All Forum Posts by: Tony Blaine

Hello my name is JT Burnside a licensed realtor from California now living in Las Vegas working on obtaining my brokers license. I would love to connect with like minded people that is striving for financial freedom thru real estate investing looking to do fix & flips here in Nevada.

Many, many good areas @Tony Blaine the whole crime thing is a large misnomer.  The crime is very concentrated in certain areas you simply avoid, unless you are Derrick Craig who seems to make the hood profitable.

Assuming safety items are good and your insurance company is happy  consider things that just look bad first whether they are critical or not.  Nasty landscaping, poor dumpster placement, parking that is poorly organized are a few things that may be easy to remedy and change the perception of the property. 

Also ,  ask your tenants.   It may seem obvious but people forget that what is important to you may not be their priority.  Raising rents is easier when they see a benefit to them.  do they want onsite laundry or better parking? Doing upgrades when tenants are in a unit is hard but it is something they remember. Try to find a way to reward good tenants by simple upgrades like replacing their appliances or making an improvement in their unit without a huge inconvenience.

We like to work from the outside in.  Without getting overly specific on the work, re-branding, re-landscaping goes a long way.  Once they see the changes/ new amenities it sets a revised image in the area then work through interior unit upgrades.

Like many have said, it's all about the comps.

Misunderstanding of CapEx. CapEx is to maintain or restore the original quality and nature of the property.

What you are talking about is Capital Improvements - so assuming that your property has no deferred maintenance or life/safety issues, then the best way to determine what improvements to make is to go visit and tour the property that has the highest rent in your market and compare that to your. I not saying to go look at comparable properties but those in your market that have the highest rent. 

Based on your findings, you can then set a budget. For example, if the best rents are say $100 a month more than your property, then if you did everything that the best property has, you could expect something close to $100 rent increase. Based on your financial situation, you can then decide how to spend your money.

Lastly, driving rents is an ongoing process and you should be always working on that with each lease turnover or renewal. But if your intent is to sell the property sooner than later, remember that income property is based on revenue. Consider the following: 

Installing a ceiling fan may cost you $200.00 and you may only get $10 a month more in rent. After one year, you still have not recovered your cost so you might decide that the improvement is not worth doing. HOWEVER, if you are selling the property, that additional $10 a month is equal to $120 a year in additional income. On a 10% capitalization rate, thats equals $1,200 additional value. I think most people would happily spend $200 to get $1,200.