All Forum Posts by: Michael Pease

Yes, it's a great place to pick up some good contacts! I've been to several of them and they are helpful for beginners as well as experienced individuals. 

Welcome @Nate Armstrong I've seen some of your ads in the local area, I'm in Bettendorf which is next to Davenport IA. I'd love to speak with you sometime about potential deals in our market as well as others that you have targeted and what you used to determine which markets to pursue. I agree, lots of great information and people on this site!

Thanks Matt! Always good to hear of companies I've never used before!

I'm hoping this hits people who have the quad cities keywords pegged. (Bettendorf, Rock Island, Moline, Davenport).

I've been investing and managing properties in the Quad Cities for several years now (just over 6). I've been struggling for a while to maintain a good list of contractors that I can trust and rely on for everything from minor repairs to complete remodels. I've gone back and forth about hiring someone to maintain on my staff (so far my staff consists of just me) but I don't think i'm at that point yet with just 20 units.

I'm hoping some people can post here to help me out with some contractors that they have used in the past or have heard good things about. I'll list some below that I've used as a reference point. A lot of my repairs are appliances or plumbing but I'm also interested in having a good list of people for all aspects of rental property maintenance and renovation. I have an electrician that I trust and is affordable so that is about the only one I'm set on.

Crawford Co (plumbing) - expensive but reliable

TMI (little bit of everything) - also expensive and mostly reliable

QC Appliance Repair - not very reliable, will recommend fixing anything even if not worth the price

QC Honey Do - I've used them recently for a lot of my projects but they are very busy and I'm nervous they won't provide quality moving forward.

Fiers Plumbing - I have a horror story with these guys so I'm avoiding them

Dougs Heating - expensive but have never had issues with their wor

It is very successful in the Quad City marketplace which includes Davenport and Bettendorf. I have seen many people succeed doing it and have also been a cash investor in a couple of deals from a wholesaler. Competition is pretty steep and the people who "buy houses any condition" in our market our pretty common.

Samantha, I'd love to talk more, I have 20 units and am always looking for like minded people in the quad cities. 

@Matthew Pinkston, The strategy I'm referring to is allowing a multifamily property (4 or more units) to qualify as a residential property for property tax as opposed to the commercial rate which is close to double that of the residential rate. There is a legal structure available to allow for those apartments to be classified this way instead of as commercial and significantly lower the taxes. The state realized what was going on and is now "phasing out" the property tax loophole and in 7 years all multifamily properties will be taxed as residential. Right now the rollback on multi-residential is at 86.25% and that it will drop approximately 3.75% per year until 2022 when it matches the residential rollback.

This means if you correctly set up the structure, you are able to pay taxes of much less. For comparison sake, I bought an 8-plex recently that the owner had no idea of this strategy. He paid just under $9,000 in property taxes. By setting up a cooperative, the building is now taxed at nearly 50% of that $9,000 so I save roughly $4,500 in taxes per year. 

There is a lot more to it but if you look up or do some research on cooperatives in IA you can get an idea. There would be fees to set up and you'll want to consult your CPA about the filing requirements as they aren't simple either but you can save serious money if done right. 

It really makes sense on larger apartment complexes but benefit can be realized on even small ones like my 8-plex. I'd be happy to talk more about it with you, I'm a CPA and have done a cooperative personally, and accounted for others and been involved in the whole process.

As Paul will confirm, there are also tax strategies available in Iowa to help lower commercial property taxes. It is being phased out over seven more years but I've found that if you found a seller who is unaware of the roll back in taxes or that they can put structure in place to reduce commercial rate on multi-family to residential rates that you can buy a property and generate instant appreciated value based on the lower operating expense and higher sales value.

I think the Quad City (Davenport, Bettendorf, Rock Island, Moline) market is a great place for an investor to find some good deals.

What type of investment are you looking for? I've been active in the Davenport market for several years and it's been very strong for single family and apartment purchases and even flips.

I have a great electrician that I use for my projects and he works outside of normal hours. Let me know if you are looking for work like that.