All Forum Posts by: Ben Ballinger

Same question as @Darryl Felton above... curious if you found someone good and how it worked out.

Hi all; anyone have experience owning SRO properties? I’ve come across one and am intrigued, but have no experience or even know where to start with analyzing such a property.

I’m assuming such properties house transient/homeless individuals? In general, do landlords simply provide the housing and get paid a flat rate by the organization/institution responsible for managing the tenants, or is the landlord’s income based on vacancy? Perhaps it’s somewhat case by case?

If a SRO is for sale, how do we find out who that entity even is? The listing agent is super unprofessional on the property in question and not providing any info whatsoever.

Those of you who own/have owned... worth it? What metrics do you use to determine if the property will be a good investment?

Are you using a conventional loan and would you be living in the home? If using a conventional loan for a non-primary residence, the downpayment may likely be 25% minimum ($30k for $120k).

Also, did you account for loan closing costs anywhere (looks like it's set to $0)? With low cash flow that could potentially wipe out all your return, as closing costs could be a few thousand dollars.

@Brett Allen feel free to shoot me a PM with your proposal and I will take a look

Originally posted by @Deanna McCormick:

YOur going to run into venting issues, and plumbing issues, changing to stackable units,, and you'll lose storage space..

keep it in the basement, you'll have less headaches from leaking water... 

Does your basement have egress if not your tenants shouldn't be down there so.. just pointing that out. 

 Why would I run into issues if I have a contractor properly pipe/vent/install the appliances during the unit renovations?  Maybe if I did a hack job myself, but I don't see those units as inherently having leaking issues unless I am missing something?

Good points--right now with units in the basement I have to pay that laundry water usage–and the money from the coin laundry offsets that and then minimal income per month.

If I was to add laundry to the units, all water usage could be passed on to the tenants, thus saving me that expense. True, I wouldn't get the coin income from the machines but after paying off the water usage, that's like $20 per month anyway.

So it really comes down to: will the increase in rent (assuming any) net me more in return for the cost of the rough work to pipe/vent, plus the purchasing, installing and ongoing maintenance of said units.

I suppose I could charge tenants for busting the machines if that happens? I just know so many people who don't ever check their dryer lint traps, or use too much soap, etc. I have no doubt tenants will do this on a regular basis and that there will be regular issues with the laundry units.

I am considering a purchase of a 4 unit building, with 2 bed 1 bath units in it.  Currently, there are pay-machines for laundry in the basement.

I am wondering if it would be a better decision to do stackable units in the apartments? This would allow me to:

• charge more for rent thanks to the added amenity
• really differentiate the apartments from others in the area, since no other apartments around have this feature
• compete more effectively against SFH rentals in the area (this suburb has a lot of them) since most SFH have in-home laundry

Obviously the downsides are potential for abuse of the machines (requiring added maintenance calls and potentially replacement costs), lost income from pay-machines in the basement, lost closet space and initial investment to install plumbing/venting and purchase appliances.

Interested to hear arguments for either side of this.

Someone has to have a handyman they're happy with in the area... 

Palos/Orland township areas

Hey all, Looking for a good, reliable handyman who can do basic checklist jobs for finalizing rehab projects. I have a home that is for sale that just had its inspection and there are several things that need to be fixed but I would prefer not to go through my contractor since he would be very expensive. The items are things like patching a small foundation crack, scrubbing a small bit of mold from the crawlspace and fixing the alignment on one of the closet doors, etc. things like that. Appreciate any referrals!