All Forum Posts by: Syed H.

Depends on your experience and risk level. Ive bought maybe 20 properties in the past year, I only had an inspection on 1 property. I only use them as a negotiation tool with private sellers on SFH flips.

If you are buying a renovated unit, many times an inspection will miss issues. They can’t see through walls. But they can notice signs of cutting corners and red flags that newbies might miss. If you are newer, I would definitely get an inspection. I personally don’t like buying renovated stuff for this reason, I’d rather renovate myself and know it is done properly. 

If everyone was like you, PMs would be beloved. Unfortunately you are truly the 1%. Especially in class B-D.

I love the way you do business . Your system is one of the few I’ve seen that are properly incentivized. Your landlords win = your win.  

Is that the norm? No. Is that what the sharks are looking for these days? Yes, depending on the market. 

There is so much uncertainty in the market right now, anyone paying pre-covid prices for investment property is insane. Most markets I'm in, have vastly diminished buyer pools. HML have increased their rates and lowered leverage & banks are too busy with PPP loans and haven't been lending much. Cash buyers & hairy deals are going to get a discount. I am still buying but my prices have dropped. I have successfully negotiated 10-20% discounts on properties in the past 2 months.

Now let me say I think PMs are good for people with a 9-5 or demanding full time.

But the logic in your argument doesn’t work for those of us who do this basically as a full time (or almost). It’s pointless to have a PM. 

Once you have the experience it’s not hard to get your maintenance done. Screening tenants is incredibly easy. & there are plenty of ways to make the overall job easier like a virtual assistant. Once you have scale you can hire your own employees to manage the day to day.

I can guarantee I run my properties better than any other PM in my market. I make more money, have higher rents throughout my units, and have a lower vacancy. I can confidently say that about my self and 2 other top owners in the area. 

So the cost of a PM, isn’t just their fee. it’s their fee + lost revenue from lower rents, higher vacancy, and higher maintenance cost. 

Problem is, a lot of realtors do it as a part time or side job. It's too easy to become one. Only a small percentage are really good at sales/marketing and do a lot of business. An even smaller percentage know both the retail side and REI side.

Also a lot of people have licenses but aren't technically doing deals. Even I have my RE license. I almost never use it because it would be stupid (rather give my brokers the commission so they bring me more deals). I only use it when I buy an REO and can get an easy commission from the bank.

Simple, bc selling costs money & some of us invest long term. 

Yes and no. 

I am buying still, but only for home run deals. I need a discount. Anyone paying the same prices as 3-6 months ago, doesn't know what they are doing. Buyers have dried up in many markets, financing costs have gone up, leverage has gone down, collections risks has skyrocketed; etc. If after calculating that all in the deal still makes sense, of course buy it. 

For a newbie though, I wouldn't touch this market with a 10 ft pole. 

Most do suck, but when you find the good ones, they are worth their weight in gold.

But breaking into a new market always takes time. You are a nobody in that market and until people know your track record, you will only get the realtors that have the scraps in your market. The good brokers have a ton of qualified buyers and need to know you are who you say you are. 

A LOT of people do this in NY/NJ. My educated guess from experience would say that there are more illegal units on LI than there are legal. 

Now most of the time, owners just get away with it. But you do not want to be the person who gets F**ked because of it. 

You can get sued by your township, my local townships do this, and you can have a major liability in various scenarios. The liability depends on the specific scenario, but you can get sued for a fire in an illegal apartment that didn't have correct means of egress. Your property insurance can deny your claims if they find out it was used as a multi. Etc Etc. Tons of scenarios there. I personally know a few people who have had these unlikely scenarios happen to them. 

Like someone else said it is a higher risk = Higher reward scenario. I would consider illegal MF's as basically not having property insurance. If you are willing to do that, good luck. 

"retire" @ 40 with a net worth over $20m. But for me at least, i'll never fully retire so i expect my net worth to be higher than that.