All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Paschedag

While I have no first hand knowledge, it's my understanding that sec 8 rents are comparable to market rents.  But also that the housing authority performs periodic inspections.   With that I'm not sure what they will make the tenant repair, or risk losing housing support. 

Good Luck! 

Based on what you said about things you touch being condemned, I would recommend NOT getting that book.

Instead, hey the book on estimating rehab costs. That will give you an idea on costs.   You still need to know what to fix.  For that, hire an inspector.  One that will allow you to follow along with him so they can show you what's wrong.  Feel free to take pictures of issues.

With that, you'll have talking points with the handyman or contractor.  If you can, watch them do the jobs.  While most might be to much for you to tackle, there might be some you are able to pick up and do yourself (should you desire).

Another thing to consider if you are planning to keep the pool, insurance.  Huge risk having a pool.

To answer your original question, kitchens and baths.  They help with prospective tenants, and appraisals (if you are going to refi).

Not sure what you have estimated for expenses, but with multi-family properties, you more than likely will have some utilities to pay for, such as water, sewer, trash.

You mentioned that 3 of the 6 units were in great condition.  Do you have plans for the other 3?  Were you planning to have the rents all be the same?  If so, if a tenant from an 'older' place see's the inside of a 'nice' place (as tenants talk and befriend one another), the 'older' place tenant may not be so happy if they are paying the same rent as the 'nice' place tenant.

Just some things to think about.

About 9 months ago I was wanting an electronic method to collect rents.  On BP there were posters saying that with PayPal (and Credit Cards) a tenant can call a couple of months later (like maybe, after they moved out) and say they didn't get services agreed upon and they could get a refund.  I am not a fan of taking that kind of chance with my rents.

I went with Cozy.  For basic free service, you get your money in 5 business days.  No transaction costs.  They have an expedited service for a per transaction fee.

Another nice thing with Cozy is you set up the lease duration for each property.  You can add fees/penalties to the account and the tenant gets notified.  You easily know who each payment is from.

If you go an electronic route, you can offer to help your tenants set-up the account on their side.  If they are comfortable with it, you can even set-up an auto-payment.  For that matter, you might be able to set up auto-payments from their bank.

As an inspector, we learn what to look for and estimate remaining life of major appliances and roof.

Ben's approach, I believe, gives you what you are looking for. 

There are books you can read on how to estimate rehab costs that may help you.

As a crude estimate for property value, you can look at the value estimates in both Realtor.com and Zillow.com.

It seems that that property is not good for an investor due to the property value, regardless of the taxes.  If I were you, I'd stop wasting time with this one and move on to the next property to analyze.  There are lots of tools you can find on BP that talk about how to analyze properties beyond the 50% rule and the 1% rule (that I learned from your thread).

The assessed value you keep mentioning is not nearly the same as the property value.  As an example, look up your house and look at the tax assessment, you'll see that it does not come close to representing the home's value.

First it's BRRRR (4 Rs). Otherwise, it should be just BRR. No sense in refinancing if your not going to repeat.

Anyway, my understanding is that if you didn't buy your property under market value, it'll be challenging to do BRRRR. Not impossible though. You could have forced equity due to time you've owned the property. That is my case. I've had my rental for about 4 years. So I have some equity forced it due to time. I have also been making half payments every 2 weeks (opportunity from the bank). In addition to that, generally speaking, and without seeing pix, you get the best bang for your buck with kitchen and bath reno's. Most of of the rest is just lipstick.

Welcome aboard the BP train @Chris Harsy