All Forum Posts by: Mark Radford

Chatted with a fella recently who's considering offering once monthly housecleaning service for his better sfh properties leased by busy young professionals. He gets charged 100 bucks and will upcharge rent 200-250/mo. "Housekeeping included!" angle. They will clean top to bottom and even wash throw rugs, load dishwasher etc. In & out in about 3hrs. I'm intrigued. Anybody doing that? Encountered any drama? Best practices? Had any takers?

I'm in a market if you buy right you can cash flow and if you get there early enough maybe even make a few bucks. If we have nothing else we will have renters in this town. But with respect to the economy... Yes, something's amiss. I'm from restaurants and that segment is soft and has been for a while. Many operators are discounting (which I always disdain) and coming up with gimmicks and gadgets to lure and keep butts in seats. They're packing the house but at a price. I always look at middle class discretionary spending. There's alot of unabsorbed street level retail in many of these new apartment buildings too. Folks are being cautious. Plenty of warehouse, call center and foodservice work available though so if you rent to folks bringing home 2500 - 3500 a month you are good. Because those are the jobs now.

Solution we've found to this is restaurant workers! If the unit is anywhere close to a popular and stable restaurant area market to bartenders/servers/cooks etc. These folks pack light and want to live close to work. They may change jobs more often than most but their incomes are pretty good and can usually handle those micro- apartments. We've had good luck there. Hope that helps.

You'll naturally have the convenience of scale with duplexes. I would suggest buying in better areas for higher rents and better quality tenants. Those in the "city" will be OLD. Expect to pay six figures for the best. I disagree with what I've read about all those houses being in the 'hood however because the 'hood really isnt the "hood" so much around here anymore.That said, if you want to go cheap <50k look to get around 500 - 650 a side, be prepared to deal with all that entails and have the patience of Job.

@Jd Martin That's something worth considering. Had a tenant's boyfriend putting bottle caps in the disposal. Bottle. Caps.

This trust issue is a disadvantage I'm sure for folks that use a PM. I wonder how many LL's have been charged to "replace" a garbage disposal when the issue was just a quarter-turn with that handy dandy allen wrench?

Hi @Jane Dang looks like you guys are in California so moving in November/December wouldn't seem to be as rigorous on a family as here in the Midwest, holidays notwithstanding. I would stick with the increase and the timeline if you've been that much under market though. You said area is in high demand so I'm sure they knew this day would come. This is not to be cold but we've been played enough times in this game. You'll want to remain competitive in your area. Turnover and damage expenses don't care what the rent was so wouldn't it have been nice to get that couple extra grand over the year?

Ah yes... The Indianapolis market. Indy, Naptown, The Circle City. I'm having to accept the facts and be flexible in my thinking that what is "profitable" and "cashflowing" and "passive" means alot of different things to different people. It is a great market but Indy isn't full of cornballs and we can indeed find our own a** with both hands. If you're from out of town I highly recommend a few days visit here before you start buying. Due diligence cannot be stressed enough.

Need more info. How big? What was there before? Around here everybody slaps a restaurant inside but it's discovered those aren't always the best uses in the long run. I've seen salons and barber shops successfully absorb those spaces as their clients follow them. Tattoo shops similarly.

Seems high. Hopefully you're charging water bills back to tenants?