All Forum Posts by: James Denon

The other expense people tend to overlook is cost of bad debt and legal costs.

For any rent non-payment situation, I have to fork 50 bucks to my property manager to appear in housing court. 

I never seen these expenses accounted as operating expenses in the sellers agent spreadsheets.

Looks great @michal noto. How much did materials and labor cost? Was there not natural floor under? If so, why did you not choose not to refinish it?

Do you have a good GC that you can recommend?

Is this in nicer side of new britain?

Looks great @michal noto. How much did materials and labor cost? Was there not natural floor under? If so, why did you not choose not to refinish it?

Do you have a good GC that you can recommend?

Is this in nicer side of new britain?

I am interested in a 8 family in Springfield Massachusetts. It is an off market deal. The seller is willing to do seller financing with a reasonable rate for 70% LTV.

I would like to offer him this: I will get a loan from a bank for 75% and for him to carry a note for 25%.

So, I would be getting the property for zero downpayment.

Not sure how to approach the topic. I do have great credit and good income to cover the mortgage if anything goes wrong. I have decent track record as an investor. My property manager is great. The property is on the nicer side of town. It should attract good tenants. So, it shouldn't be hard to manage. 

I think he would have to be 2nd lien position on the property and the bank would be have to be first. So, if I default, he is at risk of not getting paid. So, he probably would want me to put down 10-15% to have skin in the game.

How should I approach the topic to get the deal for zero down?

@Rama Motwani I would recommend you connecting with @Filipe Pereira and @Rick Santasiere. They would point you in the right neighborhoods in CT.

@Rob L. thank you so much for the valuable information.

Hope you had a good vacation.

All water lines are seperated. Next week the submeters will be installed and we will see how it will work.

I like the 7 notice rather than the 14 day. 

@Filipe Pereira thanks for the mention. 

@Edward Dones I would be down for meeting for coffee and chatting about partnering on multi in Springfield. I plan on getting 2 in 2018.

@Rob L. Excellent information. Thanks. Glad to hear someone in MA executes this successfully.

I think that might be the primary reason for my property manager's hesitation. It is more work for him. I am ok with him charging his % management fee over collection of water bill just like the rent. The workers he sends to do the mowing and cleanup are probably not numbers savvy to write a bill. We can come up with a system.

Does your investor friend receive his bill on a quarterly basis and send out the bills on a monthly basis? So does that mean he sends the bill to the tenants before he receives his bill from the city at the end of the quarter? I thought you had to pay the bill first to the city and bill the tenants based on what you already paid the city.

As long as I have a licensed plumber complete the task and sign off on it, I don't think I have to call the inspector over to be able to bill the tenants. Would you agree?

Thanks so much for the useful info.

@Thomas Hickey It is allowed but there is a lot of legal stipulations. i have not heard anyone apply it successfully other than one video recording I saw from Masslandlords website. 

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/...

@Filipe Pereira Fair point but I have heard horror stories as well. I would like to use the meters as a stick to prevent any abusive behavior from tenants. Maybe I do need to bill them monthly like @Douglas Snook suggested rather than springing a quarterly bill on them. See below for the horror story:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/430...

By the way, once I get more liquidity, we have to touch base again for your offerings :)

Since nobody else chimed in I am assuming this is not too popular.

Hello Fellow investors

I am going through getting the 3 family rehabbed in Springfield MA. The goal is to have it as a long term buy and hold cash flow property. It is in a class C neighborhood.

There is major plumbing work that needs to get done. I am replacing all supply lines with pex. I will be running separate lines to each unit. So I have the opportunity to add sub-meters for each unit for the cost of the meter itself.  I would like to offset the cost of water to the tenants. Currently, I do not have plans to offer them washer/dryer/dishwasher hookups. If I sub meter the water, I can offer that option. That might attract better tenants. I also heard of horror stories of thousands of dollars of water bills because tenants are retaliating and they flood the house.

I know the rules: You need to have licensed plumber sign off that low consumption faucets, showers and toilets have been installed. This is not an issue for me.

My property manager is very concerned about sub metering. He is saying nobody does sub metering except the new constructions and if a town inspector comes in and has to sign off on it they will require that we have fire sprinklers to be installed since it is a 3 family. He is also saying that there are a lot of rules and regulations around it that I don't know of and it will cost lot more than I think. The only thing he has to do in my mind is read the meter every 3 months and bill the tenants. I don't think it should be that difficult.

My question to the community is: Does anyone have experience with sub metering water for an old triple-decker in Massachusetts? What are the pitfalls? What are the hidden costs? Would you recommend it knowing that I could get it done easily since I am redoing all the plumbing.

Thanks