All Forum Posts by: Stone Jin

I think you need to look at your rentals as running a business and not a charity.  In the last 7 years, your costs have increased (insurance and taxes), you've just been eating that out of your profits.  I think you need to raise rents and explain that you costs have gone up and this is the new rent.  Nothing more nothing less.  

I also bought in Phoenix during the down cycle but I still keep my rents slightly below market.  Every time I raise the rent (which is not every year but whenever current rent is significantly less than market rent), I've never had any tenant push back.  

Best of luck

$5 including all materials?  So wood look a like tile is now under $2 sqft, thinset and grout is about $.20 a square ft, so roughly you are at $2.25 in materials, so that's $2.75 in labor per sqft.  The guy I've been using for the last 6 years does it for less, that's my price anyways.  

I buy my grout and thinset from Monterey Tile in Chandler, lately I've been getting tile from Home Depot just because I need small batch (couple of pallettes).  

I'm sure you are getting a fair deal, I'm in the buy and hold business not flip so my mindset is probably a little different.

Best of luck with your project and let me know if you need any reference for trades.

$5 a foot install including thinset and grout or just labor?  Seems pricey to me.  PM and I can give you a recommendation.

When taking a quick glance at the pictures, we don't consider houses that have pools or bars on the windows when evaluating for a rental.  This will weed out a lot of properties for us.  Not worth the trouble.

I would say that currently there is a shortage of affordable rentals.  The rents have come up rather significantly in the past few years.  If anything there is more demand for cheap housing.  

We don't deal with low end MF but gut feel is that segment is still in demand.  

@Bob E.  when is this?

I don't think there will be any agents that are going to cold call for you. I use my agent for access to the MLS. I have them set up very broad searches and I go through each one daily. If you are looking for deals on MLS then that's what you have to do.

If you are looking for off market deals then go network with wholesalers at any of the 50 real estate tailored meetups or join AZREIA.  Or do your own wholesaling.  Phoenix is very competitive and deals are hard to find.

@Adam Dahlberg, PM me what you have for sale.  We are looking.

If you need an office in Chandler Az, check out gangplank downtown chandler.  It's free and a great place to get some work done.  

Depends on your strategy and what phase you are in. The pricing doesn't make it a BRRR candidate. If you just want to park money, likely the house will be worth more next year than it does this year. If you want to make money then this flip is really slim, with holding costs and closing costs, you might break even at the end of the day. Seems like a lot of hassle to try to make 10K on a flip. You should also check your rent numbers, I'm not sure a 220K house would rent for 1600. We have houses worth more than that rent for less in Chandler.

So maybe I'm a value investor and wouldn't spend 275K on a rental in the PHX market.  

Since you've asked for number so I'll give you the numbers on the last condo (late 2015) we bought and the last sfh (summer 2016). Also our portfolio is about 50% condos and 50% SFH.

Condo: Purchase price: 115K in Mesa. Community built in early 2000's gated community 1 car garage. 2/2 1000sqft. HOA is 140. rent is 1000. So in my case if we take the 140 off of the 1000 we are at 860/115000 = .75%. Current ARV is around 125K so maybe 10K in appreciation over a year.

House: Purchase price 135K in AJ, Cookie cutter 3/2, had to put about 10K into repairs, so call it 145K purchase price. HOA is 40bucks, rent is 1150. So 1110/145000 = .76% so roughly the same in terms of percent rule of thumb. The arv back then was 165k and now is about 185K. So 20K in about 4-5 months. Maybe my comps are a little off since I'm not a realtor, so only rely on my experience and watching zillow and MLS.

I realize two data points don't make a trend but I just feel like if I can buy comparable houses and condos I get a much better return in terms of appreciation, the cashflow is about the same.  If I can't find a house that match our criteria, then we just keep looking.

The other thing about condos is that the HOA goes up at a much quicker rate than sfh HOAs. We have had increases for 2017 in nearly every condo community and maybe only 1 community for SFH.

There is nothing wrong with buying condos, I would just prefer to buy a house.