All Forum Posts by: Rafael Floresta

Bump!

Our February meeting will cover how to effectively run a rehab, and manage contractors. We will have a panel with 4 local house flippers, who will share their knowledge and process on how to get the job done on time and on a budget.

Topics and speakers:

Steve Seymour - Planning the rehab process, outline your rehab before you start.

Peter Todd-Burke - How to estimate accurately and how to estimate for your subcontractors.

Michael Harney - How to build and maintain relationships with contractors. Keeping them competitive on pricing and being their priority clients.

Brian McGroarty - How to systematize and oversee your rehab budget and timeline from your computer. 

RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/delcopropertyinvestors-pa/events/227329259/

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1523637357965916

delcopropertyinvestors.com

First time is free, then $15 for each meeting. Memberships are available with a discount on the admission.

Sign up at:

http://www.meetup.com/delcopropertyinvestors-pa/events/226604968/

Lee Stivale is a seasoned attorney, and Tom Noden is a 25 year veteran landlord and Bill Becker is an investor, teacher and consultant on real estate issues. Together they will teach what options you have and how to collect on Money Judgments.

Lee Stivale practices extensively in the areas of Real Estate Development and Zoning; Commercial Business Law involving business dispositions, acquisitions and financing of real estate, commercial leases and business organization and planning. He also represents clients in general civil litigation involving tax assessment appeals, fair housing issues and municipal law. He is a director and member of several landlord associations in eastern Pennsylvania, and lectures on Landlord and Tenant issues. Mr. Stivale is currently the Vice Chair in Pennsylvania Residential Owners Association, a statewide landlord organization.

Tom Noden started investing in real estate in 1989, investing in rentals, single family homes and duplexes. He found his niche in SFH. By 1999 he became licensed in Pennsylvania and by 2008 in Delaware. Tom does his own property management and over the years has levied cars, bank accounts and personal property.

William G. Becker For nearly 25 years, Mr. Becker has taught or consulted with well over 20,000 students in the real estate investment field and personal development. Presently, he continues his own active real estate investing, and he provides his services as a coach, consultant, and mentor. Mr. Becker is a much sought after “Key Note Speaker” and lecturer at various corporations and companies throughout the US and Europe. 

I've been looking for more info from real customers from home union. I think the normal consensus is that the cost is not worth the benefit. 

Yeah, those look on the expensive side. You might be getting quoted SR-3 instead of SR-1. I take more risk, but I like the lower cost. I only do cash value now. Especially for lower price point houses, I know I will never truly rebuild, and I know that for any partial damage I will have to bring in the adjuster anyways... 

For a SFH that is worth 115k, I have a policy for 445 and one for 550. They are almost the same, just different address and a little bit more square footage.

I am wondering why you put Olney up there with those other areas. You picked areas that are on the edge of getting gentrified, and some already gentrified, but I don't think Olney fits that criteria. 

I keep tabs on Olney, despite the fact I cant tell you what cap rate Olney gives. I don't own anything there, but I almost bought a couple SFH there.

@Steve Babiak Ooops I forgot about that. Thanks for keeping my facts straight.

Hey @James Masotti I am also looking for a referral. Can you forward it to me as well? Thank you!

A electric heat pump with forced air will be the most efficient in energy use, but it might cost you too much to justify installing it. Your rent is too low to invest any sizable purchase, like adding ducts, gas service and a new heater to the house. 

If you are talking about putting wraps on the windows, I am assuming your windows are single pane, and if so, I am going to jump to a conclusion that the house is old and poorly insulated. Being a row home helps, because they loose less heat, since they have less exterior walls to loose heat. 

Your best bet is to stick to it this winter, and get an accurate reading of how much it really cost you to run the heating before you commit to do any big purchases. 

If you are renting rooms a week of the time, you will always be responsable for heat, and that will be one of your major expenses. People will crank the heat to the max and open the window because it is too hot. People are just that dumb sometimes. 

If you do decide to go with gas, peco will do a rebate/discount of the installation cost based on your usage. Lets say they determine you will use 1500 of gas over 2-3 years (not sure the exact number of years they use). To bring gas into the house is about 2500, if they have service already to the street. They will pay for 1500 for future use of gas and you have to pay the difference, in this case 1000 bucks. Then you still need to pay for the ducts and heater, and I would ball park that around 4-5k for a 2 floors, 3 bedrooms row home. If you go with a heat pump, it might cost you about the same, but you will also have AC in the summer. In your case, which you pay for heat and cooling, it might be a downside. I would never provide AC on my $$.

Good luck!

@Nathan Waters I am also trying to bootstrap a PM company. Let me just drop my two cents about appfolio; I signed up and started going through the implementation phase, and pulled the plug on it because it wouldnt work for me. 

Here is what I found out: 

1- Check if everything will work as you expect for you before you sign up. You are not signing up for a software, you are signing up for a system that will change how you operate. Make sure to take your time and learn as much as possible. You will need to adapt to follow the software, don't expect vice versa.

2- We do a lot of rehabs, and a lot of our expenses that come out of credit cards and bank accounts directly. Their accounting system is not great for someone that has a lot of transactions. You must reconcile your bank account/credit cards statements manually. If you have a bookkeeper and is OK taking that extra cost, it works, but for me, I want it just like Quickbooks, where I download and tag the transactions and done.

3- I found that their online leasing workflow to be top notch. The fact I can have the tenants sign leases online was really cool. Saved a lot of back and forth and driving to the properties. I've heard screening is good too, but I didnt use it.

4- If you are going to use it, you need to use it 100%. It wont be as effective if you skip using parts of it. 

5- Their system is complicated, since it has to accommodate a lot of sizes of companies, and types of companies. From apartment complexes to owner operated PM's.

6- Their implementation people are VERY helpful. I didnt get to use their support, but the implementation people were on top of it. If you decide to sign up at a later time, they will hold your hand through the transition. It wont be easy but it will work. 

7- They emailed all my tenants without my permission, asking them to sign up for their portal. I asked them not to, but something went wrong and they did not disable that automated email. 

8- Be careful too. If you sign up and later decide that it wasnt what you wanted, they will want to keep 1/2 of your commitment. I signed up for a year, because I really thought it would be such a home run. When I decided to pull the plug, they wanted to keep my $400 and half of a year's worth of fees. That is $1600! After a little push back they refunded my $400 dollars and didnt charge me. But beware. 

Oops, that was more like 8 cents.... :) Dont get me wrong, I think they are probably the best out there, but dont just sign up without checking it out first. I like buildium where you can at least get some hands on preview of the system.