All Forum Posts by: Charles Giovanniello

@Darren Cusanelli Congrats! Are you near downtown and renting to students? I just closed on a student rental in Bing on Leroy st. So far so good! Enjoying the cashflow. I'm looking to do more deals there so if your interested in partnering let me know :)

Hello all!

I recently closed on my first rental property for university students, and have been getting a feel for being a landlord. Its barely been a month, but I'm already trying to think of ways to continue to scale and acquire more units. 

As far as money goes, i have about $45k saved, i make $66k / year from my job plus another expected ~$5k / year for the property i just purchased. 

I hear a lot about how people can scale up to like 100+ units in a year using crowdfunding, or they networked with some private money lender, or they found a great deal on 32 units with only $30k down out of pocket. Should i aim to go down one of these more creative routes? One big advantage i have is that I'm off Thursday -Saturday from my job so i can visit out of state areas and be back for work by Sunday. 

Or should i just continue down the traditional route and try to acquire another single family unit with the money i have?

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $115,000

Cash invested: $38,000

Cash Flow: $400

COC ROI: 12.64%

This is my first Investment Property! I'm renting a 2 unit apartment to students in the Binghamton NY area. Located by the bus line available for students to take downtown or to the main campus.

I'm working with a property manager who was recommended by my agent. He seems nice and like he knows what he's doing. I'm entertaining the idea of managing it myself, however, I live ~4 hours away and this may not be feasible. If anyone has insight on managing remote, it would be greatly appreciated!

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I wanted to invest in student housing in this area because of the high demand for housing. Also, properties in this area are quite affordable.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I found my agent through the forums on Bigger Pockets, who knew the student housing market very well. When i first went up in May, the seller wanted $140,000. This was too high and would not yield a good enough return. When i found out it was still on the market in September (After another deal fell through) i offered $105,000. We eventually negotiated to $115,000.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional loan, money saved from working and other investments from inheritance.
Chase Mortgage, 6.25% interest, 30 year loan, 25% down. (Couldn't do 20% because it was a multi family)

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I learned about the process of buying real estate. The biggest challenge was finding a deal that worked. I went under contract for one house, but decided not to follow through after inspection due to the condition of the house. I should have more thoroughly walked that house before making an offer and paying for inspection. However, the whole process overall, from first calling the agent, to closing last week was extremely valuable.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Charlie Ackerman (fantastic agent in the area, knows student market well). Gary Klein (Attorney, very knowledgeable and meticulous in his work).

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $115,000
Cash invested: $38,000

This is my first Investment Property! I'm renting a 2 unit apartment to students in the Binghamton NY area. Located by the bus line available for students to take downtown or to the main campus.

I'm working with a property manager who was recommended by my agent. He seems nice and like he knows what he's doing. I'm entertaining the idea of managing it myself, however, I live ~4 hours away and this may not be feasible.

If anyone has insight on managing remote, it would be greatly appreciated!

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I wanted to invest in student housing in this area because of the high demand for housing. Also, properties in this area are quite affordable.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I found my agent through the forums on Bigger Pockets, who knew the student housing market very well. When i first went up in May, the seller wanted $140,000. This was too high and would not yield a good enough return. When i found out it was still on the market in September (After another deal fell through) i offered $105,000. We eventually negotiated to $115,000.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional loan, money saved from working and other investments from inheritance.
Chase Mortgage, 6.25% interest, 30 year loan, 25% down. (Couldn't do 20% because it was a multi family)

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I learned about the process of buying real estate. The biggest challenge was finding a deal that worked. I went under contract for one house, but decided not to follow through after inspection due to the condition of the house. I should have more thoroughly walked that house before making an offer and paying for inspection. However, the whole process overall, from first calling the agent, to closing last week was extremely valuable.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Charlie Ackerman (fantastic agent in the area, knows student market well). Gary Klein (Attorney, very knowledgeable and meticulous in his work).

@Nathan Platter That's good thinking, I had another deal in place where the seller would fix those issues but he doesn't have an obligation to get the work done well and will probably opt for the cheapest he can get. Thanks for that advice.

I'm currently under contract for a student rental house that I initially thought would CoC return ~20% annually. The ask was $130,000 and we negotiated down to $120,000 because initially my agent said that it would need a new furnace which was going to cost at most $4000. After the inspection however, it was pointed out that the house needed a new roof ASAP, there was some leakage in the basement, and the framing was also pretty unsatisfactory which resulted in the house sort of concaving inwards a bit, but the inspector believes it may have just settled there and only came up as moderate concern on the report. There were a few other issues such as electrical grounding on certain outlets, insulation concerns, and there were no smoke detectors. If i offer $95,000 for the house and take care of those repairs using $10,000 for the roof and $6,000 for the furnace, it will still return 15.3%, but my other concern is there will already by tenants in the house by the August 15th. Is this too risky with too many uncertain factors? Or could this still be a good deal if i buy it low enough and fix those large issues? Thanks!

P.S. this is my first ever real estate deal

Looking to partner with a friend to begin investing in the Binghamton NY area for student housing. Does anyone have recommendations for a great attorney that can help us form our LLC and help with other legal work? Also, any ballpark estimates of how much it would cost? Thanks all!

See you guys there, looking forward to it!

@Shannon Glaser realtor.com has property tax information on each of the listings, hope that helps!

@Caleb Heimsoth Thanks! I forgot to include those into my calculation there. Seeming more like it might not good area for best ROI, but ill keep looking.

@Sam Shueh That's true, but would be hard to live there since i work in NY. I'll just keep with the higher interest rate so that I stay honest with my lender. Not sure why my broker even suggested that.