All Forum Posts by: Jesse Waters

Welcome, learn all you can.  I would like to encourage you to find a way to get going in business before you are even out of school.  Perhaps, you will not need a "job" when you graduate at all.  Sounds like you are much further along than I was when I was in college.

Welcome & Best of luck.  This is a great place to learn & refine your plan & goals.

A little late to this party, but welcome to BP.  I have been investing for a few years, I have a few multi-family properties in West Columbia as well as properties in Aiken.  Feel free to hit me up any time.  

When it comes to looking at places, no you don't have to love them, the numbers have to work out.  However, there are still intangibles to consider, ie location, property features, schools etc.  One thing that I do when I am looking for a single family is narrow my search down to 3-4 properties that all look equally good on paper then have my wife take a look at them and have her rank them.  This gives me an outside perspective, since she doesn't really deal with any of the properties other than a few minor admin things.  Yes, this is a business, yes, it is a "product."  However, this is still a people business & I want my tenants to see a property and think "this feels like home."  Good first impression, perhaps longer term tenants, also, I use my wife for the woman's view, because happy wife=happy life.

@Jimmy Moncrief It depends on the property type that I am looking at.  For anything 4 units or less I have been going with a residential lender.  For things larger than 4 units I have been talking with a commercial lender.

Would love to hear any ideas that you have.

As far as transfering the property to LLC, its really easy. I have done it for all my properties in SC, it cost about $100-$150 per property, depending on your county's fee's & your lawyer's fees. You will simply be doing a grand or warranty deed. Check with your lawyer, if you are running a single member LLC you may not get the legal protections (corporate veil) that you normally would with a multi-member LLC.

I do Tax liens in SC, but from what I understand they are structured slightly different.  I remember a BP Podcast that covered tax liens & I think the guest was from NJ.  Try giving them a search (70's or 80's maybe?)

Does anyone remember the Podcast number?

Check out your local REIA, you might find realtor's there that are also investors and would be willing to take you on. You might also find an investor that will be willing to mentor you. Just be willing to offer something on your own. Nothing is free. Even if you can just offer to clean units after a tenant moves out or help a realtor stage properties.

That's how my contracts are set up.  I view it as compensation to the property manager for having to hassle the tenants to pay, which is usually the case.  Alot of property managers don't send checks to the owners until the end of the month anyways, so as long as the tenant pays before the checks are in the mail, then it really doesn't affect me.

I also view it as something that I could have negotiated with the manager on, but it might have cost me something that I might not want to give up, such as a lower management fee for having the number of units that I have with this manager, 8% vs 10%.

My basic rule is that yes, a property has to cash flow after all the expenses are paid, and I have my own criteria for each type of investment that I hold (per door.) I also look for a minimum amount of CoC/ROI. I don't really concern myself with what a property earns compared to what it is valued at, I care about what sort of return am I getting on the money I had to spend to buy that investment.

In my area I have learned that different properties perform at different levels and what is acceptable for each. In the end, as long as the property is providing a level of PCF that I am comfortable with, I really only care about one formula. %= PCF/Cost of investment.

I also look at IRR at the end of the year just to get a better understanding of how well the property is performing overall, but I can't pay my bills with non-liquid returns like appreciation, mortgage paydown & tax savings.

Just my thought, as this thread shows, everyone has their own metrics, numbers & figures that they use when determining weather a property is a good deal for them or now.