All Forum Posts by: Scott R.

Dallas Wins, Phoenix not too far behind, I believe Birmingham is losing people, not sure, these numbers are most recent yet kinda old.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/011671.html

Not sure when the next Census comes out, I believe next year?

should work if your spread is good enough, hml have high fees points and rates, gotta make enough to cover these cost and still sell for a profit. find a HML with no pre payment penalties and one who will actually close/fund. everyone and there moms a HML till you need the $$$$

where are you located blake?

Even with owner financing i dont really think its that great of a deal, just make sure it works for you. even at 10% (which is low for owner financing i think) it doesnt meet 2% or 50% rules, you'd probablly need to drop the price 20K and get owner financing to make it a deal, espec. if you plan to make money from this as far as wholesaleing it. Are your buyers landlords? seemed to me your buyers were more the rehab type of buyers? Duplex has alot fewer exit strategys,
-Scott

Quite a few members on the board do this, Eddie Z from California is one that pops into my head and good ol Rich. There is tons of positive and negative with this, just depends if it works for you or not. Eddie buys in decent areas where the cash flow is excellent, and has a ton of good contacts in that area, contractors and such. Rich buys in So. Texas where the economy is doing awesome, to each there own. I owned 2 rentals in Amarillo Tx when I lived in Arizona and they were nightmares, It wasnt a big enough opperation to build great relations with plumbers, carpet cleaners and such, and everything in the world cost me a ton, drain clogged, i had no choice but to call the plumber when it might of been a stupid easy to fix problem, got worked a few times im sure, including my drain replacement i think ended up costing me $5000+ but your at the mercy of what others tell you, unless you can just fly down there, in my case I couldnt, and it cost me alot. So I just moved here :) now I go to all my tenants calls myself and it saves me a ton, plus the make ready is TONS CHEAPER, and I can see the properties!
-Scott
Although now im here, im looking for a property or two in phoenix, got financing lined up in phoenix and not down here :(

Comps dont look great,
Hes a wholesaler and hasnt been able to sell it, probablly not a good thing.
Seems way over priced to me.
Duplex's dont appeal to owner occupants very often, and most of those comps are PROBABLLY owner occ, doesnt specify if there sfh or duplex, so i assume sfh.
As Chris said if he would owner finance it you could probablly sell it to a landlord and make some money on it, with the financing set in place, or keep it yourself.
-Scott

I think its more of a list you'd need to get from someone local, even better, create your own. Different areas have different prices, thats for sure. In my area, windows are probablly my biggest problem, the are I invest in is very old, and every window i replace theres some major dilema, and the price ends up always being a ton, special sizes, or tons of trim work required to get a newer standard size window to fit, $300 a window would probablly work in my area, but thats putting it in myself, and thats putting in just $80 windows from lowes, the rest would be extra materials needed to make the window fit and look alright.
I do think its important when your starting out to have a check off type list though so you dont miss things, pisses me off but over half my houses ive bought dont have hot water heaters in them, but somehow i never realize till the remodel, and im like damn wheres the hot water heater, seems like something so big you couldnt miss it, but im always worried about the little things, same with central air, awesome it has central air, better make sure the condensor it outside! my area they like to steal those type of things!
-Scott

Ever see the movie Animal House? lol
-Scott

Being the college age, most of my friends are looking to get out of the dorm life style and into off campus but close to college apartments. I think some of the stuff you talk about just isnt needed, 1000's of college students cross busy streets everyday, building a bridge for just 26 apartments just wouldnt be worth it and would provide probablly no additional income, if they even allowed it. Internet is a must for any college type living complex's, but with such a complex you almost NEVER have a tenant for longet then a year. almost always resulting in cost to make rent ready yearly. Most college style complex's I've seen are all amenties included, meaning you the landlord has additional cost, esp since college students never lived on there own, they dont turn off lights, keep the apartment super cold when its hot and super warm when its cold, why not, there not paying the bills. Internet is also normally provided, sometimes even cable.
I have a buddy In Tucson, Az with a small complex (think it was 6) very close to the University of Arizona, and he did super weird things in his lease, like limiting the amount of parties you can have per month and such, Theres alot of different aspects when renting to college kids who have never lived on there own and want to party and thats about it. Alot of the landlords in Tucson would do "dorm style" living where they put several kids in the same unit, and charge them so much each, which add up to ALOT more then they could rent the unit for normally, But then you have TONS more problems then when normal tenants, fights people who cant live together and want to move and such. tons of headaces.

Benefits I could see would be some parents will pay all 10 months of rent up front,
Negative being most college rentals are normally for 10 month periods, not including the summer.

Benefit being higher rent due to location
Negative being college kids due to location

College kids are rough on everything, partys and fights nightly, and not the type of tenants most investors want.

Location is KEY, possibility of selling the land and complex to the college for growth, selling to investor looking to use land to build bigger newer units and such. Although there are lots of positives to renting to students, there are lots of negatives.
Parking lot is probablly not needed as well at MOST college kids will have 1 car, probablly half living at such a close complex wont have one, probablly a waste to make that lot a parking lot.

I'd make sure its a huge university, and there are lots of out of state students attending. Most universities dont have close to enough housing, but in such a complex almost the only people who would be living there would be college students, so you wanna make sure theres students to rent the units.
-Scott

Have a buddy who has rehabbed several condemed properties and made money, but i think thats a pretty rare occurance. Problem is the city will ride your *** and EVERYTHING has to be brought up to code, and permits pulled for everything. Most people I know DO NOT pull permits for EVERYTHING, law or not. it just doesnt happen, they do it themselves or have day laborer type people do the work. This adds to your renovation cost significantly.
Not many people are willing to take on the project, so wholesaleing the property is going to be ALOT harder. basically you need to buy with the intentions of rehabbing it yourself.
I believe you have to go in front of the town concel and have a meeting with a panel to approve your rehab. Theres just lots of red tape that most investors dont want to deal with, time limits and such. plus if there bad enough to be condemed, normally they're in low class areas and need so much work you might actually lose money. It's weird to say in an area i love to invest in, the average house sells for maybe $40-50k, I buy at around $25k, but have passed on properties as low as $7k in the same areas.
-Scott