All Forum Posts by: Cynthia Nina-Soto

I'm in Massachusetts and I'm looking for a good, reliable, accurate list provider that would help me identify pre-foreclosure properties.  Do you have a provider you would recommend?

@Mary J. My favorite over the years have been

MREI

MREA

Shift

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Flip

Conversion Code

E-Myth

Never Split the Difference

The One Thing

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Salem.

Purchase price: $503,000
Cash invested: $433,256

This property was originally a doctors office in a single family zoning. Currently the apartments are bringing in $5812/mos. The coin op laundry generates $300/mos and income from parking is another $650/mos. The property recently appraised at $1.4M and we have secured a $1M mortgage against it. Current monthly cash flow is $379 and my office is free. Assuming the office is rented to a 3rd party my expected cash flow would be $1579.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We wanted to stretch our abilities. This property had really good bones and is located less then a mile from downtown. We threw a BS offer thinking it wasn't going to stick and after a little back and forth we made it work.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

This was an MLS deal and I negotiated directly with the agent.

How did you finance this deal?

Cash purchase. Cash rehab.

How did you add value to the deal?

We converted an old doctors office into a mixed use building with one commercial office space and 3 residential rental units.

What was the outcome?

ZBA approved our plans. After almost a year of work all the residential units are rented and I have my own office less than a mile from home.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

We started the build out and hit lots of road blocks along the way. While we were waiting on the ZBA approval, which was a condition of our purchase, the city changed the building code book used and as such we now had to add sprinklers to the building. This created a domino effect which triggered lots of other code requirements. our rehab budget doubled as a result. Next time ask the building dpt. when they expect to change the code book.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I was the real estate broker on the other side :-)

Be sure to speak to a tenant / landlord rights attorney in your area.  In Massachusetts, regardless of what the lease says, you can't charge a late fee before 30 days. 

This link will take you directly to the MA Attorney General page where you can find more information about Landlord / Tenant rights in Massachusetts.
https://www.mass.gov/guides/the-attorney-generals-guide-to-landlord-and-tenant-rights

Does anyone know of any meet ups in the Boston area? I’m in Salem, MA and would love to attend some local area investor meet up.

Thank you @Dan K. Looking at what is selling in the area I'm coming up with an estimated sale price of $1.4M which then would give me a cap rate of 4.52% is that right? Then what we are looking for is a lower not higher cap rate?

My husband and I have been flipping single family homes North of Boston since 2015. This year we took a leap into what is now our largest project. We purchased an old doctors office, went before the zoning board and obtained the necessary approvals to convert this building into 3 residential rental units plus 1 commercial space. The building was purchased for $503k (cash) and the cost to bring the building to code and complete the residential units has us at an all in cost of $889k. Currently the 3 rental units have signed leases with rents totaling $5812/mos. I will be occupying the commercial space to use as my real estate brokerage. The market rent for that space is $2800/mos for which I will have a lease signed. The total operating cost for this building is $29500 however I'm budgeting for $40k as a precaution until we have a full year of actual numbers to go on. My husband now is considering selling and has asked me to figure out cap rate, ROI, etc and I am stuck. How do I figure out if it makes more sense for him to sell or to hold it? I swear the commercial world is so different than the residential world. Any guidance you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

Cynthia Nina-Soto

Here's a tip. Take the list you have purchased and have been mailing to. Upload that to your FB business page and create a look alike audience.

I'm a broker up here in the north shore. I can tell you multi families up here are through the roof. Just saw a 2 family in Lynn going for $500k with tents totaling $3100. In focusing my eyes for some multis out in the Lawrence area and surrounding towns and also looking down south. Parts of Brockton are good and Fall River has some good pockets also. Everything in Salem, Peabody, Beverly is very expensive.

Need help from all flippers and contractors here. I'm looking for an iPad app or software that allows me to design a room and also provide a list of all materials needed.  For example if I'm doing a gut rehab and I'm taking measurements for a bedroom I would like to know how much insulation, sheetrock, joint compound, trim, baseboard, paint, etc I should buy.  Do you know of anything like this?  Once I'm able to quickly generate a list it should be relatively easy for me to go to my preferred vendor and figure out exactly how much I'm spending in material but also how much I'm spending in each room of the house.