All Forum Posts by: Paul DeSilva

@John Collins IMO if there will be a long term decline in any real estate in NYC it will be commercial and not residential. Google and many other big players in the NYC market have already said they will be cutting back on office space and keep employees working from home. That being said I think that NYC and the surrounding areas will remain one of the strongest major markets in the world.

@Mary Mitchell I agree, most tenants are good, honest, hard working people who take pride in their homes and pay their bills but you really have to screen potential tenants extremely diligently. Several of our tenants are making more money now than ever (overtime or stimulus/ extra unemployment money) and have paid up several months in advance. Others that are struggling we are working with and none have missed a payment yet. (Knock on wood) Also we are at 100% occupancy and making offer's every week!

What's up BP,

For a while I was using the app ACR that Mike Butler recommended in Landlording on Autopilot, it worked great and then not so much. Does anyone use an call recording App that they would recommend?

-TIA

@Ivan Loza I'm dealing with the same situation with two tenants we evicted this week. Both of my attorneys and several colleagues have said that it is nearly impossible to recoup any monies owed(approximately 11k in our case). Chalk it up to experience and write it off as losses.

@Jesse Bull We've combined two tax lots in Ulster county and I reduced the tax bill significantly.

@Miles Stanley We've been using lifeproof ridged core vinyl in a few of our rentals and its been nothing but good to us, durable, low maintenance, attractive, easy to clean. That being said we have not had as much luck with existing tile, it's expensive to repair, it cracks, grout is hard to keep clean, and it can be very slippery.

@Tony Kim We also have problems with flakey potential tenants. It seems that they have no concern for anybody else's time. That being said we screen them by phone to make sure they meet all of our requirements before ever scheduling any showings. If they do meet the requirements we schedule showings in blocks for a few reasons, 1. To be most efficient with our time spent at property. 2. If a few out of the bunch are no shows we still are able to show the others instead of waiting around for people to show up. 3. It creates a competitive environment and we have had really good results from this method.

@Nathan G. Currently reading "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek and listening to "Stillness is the Key" by Ryan Holliday. Thanks everyone for all these great recommendations. Personal goal is to read/listen to 50 books in 2020.

Hey BP,

Just wondering what everyone's preferred method of recording calls with tenants is? I used to use ACR (recommended in Landlording on Autopilot by Mike Butler) but that has stopped working for me and the past few apps I have tried have not been impresssive. Does anyone use an inline recorder or can anyone recommend an APP (paid version or free)?

Happy Holidays!

Thanks,

@jaysen medhurst Thanks for taking a look! Really valid points. just to clarify a few things.

1. We are currently self managing and plan on doing so for a while. That being said I realize that we should plan for the worst case scenario.

2. This property is serviced by well and septic not town water and sewer, so we are budgeting $30 per month just for things like a septic pumping out which is about $300 and doesn't necessarily have to be done every year. Maybe the well pump goes bad (it was replaced a few years ago along with the electric wiring that goes to it.

3. A landlord meter that has power in the basement/boiler room on it and some outdoor lighting.

4. We spoke to 3 different local portfolio lenders and the best offer we have is a 30 year amortization, 80% LTV, 5yr ARM non ballooning, just rate reset and 4.625% for the first five years then prime plus 1%, with a free commercial appraisal and 0.5% origination fees.

5. During the initial walk through we noticed mostly cosmetic fixes for now, several units have been rented over 10 years with the same tenants, these units will need updating but it sounds like the tenants will be there for a while, the units that have had turnovers in the past few years have all been updated, new fixtures, floors and such. The mechanical systems are mostly new in the past few years, the roofs are new in the past few years. That being said we will find out much more with the inspection report and re budget or negotiate down. 

The buildings are all on the same property and consist of a 5 unit wood frame building, a four unit wood frame building and a mobile home. 

We will consider to put in shared laundry at a later date. We say this because there is an old foundation on the property that the current owner said that the town will grandfather in a building that could possibly be more rentals with an attached Laundromat. We have not done our due diligence on this yet and don't know if the systems can support another building/laundry but there seems to be some possible potential there. Also the owner says that there is tons of great top soil in the back of the 7 acres that could possibly have potential (not making a decision because of these items).

There may be some room for bumps in rent but I don't want to scare away any long term tenants and we ran the property both ways, actual and pro forma and it meets our credintials in both scenarios.

Septic systems scare me also but they are a reality where we invest. On another property we just had one back up and overflow because some one was flushing swiffer sheets down the toilet. That was fun!

Thanks again for the response.