All Forum Posts by: Bogdan Cirlig

Hi Patrick,

You're in luck. It seems the PM is doing a great job. I have a long distance love relationship with my PMs in few states. Funny one asked me when I was interviewing to hire some in Chicago:

"what do you expect from me to have a great relationship"

I told him:

- keep the property rented and rents flowing into my account

- ideally never call me to any problem (lol, not realistic but you understand)

- send me pics of the property every year, on the Yearly inspection which you should have in every lease, 30 days before renewal.

- don't scam me on service calls

The last one is quite annoying, as I have seen the rise of contractor scam and a lot of PMs who realize there's more money in repairs than the 8% they get per month. (bleah)

The last PM company I fired in Chicago used to charge me even for the stamps they put on 5 day letters lol and also for lawn care and at the same time I was getting fined by the city for tall weeds :D

Welcome to bp it's the single greatest rei community. Feel free to ask. We're here to help and share so we all make smarter decisions. As always the crowd is always better than any single individual decision ????

Welcome to bp it's the single greatest rei community. Feel free to ask. We're here to help and share so we all make smarter decisions. As always the crowd is always better than any single individual decision ????

I was in same position few years ago. Qb sucked for me. I use mint for Mac to manage my bank and credit cards. And I use 123landlord for rei part. Qb rental property manager is a bum. Read Amazon reviews of it. Terrible. Or install parallels for Mac and run windows inside the Mac OS. Allows you to keep your win software. Works like charm.

Works nice! Thanks for the update!

When gas prices are falling people usually jump for joy and celebrate, they start traveling more and overall most are happy, except for Houstonians.

Houston’s job market is heavily relying on the oil industry, and falling prices usually mean the job cuts are starting to happen.

Zilpy.com has been tracking the rental market for the past 8 years and has compiled a live Rental Market report covering all major metropolitan areas in the nation. Houston, TX Rental Market has been up 11%...

Read full report here.

When gas prices are falling people usually jump for joy and celebrate, they start traveling more and overall most are happy, except for Houstonians :-)

Houston job market is heavily relying on the oil industry, and falling prices usually mean the job cuts are starting to happen. I agree with the diversification, but nevertheless, oil talks in Houston.

We have been tracking the rental market for the past 8 years and has compiled a live Rental Market report covering all major metropolitan areas in the nation.

Apparently Houston is not yet feeling the heat from the falling oil prices as the rental market finished 2014 strong with an average of 11% rent increase over the past year.

Is so appears that the past 12 month trends have been inching up every month across all bedroom types from Studio to 5 bedroom apartments and houses.

Rental Price movement over time is an important index that shows the market sentiment, and for Houstonians this sentiment might soon start to change with the announced job cuts from major oil companies.

I have talked to a couple of local real estate investors and they have also started to be anxious in anticipation of the oil market impact on Houston’s job market and moved to hold position, down from the feverish buying spree that has occurred over the summer.

@Scott Le 

Investing is a team sport, with that in mind, I suggest to find 1-2 friends that are as liquid as you are and band together to fund this deal and flip it. It's not uncommon to keep a "carry", that is, a premium for you finding and executing the deal. The carry applies to the profit and it means you get first cut, then the rest is split equal. Example: carry is 20%, you sell the property for 500k, your net profit is 100k, you take first 20k, then the rest of 80k is split 3 ways with you other 2 friends.

Regardless how you structure this deal, you must, I insist, you must know for sure you will have a buyer for the home even before it's rehabbed. You should market it under the normal market price to sell it instantly. Work with local realtors, they should know you grabbed a deal and will be back on the market so they should ready their buyers.

When flipping, you calculate what's called the Velocity of your cash. You want that velocity to be high. Assume 30 day closing from Pending status, probably 2 mo to rehab it. 90 day Cash velocity is not uncommon. 

Good luck!

Ok, I'm "local" so I can explain what's happening, mainly related to the High Tech Tides and Rent Control :). The bad part is rent control, that landlords hike the prices to make sure it will last them till tenant moves out.

Also look at the population profile. Young professionals will be renters, real estate in SF City is already super expensive hence appreciation is limited since the addressable market size is very small, creates no demand for such pricey piece, except high end affluent people. When appreciation doesn't keep up with job market, your pool of buyers will shrink quite fast.

Today there's a crazy race on High Tech jobs. Rents have increased about 20-30% over 12 months. That's insane. See below stats.

and the 12 mo trends:

and city breakdown:

I spend about $1500 on groceries alone family of 4, again it's largely matter of what you eat and from where. Similar question to how much I spend on my car :). I buy from Whole Foods and Traders Joe, occasionally from Safeway. Dining out, different budget :)