All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

How about Feb 16th at a Town Center restaurant. Before I set a location I want to check the date with those that have responded.

@Peter B.  @Maxwell Lee  @Charles A.  @David Dawkins @Mitchlyn D. @Todd Miller @Blair G.  @Ethan Lee  @Max Biggar  @Shawn O'Neill

How about Feb 16th at a Town Center restaurant.  Before I set a location I want to check the date with those that have responded.  

Great responses so far!  I'm thinking of setting up the dinner towards the end of February/beginning of March.  I'm going to start reaching out to all of you to figure out a good central location.  As for the out of towners- I'd like to get with all of you too, though I may try to arrange smaller meetings so less coordination has to be done.  

 I'm originally from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, and that's where my 16 unit apartment building is located.   I've lived in Jacksonville FL for over six years now, and I've invested in a few single family homes here.  

I was hoping to get a group of people together who are looking at either residential multis or small commercial multis that could meet up for lunch or dinner sometime here in Jax.  The goal would be networking and knowledge exchange.  I don't have any products or properties to sell - this is more of a meet and greet for those in the area.  

It would be a month or so out just to make sure I can get the people together to make it worth everyone's time.  Please respond to this thread, and I'll start putting it together.  

I'm up in Virginia a few times a year, so if a few locals up there pick this thread up, send me your name.  Next time I'm in the area I can set something similar up.  

I actually read Multi-Family Millions this year too.  I would agree that the location doesn't matter much if the numbers work, but there is a caveat.  If the property is in the middle of nowhere and you have no other reason to go there except for visiting the property, then in my opinion you may be wasting opportunity.  In my situation I bought a property in my hometown so every time I visit home, I can write off some/all of the costs of the trip and get some facetime with the management company, all while getting quality time in with my family.  

I will say though - I have found so far that I have to monitor things very closely to make sure that expenses are tracked correctly, and that I get information I need about the property.  I relied a little too much on trust in the beginning.  

There has been alot of good advice given so far.  I'll add my conservative two cents.  

There is a great calculator that allows you to do a quick analysis of properties on the BP website.  It's called the rental property analyzer.  Make sure you are budgeting for vacancy similar to what other properties in the area are experiencing.  Also make sure you have a really good idea of the expenses you will be responsible for.  Do tenants pay water?  Trash? What about lawn care, pest control and general maintenance costs?  Property management? - make sure you budget for one just in case you decide to use one.  The owner job and manager job are very different.  It will cost you some money but you could go ahead and put offers in and get some inspections done.  You may end up not pursuing the deal, but it's better to blow some funds and find a problem big enough to make you walk from the property than go in with rose colored glasses and end up in a bad situation.  

I would look at the inspection report to see what kind of issues he/she finds.  If there are alot of issues you may be able to get the owner to add some time on the financing.  But at six units for only 58k, making the gross rents its making, I have to imagine that if you were able to get it under your control and fix the issues you could resell it for more.  It may have taken a while to find a lender but at least you did, so even if you can't sell easily I imagine you'd be able to pull some out when it's time to refi.  

I would worry more about the maintenance issues first, and make sure you have plenty of money set aside to deal with them.  

Congrats on the move, I've been in Jax for over five years and I love it here.  Househacking may be a great strategy for you, I looked online a few weeks back and there were plenty of smaller multifamily buildings available.  Be ready to pay up though, they are expensive for what you get.  Given you are willing to put some work in and fix the place up, you may be able to make the numbers work - and that would be my advice - make sure the numbers are going to work with a PM in place and you not living there.  It would be a tough situation if you were forced to move out and the building didn't cashflow well.  Also a point to consider, make sure that the project you take on isn't too big, you don't want to have to move in the middle of renovations you were planning on doing and then have contractors blow your DIY budget up.  

Ping me too, I may be able to help.  

Verify when and how tenants are paying rent.  Ask for his Schedule E that states how the property has performed.  

Looking at your financing, there's nothing special there, although if you plan to buy and hold this you may want to explore a longer fixed term.  Interest rates are more likely to increase than decrease over the next ten years.  

I would also strongly recommend verifying the rental market before purchase.  Understand who the competing properties are, where they are located, how they are different/similar to yours.  

Given that if you proceed you are basing a big decision on some shaky data, I would recommend that you have additional resources or financing as a backup in case things don't pan out 100%.  This could be priced reasonably because there are some very good reasons the owner wants to be done with it.  You may not fully understand those issues until they are yours to deal with.