All Forum Posts by: Jeff Costa

Rates are 7.2 today, but you also have to add 50 basis points to that number, as this is a rental property. So your rate should be estimated at 7.7 on a pro-forma; if you do better on rates, that is upside to you, but assume worst case. Your insurance at $6/month seems unrealistically low; get a quote from a local agent to plug a real number in there. I see you added management fees even though you stated you would self-manage. Its good practice to do so, even if you self-manage, but 3% is far too low. Use 10% to be conservative.

Also, I am hearing emotion in your voice, and a bit of FOMO. You should fall in love with the numbers, not the property. It may be scarce, but as the saying goes: "There is always another bus."  Try to take the emotion out of your decision-making process. A good tactic is to ask yourself: "What am I pretending not to see?"

Hope this helps and good luck!

@Wayne Kerr Would love some detail around how you split your time between W2 and REP? Did you clone yourself (smile)?

Agree that interest rate should be estimated at 7.1 + 50 basis points to be realistic. I see zero for all Fixed Expenses, which seems incorrect. Landlords typically pay trash removal, water, landscaping, and snow removal. When the listing says: "Handyman special with TLC needed" you need to ensure you have a renovation budget, which I do not see in your calculator. The kitchens and bathrooms look dated, so you might consider forcing appreciation. Also, the listing states: "Forced Air, Oil" and the oil part of that gives me pause; it usually means oil tanks in the basement, and some insurers are picky about tanks as a hazard. 

@Jared Haxton: If you need another set of hands, I would like to volunteer to help you craft the pitch deck (and gain experience in the process). The deck @Ronald uses might be a good springboard to get started.

This may help you: https://www.avail.co/education...

Maybe we should start an Alpharetta REI meetup!

Upvote for the Wells Fargo Cash credit card. The 2% goes right back into your Wells checking account, and helps offset property expenses. Completely hands-off with no manual effort each month. 

PROTIP: Create an API for your service and integrate with DealCheck. Let DealCheck users automatically pull the insurance quotes into their pro-formas. 

Please send this idea to your product manager. (smile)

I would appreciate the ability to obtain a quote for an investment property in a fast, automated fashion. Today this involves sending an email to a vendor and waiting for a return email with details and a quote. I would appreciate a website where I could put in the address, let you pull the details of the property and create an estimated quote based on the characteristics of the property - returned in minutes and without talking to anyone.

Context: I am putting together a pro-forma spreadsheet to evaluate a deal. Offers have a timing element, where delivering the offer to the seller faster is better. To get to that offer, I need to quickly build my pro-forma, which includes a quote for insurance costs. The faster I can get an accurate insurance quote into my estimate, the more time I have to review the pro-forma, and determine if I want to make an offer. This enables me to be more competitive in the market, and helps me trust my numbers. The alternative is using my own "guesstimate" based on previous deals I have done.