All Forum Posts by: Bill Coleman

I am hoping to find a lawyer that owns and operates rental properties.

My goal is to get help with the following items:

Note: all documents should be received in Word form so that I may edit them and create PDF forms from them.

• Complete lease

• Late notices and when to send them

• Any and all eviction forms

• Application form

• Learn basics of landlord-tenant code for local counties

• Learn tenant screening tips and legal parameters around tenant selection

• Legal requirements and/or pitfalls with advertising rentals

@Loren Whitney  didn't see your PM. You can always email me directly at the email in my signature.

@Chris K.

  @Darren Sager 

Thanks a million guys! Would have taken me all month to find which one it was.

@Chris M.  Chris, I am happy to share my spreadsheet with you. Just email me. Email is in my signature.

I made a pretty simple but effective spreadsheet when I first started analyzing deals. I enter just a few fields of info and it calculates all the critical numbers for me and also forces me to think about everything involved in a deal from maintenance, to cash flow to cash on cash return all the way through the rehab cost. 

From my calculations, if you are financing $255k of this property, you are cash flowing negative $239 if we use the most conservative rent estimate. Yes you can make any property cash flow if you put enough cash down but that's not really the point.

So from my perspective with limited information, it might be worth just selling this as a NEWLY REHABBED PROPERTY as @Lynn McGeein  says - she makes an excellent point. You will get top dollar during the summer months selling a new house. If you make any money, that's a win in my opinion. You get back all your working capital and you can move on to the next deal and not have to hope and pray that the market doesnt shift and you are left with a partially lived in home that's not worth what you put into it. Markets are hot right now and you can take advantage of that. 

Vegas is usually cheap to fly into and you can stay for a reasonable price. The event could also be run off-strip perhaps down south at the M Resort. Its super nice. Depending on timing and cost of the event, I would totally go. 

I lived in a townhome in NY for 12 years and the board was insane. Everyone hated it but did nothing about it. Then finally a few concerned residents hijacked the board and kicked out all the incumbents. Now the HOA is run by reasonable people (now that I left!).

As far as investing in townhomes, I tried very hard over the last year to make the numbers work but once you add in the HOA fees, I couldnt get it to cashflow properly even if they gave me the unit for free. I listened to a BP podcast (it was in the high 60's for the podcast #) and the investor gave a list of all the benefits of owning a single family rental. The list was so compelling that I switched my focus to houses and now I am set to close on two next week.

Part of my overall strategy is to experience appreciation so I am buying in areas that I think are slightly depressed but as Denver grows, these areas will turn around and become highly desirable due to the close proximity to Denver and nice views. 

Boston RE is a little pricey so you won't be able to buy as many units but each unit will probably hold its value over the long term.

@John Horner  I'm a pretty big fan of Dropbox. I find that having a full time job and being on many different devices during any given day, Dropbox gives me easy access to all my files. 

I will definitely be checking out the Google feature.

healthy budget. multi family generally don't have good appreciation but they have good cashflow. SFR are good on appreciation and give you more exit strategies - you can buy, rehab and flip or buy and hold. Good idea to live in it initially until you get tired of living with your tenants.

I had a couple duplexes and a quadplex years ago and they definitely cashflowed even though my rents were below market value. But, when I sold, I didn't get much money for them.

@John Horner  I think such a tool would work really well when trying to watch a property over a longer period of time. 

@John Horner  thanks for the tip. That's pretty cool. I think I may actually use it for other personal things. The only advantage to capturing it in an excel sheet is that I can access it offline. So if I am out at a property and want to go talk to a neighbor and forget his/her name (highly likely), then I can just pull it up on my laptop. Otherwise I have to have a smart phone or ipad and hope that it's getting a signal or not battery challenged.