All Forum Posts by: Moses Kagan

Front four units laid out like this, back two units are different.

All rehabbed to the same standard; we don't mess around!

Here are some pics of a six unit building rehabbed by my company, Adaptive Realty, in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Have been in lease-up for a week and half of them are gone already.

My $0.02: If you're going to partner, one of you has to be the decision-maker. You can split the economics 50-50 or however else you want. But one person needs to be the final word. That's literally the only way that I think a partnership can work over the long term. Otherwise, you will inevitably have disagreements that result in stalemates, which are disastrous for your business.

Recommend you speak with Bana Haffar at Adaptive Realty (my brokerage). Last time I checked, she'd represented more buyers of 1-4 unit properties in Boyle Heights than anyone else over the past few years. Can email her at bana [at] adaptiverealty [dot] com.

For now, I would not invest that $30k in real estate. Instead, invest in yourself: Get a brokerage license and learn about doing commercial deals (apartment buildings are generally the easiest, but you could consider office and retail also). 

The reasons I recommend commercial brokerage are: (1) the deal sizes are larger (meaning the commissions are larger, too); and (2) people who own commercial real estate very often own multiple properties and transact more often than people just buying a house to live in.

If you work hard, you ought to be able to get to $40-60k / year within two years. Along the way, you will (1) learn the market; and (2) meet lots of rich people interested in real estate. These are the two most important ingredients you need for moving into doing your own deals, which is what you should ultimately look to do.

Good luck!!

Not sure about OR, but in CA, the county needs to have at least the owner's name and address in order to send out property tax bills. This information is public record, so you can get it from the county assessor's office. (In CA, the MLS also has access to this data available online for members.)

Once you have the owner's name and mailing address, it's usually pretty easy to find a way to get in touch via googling / facebooking.

The best resource for learning about small lot deals is modative.com. That's an architecture firm that basically pioneered doing them... and they have some extremely useful pdf downloads that explain how the ordinance works and what sorts of lots work best.

I manage ~400 units in that area. It is conceivable that you would get $3k if everything is absolutely perfect (parking, w/d in unit, AC, hard wood, etc.). More likely you'll end up around $2500-2800.

Thought you might appreciate seeing before and after pics from Adaptive Realty's latest rehab project, a 5 unit apartment building in Highland Park, an up-and-coming neighborhood in LA.

Before exterior:

After exterior:

Before living room:

After living room:

Before bedroom:

After bedroom

The standard CAR purchase agreement is not assignable without seller's permission unless you have added language to that effect.

Here's how to handle: Get the potential assignee comfortable enough with the deal to be ready to go forward with no contingencies. Then, have a lawyer draft a document which does the following: assigns contract to assignee and removes assignee's contingencies, all conditional upon seller's approval. Have the latest draft a side agreement between assignor and assignee which spells out how / how much assignor will get paid by assignee if deal closes (don't show this one to Seller).

Seller will probably be OK with approving assignment if, in doing so, assignee simultaneously removes contingencies. That way, seller knows the deal is happening.

Hope this helps.