All Forum Posts by: Douglass Benson

 Actually there are no limits to what you can be accused of especially if you had prior knowledge.  Because a person is not incarcerated doesn't mean that he is okay to be in society.  I am just saying that you should be aware of the mind set of the rest of society because that is what you will be up against.  Best of luck to you.

We allow Cats, Birds and Fish at $20 a heartbeat up to two.  If the bird is loud then it is not allowed.  We do not allow dogs, rodents or reptiles.  I love dogs, but a dog in an apartment is a problem waiting to happen for all the obvious reasons.  The reason for no rodents is once one escapes - half the building wants to move.  No reptiles is for the same reason as no rodents.

That being said ESA (emotional support animals) might cause me to have to embrace a much larger segment of the animal kingdom.  

 Our rents actually accelerated.  The damaged housing market put so many new tenants into the field, that it was like a bidding war.  

We started buying apartments in mid Michigan in 2003.  We stared with a four plex and are now up to 81 units.  I assume no appreciation whenever I invest and focus solely on cashflow.  I have all my buildings bank financed and my equity position is quite strong after 13 years on one loan, 10 on another, 6 on another and 5 on another.  We are still only around 25% equity on the two we purchased last year.  

Cashflow allows me to maintain, upgrade, improve, handle risk, etc., etc., It allows me to run my business.  Cashflow also means all the other bills are being paid i.e, mortgages, taxes, utilities, insurance, etc., etc. 

If you follow this recipe, one day you will wake up to discover, in a relatively short period of time (10 years), that your balance sheet is good and that the funds you used to achieve such a thing were provided by a tenant...or 81 tenants.  

Oh, and I should mention - ALL my properties have appreciated in value since I purchased them.  My point is, I never buy banking on appreciation.    

For me, cashflow is everything and the only thing.

We have a lot of window shoppers that want me to drop everything and run up to a building to show it simply because they are standing in the parking lot and would like to see what the units look like.  I no longer do this even though I used to. 

I tell all my prospective tenants that we only show units to people that have filled out an application.  Our Website has video and photos of all our buildings and an online application as well so it makes sense for them to go there anyway.  

When we finally do agree on a time to meet, I ask the prospective tenant to give me a call 30 minutes before the showing so we both know that the meeting is still on.  If I don't get that phone call, they don't get to see the apartment and I haven't invested one single, solitary second of my time.   

Life is a whole lot easier since I started doing this...

Daughter #1 called and said the family was coming to my house so I better be ready for a Super Bowl Party!  I made gumbo, her husband made wings and stuffed potato skins, Daughter #2 made veggie pizza and chips and queso, Daughter #4 made croissants stuffed with mushrooms, Daughter #3 and her husband couldn't make it.  We bet on Super Bowl Squares - (I won the final square - good for $42!) We ate, drank, laughed and enjoyed the grand kids as well!

Today, I went to the PO Box to collect checks for February rent that were mailed out the last day of our grace period (the 5th).  There is nothing I can do to stop them from coming in so why NOT watch the Super Bowl!?!

Honestly, when we started apartment investing 10 years ago, we drove around looking for buildings that we liked in areas close to where we live.  When we found one, we went to the registrar of deeds and figured out who owned the building and cold called him.  That is how we purchased our 16 unit building and the seller and I are now business partners and good friends.  Sure, we like to look up stuff online, but most of our buildings came to us because people heard that we were apartment investors and they started bringing us deals.  Get the word out that this is what you do and they will come.  

To the folks requesting - thank you for the requests.  I hope you find this relevant to what you are looking for.  I honestly think you will be bored with all this but I talk about apartment investing and our start on my website.  If you go to this link - https://www.eskerproperties.com/about.html

you will be able to view a presentation I gave around five years ago as a part of a fundraiser about apartment investing.  We had just put units 33 to 44 under contract and we were the only folks doing apartment investing at the event so we talked for a bit.  Today we are at 81 units having purchased a 20 unit building in May and a 17 unit in October of last year.

We basically started like everyone else does.  We flipped a house or two, purchased a four unit, learned the business a little, then starting trying to grow - first a 16 unit, then a 12, then another 12, then a 20 and then a 17.  All during the time we were buying and holding apartments, we were flipping houses.  This provided us dollars for upgrading the buildings and purchasing new buildings.  The last building we purchased, investors providing the down payment and a bank provided the purchase dollars.  No money of mine was invested and I own a beautiful 17 unit as a result.   

I don't know what our competitive advantage is or if we even have one.  We enjoy the business, we are proud of our buildings and we don't intend to sell any of them.  Cashflow is the #1 goal and we only invest in buildings that we would be comfortable having our daughters live in.  So far, that has worked fairly well for us.

Take care and again, thank you for the interest!

Doug.

 Jim, if you have good properties with good tenants, what would there be to call you about? I self manage 81 units and see others with over 200 that do the same.  A good car won't need as much maintenance and a building is no different.  A good person won't require as much intervention either. 

You need a partner or a mentor.  I think that will help you to avoid risky deals and they can be a good sounding board for your current or next move.  No matter what you do, if you buy right you will be good to go.  One thing I should tell you is you won't get rich today or tomorrow regardless of what you do.  That being said you might be rich next year!  Being a good investor is like any good habit.  It takes a bit of time to acquire, you are better off simply by doing it and there are others who already know how to do it.  You need a partner or a mentor.