All Forum Posts by: Sam K.

Matt, Depends on the area of Milwaukee , age of building and a few extra variables. If he paid 315k in 2005 for the sake of argument I am ruling out north and northwestern neighborhoods of Milwaukee. If you do a little research on recent solds you will see a number of the type of buildings changing hands at 190-230 k in solid working class neighborhoods. I would not get hung up on his cash flow numbers and do your own math. With Milwaukee property taxes it is hard to run a multifamily at less than 60 % expenses. So your math is right on , cap rate will depend on neighborhood and seller motivation. City assessed values are just that, if you believe otherwise I have a few buildings I am willing to let go for 20% less than assessments :) Light hearted comments aside a lot of it will depend on condition of property etc. Since you are new highly recommend to go take a look at this one and go on the MLS , talk to brokerS and take a look at several similar properties and compare numbers to arrive at an offer you are comfortable with. Best of luck !

Could not agree more. Especially if you are in the lower income neighborhoods. I recently renovated a triplex with 2 x 1 br and one 3 br. Guess which ones filled first !

J Scott can you recommend anyone you have used for interior drain tile before. Need to get this done in a rental but dread looking for a contractor after my latest saga. Please PM if you prefer to posting.

If you have room in the attic you could furnace and ducting into that space with duct openings in ceiling. Not the most energy efficient but should be better than all electric. Have done this successfully to a 3 bedroom upper in Wisconsin.

For whatever it is worth from a relatively new investor with seven doors in three buildings it would be very hard or a zero profit scenario if you only relied on property management companies from afar. I have a property management company but plenty of situations arise which need intervention for smaller properties. I am in the 2-4 unit arena may be different for 12+ units but smaller than that and I find I could not be profitable from afar with by and hold. May be with buildings 20 years or younger but questionable. Welcome others thoughts and experiences on this as well.

As painful it is to have a property sitting empty it is even more painful to evict, clean and remarket. This is the first sign of a financially weak tenant. Recommend to move on without spending anymore time or thought.

Unfortunately got all too familiar with process in my area, but have no idea about yours. However, chances are this is a hypothetical question in most of the country as you can be assured that the process will take a minimum of 3-4 weeks at which time you will be able to deduct full month's rent. Don't sweat it it is part of the business. Hope you will have your unit back with no damage soon. -Sam

For the amount and rate you are looking for you could also go the crowdfunding route such as Prosper etc. if you have decent to good credit. They go as long as 5 years and I have seen ( and was part of funding) quite a few for fixing and improving houses fir the max amount of 25k. Best of luck! --Sam

Thank you for the welcome and pointers.

@Andy Luick Good suggestions on the REI group and may be doing the leasing myself (or at least augmenting the effort). Though I 'd much prefer it outsourced as my job is taking too much time away. Will have to talk to as many investors as possible and do a much more careful screening for the next one. .And to add to your points on a good property manager from recent experience, the last three months would have easily allowed me to pay my property manager double...and still counting !

@Dawn Anastasi is right the percentage will never include maintenance, but most management companies will have some of their internal staff to do the jobs and bill you. I personally do not mind paying some premium for those as it saves me a lot of time but get very angry when I see premium price, slow or bad execution. The latter is what I will be concentrating on with my next property manager.

Hope to meet some of you in person at the next meetup.

--Sam

Hello fellow investors in the Milwaukee area. Have been active as a landlord for 2 years with 7 doors. Just as I am getting ready to grow further, running into a bunch of problems with property manager.

Units at or below market not rented for 3 months, while every time I test market to check response I have 6-7 calls in a half day. Units are comparable to others in neighborhood. Non returned phone calls, a simple cleanout after tenant move taking 2.5 weeks etc. etc. the list goes on.

Seriously considering a change in mgmt no matter how painful. Any long term Milwaukee investors out there willing to share pointer to an investor friendly and reasonable property management company ?

Thanks,

--Sam K