All Forum Posts by: Shane H.

There's not much if anything going on in this small town and virtually nothing going on anywhere around it.  I'm sure the pool of investors who might be interested there is extremely limited to a handful of locals.

Has your MIL tried contacting the Local Chamber or visiting with the local officials or the local bankers?  If she's going to get a lead for a buyer it will more than likely be that way.  Just an educated guess based on having lived in a town or two nearly this small and interacting with folks in towns this small regularly.  No one is going to intentionally look for this property.  

State Bank of Delphos, Bennington State Bank or Ottawa County bank would be where I'd make phone calls or appearances at first along with the local government in Minneapolis.  Someone will have a lead, it will just take a hello and a personal visit to crack the small town veil.

This has been a Godsend - no more constant borderline spam popping up on the keyword alerts by having the capability to block said users.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Jay Shaw

I only take care of 4 properties at this point, however have used Buildium since 2010.  HIGHLY recommend it.  I also foresee them adding quickbooks integration which I think a lot of folks have asked for in the very near future.  Just an educated guess on my part.

Background checks, free website, online applications, easy to advertise vacancies, accounting etc....If you use all of the features Buildium has to offer it will save you time and make you more efficient.  Just takes some time and a serious commitment on the front end to get set up  - however once you do, makes your life easier.

@Jenny Pennock

What part of town is your duplex in?  I've never worked with Section 8 so can not give first hand experience with it, other than I have refused to accept it.  I'm sure if you call down to the city or county office that administers the program they'd be able to give you the guidelines/stipulations should you decide to accept it.  I'd still run a background/credit check on the tenant...if you do not have a way to do so I believe Eviction 1 can do so for you at a reasonable cost.  Just google Eviction One Inc and it will come up - it's part of an office associated with a Real Estate attorney here in town.  (Toomey-Pilgreen)

@Justin Bocchino

One thing to keep in mind in particular regarding KS (I'd assume you'd probably look at Wichita or KC if considering the Jayhawk state) is we have very little price appreciation compared to other parts of the country. So when running your numbers I'd figure very little appreciation - maybe 1-2% to be conservative. I believe that would be about the average for the Wichita market - thinking I've seen a stat similar to that on Wichita States Center for RE site or the South Central KS MLS site. KC's might be slightly different but I'd doubt not by much. The positive to very little price appreciation is we tend to have very little price swings and a lower chance for a large depreciation in value.

I personally like duplexes, but it's pretty hard to find decent ones.  Found a builder locally who can do new builds and builds them well for $300k, thinking the only way to get a good deal is to buy in scale from him - say 4-5 duplexes vs just one and if doing that I'm pretty sure I could cut the cost in some areas by having other contractors come in and complete some work or utilize local suppliers I have connections with.  I've been mulling selling the old duplex I have and trading up, but that would just barely get me into two new duplexes.  Have some decisions to make for 2016.

Do you have an amount you're willing to invest- that might help you narrow the markets even more.  Finding good management would also present another challenge...one that I'm sure could be overcome but one I'd think would be wise to invest serious time performing due diligence.

Welcome @Justin Bocchino

Greetings from KS -- what types of investments are you wanting to get into -- Single family, duplex, tri, quad, apartments etc?  Have you narrowed that down yet?  

 Ok - will give that a try - must have completely overlooked that.

I've got a few keywords set, some for the cities surrounding me.  One thing I've noticed is a few folks must have the same "City" keyword alert as well....they consistently post the same regurgitated reply to anyone asking about said city.

Is there a way to block this person or persons response when they use said City in their reply to the topic from popping up as a keyword alert?

Hope my question and scenario make sense.  Maybe there's an alternate way to do this however I've overlooked it.

@John Henderson

I'm not sure that would be a good idea...are you talking about doing this with single family homes? Think you'd be creating more problems for yourself than it's worth...there already is a successful similar model (2909 Oliver Apts) that does this and they have plenty of amenities to make "dorm like" living appealing.  Any house close to WSU is not going to offer this unless you build it or purchase one of the large estate homes near 21st/Oliver on around the pond.

@Jonathan Boek

Welcome from Middle America