All Forum Posts by: Carol W.

@John D.  I think you are talking about lacquer kitchen cabinets.  I like the look too for rentals and considered using it when I renovated my rental unit recently.  It is durable and easy to maintain.  I heard a lot of good things about Ikea's cabinets too, and would like to suggest that you use someone that has experience install IKEA cabinets specifically because they are built different from traditional cabinets.

As far as the countertop, I chose quartz and a grey color quartz to be exact, because they are the best to hide imperfections.  Quartz is the toughest material, even more than granite because of the high density of the stone.  You can buy them at a very reasonable price if you get it from a Chinese supplier, but the quality really varies, so be sure to work with someone reputable.  I was in the stone business for years and know how the prices and quality can vary widely.

Hope this helps.

carol

http://www.beimeigoufang.com, and http://www.meifang8.com.

In my opinion, none of them have done as good a job as zillow or realtor.com, in terms of how easy it is to navigate their sites and how comprehensive of listings they have.

@Camille Joos-Visconti I think if you become someone's colleague on BP, you can send a direct message.

To answer your question, I spent $50k on remodeling the entire 2-bdm apartment, including new sheet rocks, ceiling, paint, kitchen cabinet, countertops+all new appliances, new flooring, new bathroom, re-finished all doors, new recessed lights....but I learned that I could save money on hiring a good GC, instead of negotiating with individual sub contractors myself. Another advantage to using one GC with a sizable project is when something goes wrong after the remodel, you can go back to the GC instead of trying to figure out whose mistake it was, because I learned that most of them would just try to blame the others for the problem.  Also, I would use middle of the line quality materials, instead going high end on rentals, like I did.  Lastly, add upgrades that will increase your rent, not ones that will just make the place look better.  For example, I used the money on adding more kitchen cabinet+a dish washer, instead of adding a tiny window above the sink to make the kitchen prettier.

@Carlos Mendez Roca I renovated the unit from top to bottom, it was an expensive renovation and I have learned where I could have saved money next time.  I would be more than happy to share the details with you if you send me a message.

@Amos M. 

My biggest motivation to renovate the unit and raise rent as much as possible is not only to get a higher cash flow, but also to increase the property value so I can get cash out to purchase another property.  My equity was at $300k with the initial down payment, but after the renovation & rent increases, I now have $375k in equity + $170k cash out to invest.

If I can find another property that yields higher return than the 4.875% interest that I am paying for my new mortgage, then I am making my money work harder. 

So, I think my thoughts would be 1) if you want to get cash out to invest/pay off higher debts, and 2) whether you would be able to increase enough equity to get the cash out you need.

Hope this helps.  Best of luck!

@Chris Jones.  I only offered a month's rent plus their moving cost to the tenants to motivate them to move out.

@Radhika M. Thx!  Yes, I am managing the property myself right now, so that I can learn the in's and out's of being a landlord.  And yes, the property is very close to where I live, which makes it very convenient to check on it often.

Hi fellow members,

I closed on a 4-plex six months ago, with three units occupied and one unit vacant.  Rented out the vacant unit at market price ($2700) on the weekend after closing.  I also submitted application for rent increases on all three occupied units to the maximum rent schedules, which gave me a total increase of $865/month.  Upgrades to property: new windows, exterior paint, new laundry room, hot water boilers, landscaping, total cost: $50k.  Offered cash to  all three existing tenants to move out, and one of them accepted and moved out on the 4th month.  I spent one month and another $50k fixing up the apartment, and increased the rent from $1743 to $2800.  Total rent increase since purchase: $4622/month.  Immediately after I made my 6th mortgage payment, I applied for a cash-out refi with the same mortgage broker that got me the purchase loan, and am closing on the refi with a 0.125% higher interest with a $170k cash out this week.

The original purchase price was $920k, with $300 down.

Total cash invested=$300+$100=$400k, 

COC before refi: $35,280/$400,000=8.82%

Current appraised value=$1.175m, new loan=$800k, cash out amount=$170k

Total equity gain=$75k, 

COC after refi: $24,080/$230,000=10.47%

I am a rookie investor, and would love to hear any comments/questions on my deal and/ the calculations.  

Thanks for reading!