All Forum Posts by: John L.

Not sure how to link someone, but Cody L. for sure.  He took time to answer tons of my dumb questions off this site and without him there would have been no way I could have done my first big deal.   Not sure if he's been mentioned yet but that's who'd get my vote.

I don't plan on physically holding back income to handle them. If something comes up I have the funds to take care of it.  I made sure I didn't spend every penny I had to buy these properties. 

I am using Buildium on a 10 unit I just bought.  And will use it for my other 2 townhomes.  I was suggested it by Cody on the forums so if you're going to give anyone a referral give it to him. Though I'm not sure what info of his you'd need.  I like it.  Seems to scale better. 

First of all, huge thanks to Cody here on the forum.  He asked me not to bring up his company name but I can't imagine there are tons of people with that name active on here (and I'm not sure how to highlight someones name in a new message?)

Here is the deal specs:

10 townhomes near Galleria
Purchase price: $231k each ($2.31m total)
Rent is about $2,100/each (Current rent roll is just over $21,000. Seems low based on my comps).  So not quite "1%" but not bad given they're new'ish and tenants pay all utils. 
Loan:  80%  4.6% interest, 25 year amortized.  Payment is about $10,400
insurance, property tax, management comes to about $700/month for each.
Tenants pay all utils.

So that's $17,400 in costs so about $3,600 left a month.

I looked at the owners financials and there were zero empty in the last two years (beyond someone moving out, and someone else moving in with a few weeks downtime).  This is because rents are under market.  So I could add some income to bring it to market rents, but then take out some occupancy.  Or just leave it as is.  

HOW I BOUGHT: My down payment came from about 1/2 savings, and 1/2 friends and family.  It was $225k from me and about $225k from F&F.  My F&F loan will be about $1200/month (i'm giving them 5%.  This was $ they don't need right away that was making 1.8% in the bank for them.  So win/win.)

I'm left with about $2,400/month, or $28,800/year which is a 12%+ return on my money, AFTER paying down debt each month. And if they appreciate at just 2% a year, I'll have $46k/year in appreciation which would change my cash on cash from 12.8% to 33%.   And that still doesn't factor in debt reduction!

I'm SO happy to finally have got the nerve to take the first steps.

I've seen these "new deals" posts that seem to be a template on the site you can share but couldn't figure out how to do it.

I very much hope this helps someone else do the same.  I realize not everyone has a huge amount of $ to get started but when I talked to Cody he got started the same way.  Bought something small and just started to grow.  To think my decision to finally make the leap into multifamily came from running across a newspaper story about how Fat Property bought the building my friend lives in.

I'm still at the START of my journey but if anyone has any questions I'd love to help and return the favor I was given 

Just put these under contract (for anyone following the thread) and should be closing next week.  Super excited to join the ranks of multifamily investors.  HUGE thanks to @Cody L. for his help!!!

I thought you were looking to buy 100,000 (Quantity) properties. I was like “damn that’s a goal”

I have 2 and am close to putting 10 Tiwnhomes under contract. Maybe one day I’ll have “100k” properties :-)

 They’re individually owned. Seller has all of them though. Selling them as a batch. Currently rented. Don’t know the legal distinction between “condo” and “townhome” and “patio home” so I may have been using the term incorrectly 

Comp wise it seems like a good deal.  as in if I wanted to sell them I could, at a profit.  But in terms of buy and hold cash flow it's marginal.  I don't want to give the exact address right now (I'm still new :) but it's in this map.  Maybe calling this "Galeria area" is being generous but when you're downtown everything around there is "galeria area'.  These are likely ~$300k patio homes. 

I posted a few days about an owner I ran across in Houston, wondering how he got so big.  I was hoping to find some people on BP that have grown their own portfolios.  I realize not everyone will see or read every post but I was a bit bummed out to see that there were no replies from investors.

The more I look at posts/replies the more it seems there are mostly people looking to start and very few that have "made it".   Am I way off?  Wrong area of the site?

There is a group of townhomes near me.  Well, "near" = the galeria (I'm downtown) are of Houston .  There are 10 of them for sale in a bundle.  My bank will finance.  They're about $240k each and currently leasing for about 2,100/each.   That's not the "1% rule" I see on here but they're pretty new and it seems the more expensive the unit the more you can go off from that rule. 

I currently only have 2 townhomes but am looking to expand.  Anyone want to talk me out of this or should I do it?  I could wholesale as I bet others might like it but I want this myself.