All Forum Posts by: Colin Ushkowitz
Colin Ushkowitz has started 5 posts and replied 22 times.
Post: Mixed Use Investment Property Face Lift in New Hope PA Financing
- Investor
- Pennsylvania / New Jersey
- Posts 22
- Votes 12
Depends on the scope of work. If it's just exterior, it shouldn't be a crazy amount of money. You can probably get a line of credit for your business and use that if you don't want to front the costs. The interest rate will probably be high. Maybe you can use private money too. At least there you have more power for negotiation.
Post: Tenant Security Deposits
- Investor
- Pennsylvania / New Jersey
- Posts 22
- Votes 12
Quote from @Pat Heidingsfelder:
Quote from @Colin Ushkowitz:
Quote from @Pat Heidingsfelder:
I would look into Buildium sooner than later. I started using it with just a couple properties and am just over 100 now. There are a few cool features that would help you out. For each property you can split the owner payouts to multiple owners by percentage. Might come in handy in your situation.
Yes, I plan to. I built the cost into the management fee of my next acquisition that I currently have under contract. What did you find to be the most useful for your properties with buildium?
Buildium was honestly difficult to get along with for a while. There's a learning curve to figure out what where to find things.
I think the most useful is keeping everything in the same place. Feel free to hit me up, I'm no pro but I've been using it for about 5 years.
Will do, thanks Pat! The heads-up is much appreciated, will have to dive into their videos online as well, once I make the switch.
Post: Tenant Security Deposits
- Investor
- Pennsylvania / New Jersey
- Posts 22
- Votes 12
Quote from @Pat Heidingsfelder:
I would look into Buildium sooner than later. I started using it with just a couple properties and am just over 100 now. There are a few cool features that would help you out. For each property you can split the owner payouts to multiple owners by percentage. Might come in handy in your situation.
Yes, I plan to. I built the cost into the management fee of my next acquisition that I currently have under contract. What did you find to be the most useful for your properties with buildium?
Post: Tenant Security Deposits
- Investor
- Pennsylvania / New Jersey
- Posts 22
- Votes 12
Quote from @Adam Bartomeo:
I would think not... but you could possibly set the master as a PMC so that it doesn't actually "own" the other companies but manages the properties for the LLC's.
Makes sense. Will look into further, thanks Adam!
Post: Tenant Security Deposits
- Investor
- Pennsylvania / New Jersey
- Posts 22
- Votes 12
Quote from @Adam Bartomeo:
We have 3 accounts for ALL of our properties - escrow, operations, and corp. If you have multiple LLC's you may want to consider having a Master or separate LLC to manage the properties. This will allow you to have the 3 accounts I mentioned for all of the properties.
Thanks for your insight. Makes sense. With the master, would this still be a viable solution if each one of my LLC's have different partners and ownership splits?
Post: Tenant Security Deposits
- Investor
- Pennsylvania / New Jersey
- Posts 22
- Votes 12
Quote from @Kevin Sobilo:
@Colin Ushkowitz, are you holding each in a separate entity/LLC? Is that why you are breaking them out this way?
Mine are in 1 LLC. So, my accounts are not allocated to specific properties but to a specific purpose.
I think of my properties as a whole. When I budget for maintenance, cap ex, and vacancy I take money from all income rents and put it into one pot that I manage. So, even if 1 property has excessive expenses in a given year the other properties carry it. So, in this way I manage the portfolio has a business instead of managing each property as its own separate business.
I also use the system from this book to manage cash and find it very useful.
Each property is a separate LLC. I like the way you do it. I often have partners on each deal which is why I have a different entity for each one. I'll check out the book, thanks for sharing!
Post: Tenant Security Deposits
- Investor
- Pennsylvania / New Jersey
- Posts 22
- Votes 12
For all of my properties, when I acquire them, I open two bank accounts: One for the traditional rent/maintenance, capex, etc. and one for security deposits. I know there has to be a better way. How do others normally go about this? I also am currently using Stessa for my property management but will probably convert to Buildium after I acquire another deal in the next few weeks. Good idea?
Post: Best Model to Start With
- Investor
- Pennsylvania / New Jersey
- Posts 22
- Votes 12
Getting your license might also be helpful starting out
Post: Best Partnership Legal Structure
- Investor
- Pennsylvania / New Jersey
- Posts 22
- Votes 12
Great question , Dan. In my experience, I have created LLCs with my partners and used those LLCs to purchase real estate. We also have an operating agreement in place that spells everything out regarding capital investment, who will manage the property, ownership %, etc. Having great partners makes it all the more fun.
Post: Multifamily House Hacking
- Investor
- Pennsylvania / New Jersey
- Posts 22
- Votes 12
Quote from @Nick Askew:
@Colin Ushkowitz- This is just me thinking out loud, but wouldn't the new development and high-rise apartments have a much higher rent leaving a lane for 1-4 units especially since apartments don't typically allow STR/MTR or am I looking at it wrong?