Need Expense Numbers for Durham

[Bryce Jamison]

Hey Everyone,

I read J Scott's awesome article about deal analysis a few days ago on here, and I've been crunching numbers every since.

I'm hoping some locals could give me a better idea of what numbers and percentages I should be using to calculate expenses. Specifically What property tax rate should I use, what's the insurance going to be, and what's the typical vacancy rate around here? I've seen 10% being used as a benchmark for maintenance, is that what most investors use and is that 10% of monthly rent. I've been using a mortgage calculator I found online to calculate that? Are those accurate?

To put this into my context, I'm looking at homes in the 50-100k range.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

[Michael Jobe]

Hey Bryce check out this link: http://www.deptofnumbers.com/rent/north-carolina/durham/

It's somewhat dated but will give you an idea of the housing trend for rentals around here. For taxes, plan on ~.80 cents per $100 of assessed value. Call around about the insurance as it will vary but you should be able to get quotes over the phone in minutes. If you need referrals for that just PM me. As for the maintenance, I've seen some investors not budget at all (unwise) for it and others put aside as much as 40-50% of their monthly rent. Again, those numbers will be dependent upon numerous other factors.