All Forum Posts by: AJ Romero

Hi @Julie Sisnroy Nice to see more people in Southern Colorado. I live in Pueblo with my husband and 3 kids. I think you are right on the money to look down here but after living in and selling RE in Denver and Chicago it is definitely a different world as mentioned above. It is a very "small town" where there is literally about 1 degree of separation from anyone you meet ;)

As for properties with low/no down, I belong to a local investor group and there is currently a couple selling a SF rental with a current tenant at $700/month for $64,500 and offering to carry the financing with 10% down. Might be something to look at.

Bill S. I think I will be following your advice for the most part ... Just need to line up estimates for the large projects. I like the google plus idea I will look into that!

Matt M. I would love to speak with you. I am on my cell phone and don't know how to change my settings so that someone can inbox me with contact info

Thank you all for your perspectives. I am going up with my husband today to look at the place and fire this manager. We could certainly do a lot of this work ourselves -- @Jon Holdman you are right 100 mi is nothing compared to the 1000+ miles we used to deal with. I want to see with my own two eyes the level of devastation and look at this guy in the face to see whether is truly an idiot or a straight-up swindler. @Matt M. the condo is located in Whispering Pines its an older community and I don't think the rents are nearly as high as some of the newer buildings in the area.

I own a condo in Southeast Denver that I've had for over 10 years, but have had to rent it out for the last 8. Due to living out of town most of this time we hired out property management to an established manager in the area whose business ended up being bought out by another PM. I stayed with the new guy just for the ease of transition. We had a few bumps in the road initially but he has been "managing" the unit with fairly few mishaps over the last 3 years.

I receive a call from this PM's office a month ago letting me know that the tenant for the last 2 years was moving out and they were going to try and raise the rent on the unit by $100. Of course, I was pleased to hear this information. I then get another call last week from the PM himself letting me know that he was having trouble getting the place re-leased due to the fact that some improvements needed to be made to justify the new rental price ($895). He informed me that he would have his contractor come out to make an estimate for these repairs/improvements. I expected to see a bill around $5000 or so. What I received was a bill of a whopping $12,576.25.

Honestly, getting a bill like this through my property manager for the last 3 years has really shaken the mild confidence that I had in this individual. Why in the HECK would I ever spend 12K to get a $100/mo increase in rent?? How could I ever justify making improvements when it would take over 10 years to recoup my investment?? I wish I could post this bill with all of its ridiculous estimates. $3500 to paint a 975 sq ft condo...$3400 to replace carpet which covers maybe only 60% of the unit (no stairs involved)...$90 to re-caulk the tub/shower...SERIOUSLY??

I would love suggestions on how to deal with this. I currently live over 100 miles away and have small children.

Thanks in advance for your help,

AJ

Try looking at the accepted net to HUD for your target area on hudhomevalue.com. This will give you a great idea about who is buying these types of properties in your area and what % of list they are selling for.

Hello Michael W.,

I currently live in Pueblo and my husband and I just bought our first SF investment house here. The schools are absolutely funded by property taxes here. The taxes are quite low here in comparison to a lot of places around the country and that reduced expense does help properties cash flow better.

That being said, the schools here in Pueblo aren't that great except in certain areas. However I don't think that it is a huge detriment - the districts here (Pueblo City district 60 and Pueblo County District 70) allow people from wherever to enroll their kids in whichever school they choose. So, if people care enough about where their children get their education they do have a choice ;)

Not sure what it is like in Springs but people Pueblo County schools seem to be the preferred choice. Those areas also appreciate a little better, but nothing crazy.

Yikes. It looks like someone outbid me for this one. Oh well ;) Now I know it isn't that huge of an issue. Mold usually isn't a huge problem out here -- and where I live is even drier than the Denver metro area. Prayers to the folks dealing with the flooding up north.

Hey there,

I've been watching HUD homes in my area and there is one in particular that has caught my eye. It is a 2/1 SFH in a nice neighborhood. The list price is 69,900 which is significantly cheaper than what homes even that size go for in the area. Projected rent would be conservatively $900/month.

What worries me is that it has been on the market for 88 days (most HUDs have been selling in 45 days or less here) and I heard second-hand that there was a mold problem. Would you even touch a moldy house, and if so what kind of discount would you require to even look at it?

Thanks!

Will,

Thank you very much for the thorough response. I appreciate the pep-talk ;)

As for the property, the city I live in is predominantly blue collar, working-class. Population is just about 100,000, median household income is a little over $30,000. From this I expect that the median rent most people are able to afford is around $750 - $800 per month. The rents charged are definitely at the lower end of the spectrum but are typical of 2/1 apartments. The neighborhood where the buildings are located is nothing special but is one of the more desired places to live in town.

We have our next REIA meeting next week - perhaps I could bring up purchasing both. The price suggested by the 2% rule seems a little low just based on what I see 4-plexes selling for but I guess you never know given the fact that the buildings don't have mortgages and the lady selling does not use real estate agents. Perhaps I can appeal to her apparent desire to retire quickly.

Thanks again

AJ