All Forum Posts by: Paul Bowers

I can't speak for the Syracuse market but be careful at that price point in Rochester.  There are some nice neighborhoods and literally two blacks away you go from C grade to D or worse.  You're not even safe to go by zip code.  Make sure you spend time doing your due diligence or that you're working with someone who knows the area extremely well and you trust.  I've lived in the Rochester area suburbs for the majority of my life and still I'm not comfortable enough to trust my judgement of each block in the city.

Nice! See you there. Same ownership or did someone new takeover?  

You may also have issues being allowed to build multifamily in a lot of neighborhoods.

@Jim Growfer that depends on a lot of factors.   What are you comfortable with?  What can you earn on other properties or other investments?  I may be fine with 10% in a nice b class neighborhood with little to no rehab/turnaround needed but I may want 20% or more in a C/D area that needs to be rehabbed, needs the gangs/junkies moved out etc...

Rochester is a very diverse area.  You mention crime rate.  Certain areas of the city are pretty bad but you also have Pittsford. Mendon, etc that have extremely low crime rates.  Both situations provide opportunity.

No maximum?

You mention cash flowing.  What do you mean by that?  I assume you won't buy a 4 million dollar property that cash flows $1,000 per month.  You should probably have a better idea of your minimum cap rate numbers as well as cash on cash return requirements.  

Do you have area restrictions?  Are you willing to go into war zones?  Are there cities/counties you're not willing to buy in?

Are you looking for turnkey properties or are you looking for a value add?

These are just a few that come to mind quickly

I would assume it's because everyone's mortgage payment will be different so it would render the cap rate number useless.  I may put 50% down and do a 30 year note.  You may put 10% down and do 15 years.  That generates a huge difference in payment so we'd come up with dramatically different cap rates based on all other numbers being the same.  By basing it on a cash purchase it comes out the same for everyone.  You obviously need to count the mortgage expense in your numbers but using cap rate gives you a way to compare properties with no mortgage cost variable.

@MelanieHartmann you mention closing on a deal in the next couple weeks.  If so, are you doing a double close?  How did you find the deal?

I've started mailing out some letters to owners from my driving for dollars efforts.  Does anyone have a spreadsheet or other free solution for tracking what was mailed, when, any response, etc... that you would recommend?