will lend you up to 45% DTI on a property. Do you meet that requirement without paying off debt? The other constraint is that you will need ~20% down payment. Manage these two constraints to reach a balance.

FWIW I personally pay off my student loan debt like mad and then just figure out how to come up with a down payment when the time comes. It has worked so far but has likely slowed me down a bit.

@Jordan Ornat I just replied via PM but it is at 3602 S Ironwood Dr, South Bend, IN 46614 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m for all those who are also interested!

@Jordan Ornat We have a REIA here in town. Our next meeting is the 28th. Come check it out and see if it is for you. You can look the REIA up by searching for REIA-NCI.

@Domenick T. Nice! Please update us and let us know how it goes.

I had not thought of Ring doorbells I will have to look into it. Thanks for the tip!

@Brian Horwitz There are noise ordinances in South Bend that could be enforced but I have a tendency to agree with the group here. I would talk to the LL first and see if you two can resolve the issue together. If not, try to buy him out. If that doesnt work sell the place. Regardless of the neighborhood the police in SB have bigger fish to fry than noise complaints. Sure they will show up and go through the motions but I doubt any long term issues will be solved through this method.

Is this near a college campus? If so, loud music and noises are par for the course and would be a very difficult systemic problem for one LL to solve.

@Billy Britton I am sure there is an opportunity for someone who wants to take on the challenge of dealing with this type of tenant. Being good with your hands doesnt qualify you for the type of management @John Warren is describing though. Dealing with D class tenants in SB is no joke and something a person has to be truly prepared to take on for pennies.

Lets say we rent a D class house for $500/mo off Olive Rd. and charge a typical 10% management fee. For $50/month we get to deal with rigorous screening of less than ideal tenants, constant calls from tenants, damage to the property every time we turn around because people do not care about things in this class of property, Section 8 and the government (who doesnt love to deal with the governement), maintenance requests because none of the plumbing is updated, codes enforcement because the tenant decided it was a great idea to put a couch in the yard, and last but not least angry owners wondering why their pro forma isnt being met ("I was gunna get a 75% COC on this thing").

Now this is a pessimistic view of what it is like but PM is a pretty thankless job, especially in low end properties. If you do a great job then it was expected, if you do a crummy job then you get yelled at. I have to imagine that it is simply not worth it to most people for $50/mo!

Thanks for looping me in @John Warren. The other concern I developing with South Bend proper right now is that the city has taken a pretty aggressive stance towards landlords. Recently there has been changes in how water is billed (can no longer be billed directly to the tenant), they made an attempt at a landlord registration which was pushed through but has since been removed, and now they are pushing for inspections and certifications of all rental units. All of these things can be managed of course but are certainly inconvenient.

Matthew,

Please feel free to join us for REIA-NCI annual Christmas party on 12/13 at Eberhart golf course starting at 6pm. You can google REIA-NCI to find out more about the group. So far as I know this is the only officially organized group in South Bend. There is another group in Elkhart too.

Aaron

@Zach Bollman I am not sure of UK prices but both tax and insurance cost seem low to me and I live in an area of the US with super cheap property taxes.

Rents of $495 seem super low as well especially for a student rental area. This may be a great opportunity to raise rents though.