All Forum Posts by: Patrick Liska

Hello Samantha, you appeared on my keyword search. I am a general contractor, own 1 single family and 2 two families, one of which i did minor repairs and relisted for sale, under contract right now. starting to look at other flips, but like the buy and hold. I want to eventually own an apartment complex and figured i would look for discussions on them. i will add you and hope we can help each other along.

I agree with comments above, as a first time investor, get some properties under your belt first that will make you money. i do believe you have a plan to secure money coming in with renting to section 8, government money will be guaranteed, but you will most likely be fixing the place up every time a tenant leaves. some towns just don't come back, so they only value you will have is the rental income, the asset may not grow in value and selling later may be hard providing no value in the future for your kids. And i could be wrong and you could buy some gold mines and make a lot of money, but i think the risk is too great for a new investor to try. I am fairly new myself, 3 properties and working on a fourth but i would not even take that risk myself, but to each there own, and i wish you luck in what ever you decide to do.

@ Kyle Soderman, in Minnesota i do not think you would have problems with either, the temperature is cool enough there and i believe you mostly have snow there, the problem with EIFS ( synthetic stucco) was moisture getting and staying behind the system, today there has been a lot of improvements to it. but if you are hit with hale or anything hits the siding enough it can chip or dent. i agree with @Marc Jolicoeur, real stucco is as hard as a rock, and it will last many years. I am a general contractor, i do not install either but have had professionals install both on houses and have worked on many houses with both. if i was to have the choice for my own house, i would spend the extra money and put the real stucco on.

@Sun Kim, have you sat down and talked to your property manager about the problems ?, they may be receptive to it and try and make things right. If you have and do want to leave, the contract is binding, I would write a letter saying you want to terminate with the reasons listed so that everything is legal. then try to ask if you can get out early and if they agree, have them put it in writing so they cant come back at you. If there is no clause saying you cant hire another management company in the mean time, it would be worth your while to have that co. start, even though you would be paying both at the same time. have the old company forward copies of all records and accounting to the new co. and let them check everything over while the whole process is going on.

@William Macomber Macomber, IF the back place was legal there is potential to make about $500 / month on this property, figuring you would have to put in about $40,000 in repairs. However, there are some Red flags in the listing, it says it can be a duplex, which means it does not have 2 units on the property and the house can be added to to make it a duplex. plus it also says the buyer is responsible for certification and repairs, it may need more repairs then what is in the pictures plus again that seems to mean that the units are not safe to rent and not legal to rent and will have to be certified as such. If you can find out if the back unit is legal as @Judy P. said then it may be worth pursuing after having a Contractor look at it.

If they are appliances, the Tenants would have had to contact the Management co. about it, there should be some sort of record of that to produce the work order for the appliances and that request should also be provided to you, refuse to pay them for it until they produce the records. I always check my statements every month from my management co for the properties they manage and i call them on any thing that i think is not right, and they have made mistakes ( nothing major and unintentional ) but it would have cost me money. Think it may be time for you to look for a new Management co.

Daniel,

have to know how the numbers break up, as Kevin was saying, did you include management, electric, gas, lawn care, leasing fees, water and sewer. if you do not hire a property manager are you taking care of managing the property yourself ? your time is money is $ 120 / month enough to pay for your time ?

commercial insurance policy under the llc. if you are renting the property, chances are you can find a bank willing to loan to an llc, if this is your first investment property it may be a little tough getting it. usually you will have to personally guarantee the loan anyway. you had the intention of staying there, the bank may help you out if they have a problem with it. you may be forced to pay it off and open a different loan. 

cover over asbestos siding with vinyl siding is a form of containment or encapsulation, and usually does not have to be removed, have you tested the siding to see if it is asbestos or just a cement siding ? usually cement siding is not as thick as asbestos siding, so trying to patch broken ones will not look good.