All Forum Posts by: Deborah Burian

For all of you who live in high dollar markets and want to invest in the mid-south... Oklahoma continues to offer a booming economy, low unemployment, moderate housing cost and a shortage of quality rental housing...

Although I am not a pro member and cannot post in Marketplace, this is an opportunity that was recently sent to me

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151386330672750&set=a.10150592597682750.383670.673242749&type=1&theater

Hmmm. That sounds familiar, securitizing properties... (notes)

Buy a bunch of properties (notes) for cheap (you think) hope it all works out (this time) but you're not holding the risk because you're turfing it out to investors (who REALLY don't understand) based on assertions you don't have the data to back up I wonder if they'll have tranches

If only my poor, tired 1993 F150 was the first impression I wanted to make...

If you want to see a longer version, here is a Bigger Pockets blog I'm writing about the whole experience.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/3976/blog_posts/27920-rain-rent-and-utilities

George Paiva, Joel Owens, Joffrey Long, Tevis Verrett, Well gentlemen, it's all true. Joffrey, especially thank you for the courage to share. We all benefit from reminders of the rough deals too.

While this is my first multi-family investment, I am a retired nursing home administrator so at least have a sense of how many systems things can go wrong, lol. This morning's project is to re-run the numbers with more accurate information.

Not being afraid to jump, and jumping... Deal wise, might be in the middle of my best deal right now... will report when closed and it worked...

We have always allowed pets and over dozens of tenants have only had significant damage one time. Particularly irked me because we had been in the house several times and still missed it. There was one room that they must have let the critters use in lieu of the yard. Hardwood too... just sealed it and laid carpet.

little kids and red kool-aid - that's a recipe for heartbreak.

Everything I've read here in the last month about due diligence on a multi-unit. It's all true. The maintenance is worse than reported, the utilities are more than reported. The vacancies are twice what was reported. Two immediate hazards were identified that were so severe, I had my guy fix one (cut off the gas to a furnace, with PM permission) and we insisted the owner call the electric company on the other. There are pets where leases insist "no pets." Rents are lower than reported, deposits are ridiculously low. And don't get me started on the rats...

Just this morning... seriously. In the process of due diligence was informed the cluster of rat traps was because when the prior tenant moved out with his snake, he let loose the 'pet' white rats. While they kinda thought they got all of them, the next door tenant had already moved after complaining to the health department about the rat problem... for a bit of additional color, the PM was complaining that the lady who called the health department was the problem. Not the rats.

Cash flow. For buy and hold, strongly believe you must have cash flow either immediately or in the viewable future (say, by raising rent, changing tenant, or otherwise optimizing the property)

I have to disagree with Carlos Garza's example above as it does not allow for the beauty of the tenant paying down your principal regardless of the appreciation/depreciation, nor does it contemplate raising rents over a 5 year period.

On a properly purchased and efficiently managed unit, cash flow should go up and up and up... if you start from zero and spend the first years digging out of the hole, going up is a much harder thing to do.