All Forum Posts by: Jeff Gebhart

Being breed specific in banning is a big mistake.  Pit bulls, German Sheppards, and Rots all get a bad name due to their owners are bad.   I certainly can understand the concern as many bad owners train these specific dogs to be aggressive and hence these dogs are in the press much more on attacks.  However Pit Bulls (for example) were called "Nanny Dogs" due to the affectionate nature with children.  In fact these dogs are not listed in the top of natural aggressive behavior dogs.  If you think you are decreasing your liability by being breed specific you are asking for trouble.  You need to screen your tenant better.  Someone that trains their pet to be aggressive is not the type you want living in your investment.  If you allow dogs, then I would suggest you meet the dog.  We don't allow any dogs (except service dogs) in our units.  Not because I am worried about an aggressive dog but I am more worried about stepping in dog crap and the damage a dog does to the inside of the place is not worth it.  I have always owned dogs and probably always will.  We rent to 90% college kids so I am realistic in their time and abilities to properly care for a pet.  

Joe,  

You recently included most of what I thought you were missing in your original post.  However why are you paying water/sewer/trash?  Unless you can't break that out because of meters (water/sewer)?  I would at least make tenants pay trash if you can't break out the water.  Also, not sure what market your in but $600 per unit seems very low if in a college rental market.  That may be your biggest/easiest value add is increasing rent.  What are comp rents in the area?

Good luck!

Jeff

Tim. Yes our company FNG Properties owns and manages our own properties in Grand Rapids. Our company address is in Hart MI (80 miles north).  We liked the Grand Rapids market the best in West Michigan. 

Thanks Maria - Feel free to send me anything you have on multi-units.  

Real Estate Background
Owner of a small real estate investment company called FNG Properties, LLC. We started buying single family homes and then duplexes. We got into the industry right before the big crash. So we got lucky and picked up some property when prices were very low. Wish we would have picked up more! This time has been good to learn what it is to be a good landlord. Service calls, leases, evictions, property maintenance and the guest service side of how to keep good tenants were all areas we learned. Our strategy has been what we call the "Trick or Treat Philosophy". We buy houses only in neighborhoods we would feel safe to take our kids Trick or Treating.

Short Term Goal
Learn more!  Single family homes made sense to us when we started but have since learned that multi-family units and commercial have much better returns.  They just never seemed feasible to purchase before due to the costs.  However since stumbling onto BP I am learning that it is possible to get into bigger deals.  I just need to learn how.  Short term specific goal is to get to double our units (or rental income) by next year.  

Long Term Goal

I want to change the world.  Which means building this company into something that is much bigger than supplying my family with a good sustainable income.