All Forum Posts by: Ron Rohrssen

@Parag D. I agree with @Kenneth Garrett. Use the a percentage rule as a guideline. It's a quick rule of thumb to see if a property is reasonably priced to cash flow as a rental. 

In my area, I use 1% for that quick test. Then, like Kenneth, I run the numbers using online information that includes comparable rents (Rentometer), current tax information, bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, and a judgement call on the appeal of the home from online photos.

If those seem workable, I'll schedule a viewing.

Remember, you're working a funnel. You might have 100 properties come across your desk in a week. 50 pass the 1% rule, 15 pass the high-level number evaluation, 10 make it to a viewing, and 1-3 result in offers.

Agree totally with @Robin Morales and @Jon Reed and others. Ideally you'd put some effort into understanding the scope of possibilities ahead of posting a wide open question here. Invest some time researching several different ways that you can invest in RE.

@Robin Morales you're in a great starting position. Don't rush into it.

BP has great resources in the podcasts and weekly webinars.

I'd recommend "The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down" by  Brandon Turner (https://www.biggerpockets.com/...) as a way to get a birds-eye view on lots of terminology and several strategies. (Hint: It isn't just buy a bargain on the MLS, rent it and hold on for 20 years.)

Learn to use the calculators on BP. That will help you think differently about prospective properties in your target area.

Hi @Gavin Kruse

Welcome to BP.

I'm also in the CR area.

Thanks @Abel.

I have used Calendly as well. It's very helpful. But, I don't recall an email follow up feature after an appointment.   I'll have to check that out. 

When you are marketing and showing available units, do you ask applicants for feedback? If so how?

For example, do you give them a paper questionnaire? Do you follow up with an email or phone call? Something else?

Some of the questions that I've posed to applicants include:

1. How does this compare to other homes that you're looking at?

2. Do you feel that the rent is a fair price for the home?

3. What would it take to make this home work for you?

Timing? Yeah. I would have expected difficulty renting in Winter and ease in summer time. But, my longest vacancy was in late Spring; exactly the peak time in my area.

It was 2 months on a condo in a family friendly neighborhood with great schools. It was fresh with new paint in most areas, and new to newer carpet; very clean and inviting. I was at market rent of 1250 and just coming of a prior tenant. To my surprise it took until mid-summer to get this rented and I dropped to $1150 with some incentives for quick action. I've got 7 years history on this one. I had the usual traffic amounting to 5-10 showings each week after screening interested parties on the phone. (It's amazing how many people ignore or miss "NO PETS" or "NO SMOKING" or even the amount of rent/utilities, etc.)

@Anthony Wick we were suffering that same winter about this time last year. I had a new acquisition to rent. That's one that I expected to sit on for a few month. To my surprise, it rented within a couple of weeks.

I generally agree with the prior posts about timing! But, the market is fickle.

I think I'll start another post on feedback from applicants. It's an area where people have really held back, and perhaps an area where I could do better.

@Anthony Wick I sympathize with you. It's been the same in this part of Iowa also. (re: getting outbid)

I've also "won" a couple of contracts in the last few months that I thought were going to work out well. But during due diligence phase, we had to back out. I'd like to grow more in this area.

Goals? I've got 100% occupancy. That should continue until at least June.

I'd like to close on 2 quadplexes this year.

@Jerry how is this working out? I'm curious on how your HOA interprets damage due to a clog in interior plumbing.

@Jerry I think a bit of communication with both would be in order. I'm assuming that you have a copy of the bylaws. If you do, read through them carefully. I've only read thoroughly through a couple of different association bylaws. They weren't done very well and had many pieces of the text that countermanded other parts of the document. It must be difficult for the association to know how to enforce them.

@Jerry About 2 years ago I went through an identical scenario with one of my condo units.

The short story is it depends on your bylaws and the circumstances.

In my case, my coverage and the HOA coverage happened to be with the same company.  It was the adjusters idea to review the bylaws. He reviewed the bylaws, along with his manager,  and even the main office. Everyone agreed the bylaws placed responsibility for the damage,  in these circumstances,  to the HOA.

I was very fortunate.  In my scenario the claim sure to the nature of the damage would have resulted in 3 separate claims with 3 deductibles.  It would have been thousands.

The HOA carried lower deductibles. So, it wasn't as much of an impact.