All Forum Posts by: Ash Patel

@Alan Zee - I did not and I agree, there don't seem to be any good ones here.

Good point that @Jeff Milligan brings up.  I was concerned when the university started building mid rise student housing.  Turned out they built tiny dorm style apartments which helped us landlords who had very spacious hundred year old houses/apartments.  Off campus houses can also be appealing as they are limited and students can fill them with their mates and split a high rent.

One more thing:  Make sure you know the cycle of the area.  Students signed leases in Feb/March for a late Aug move in.  

As Jessica mentioned, if its close to campus it should be easy to rent.  I had college rentals and if you have a nice place with competitive rents, your tenants should renew leases until they graduate.  In my opinion, students value their damage deposit and will usually take decent care of the space.  If you have a turnover, you usually know months in advance.  I used to put one craigslist ad out and have a day with mass showings.  Having parents co-sign is an added benefit.

Sorry, I only had a book on 22 units

@Patrick Philip - Very simple answer. The amount of hustle and competition in SFH does not exist in CRE. If you look at all of the effort people put forth in trying to get off market SFH, if you apply that same effort towards commercial under $1m you will see results. I see it all the time.

@Patrick Philip - You get the gist of the RE climate right now.  You sound passionate about finding your next deal, so I would do more than cold call a broker.  Maybe get a referral so when you call the broker, you can start with a connection.  Message them on Linkedin and have them add you to their database/email blasts.  Be specific on what you are look for.  Subtly sell yourself to them also.  RE is a game of relationships.

To some extent.  When you are looking for value add properties, I have just gone on gut feel.  After you analyze enough properties, you can look through hundreds of listings and certain ones will catch your eye.  Also hard to determine cap rates for vacant or under performing properties.

"Commercial property is a bad place to be in" ?!?!?  

I disagree. The residential market is saturated and MF is trading at ridiculously low cap rates. NNN Fully leased commercial is also tight. There are still opportunities in value add commercial. Properties from $200k - $1m. Find businesses that are closing or moving, owners retiring, half filled strips etc. They are not as prevalent as 2012 but you guys are just fishing for excuses if you think there are no opportunities out there. Finding a $5m hotel to flip for $7m, good luck. People selling $5m properties are usually a bit more savvy than that.

I personally (no partners or a company)  have invested in residential, MF, office, medical, NNN, stand alone retail, mom and pop strips, syndications and several startups.  I am mostly a value add investor.  I still see deals out there.

This may not add much value but we turned a church into our home 10 years ago and it was a challenge.  Lenders and insurers couldn't figure out how to classify it and most just walked away.  Find a really good insurance broker and a local lender.  Good luck.