New investor with multi-family deal needs help

[Jason Moran]

Ok folks, I need some help here. The Property: 4-plex in south Texas with 2 bed 2bath units not affected by the hurricane in a C class neighborhood bordering new B class development that was flooded. The Deal: $250,000 purchase price with each unit currently renting at $800 a month. Water and electric are paid by the tenants. There is no HOA, or maintenance outside of landscape and a dumpster. Dumpster fee is $175/mo. Property Condition: Unable to inspect the property interior until an offer is accepted, but have been told it was updated last year (for whatever that's worth) and the exterior seems to be in moderate condition. Nothing major noted. New A/C outside and roof appears to have many years still on it. The Concern: Buyer is only accepting cash offers, will not allow walk through until the offer is accepted, and has listed this property multiple times in the past 4 years only to have the listing expire. The asking price has increased $60k over the 4 years and when asked about it the listing agent is very cryptic, just saying that they've only had lowball offers. I'm comfortable with the cash offer and can get the finance together for it. I think I like the cash flow situation so long as it is what I'm being told. I entered the numbers into the BP calculator and everything looks good. Sooooo.........what say you? What am I missing here? This just seems too good to be true.

[Drew Shirley]

$800 per month x 4 = $3,200/month x 12 = $38,400 per year gross potential rent.

The real question is going to be the expenses. Are expenses going to be 40%, 50%, or 60% of your gross revenues?

If your expenses are 50%, that's $19,200 NOI going in, 7.68% cap rate.

If you put $50k down and finance the other $200k, your cost of capital is about $12,000 if your loan is 4.4% over 30 years.

So $7,200 cash flow on a $50,000 investment, that's 14.4% cash on cash. Pretty good. 

If your expenses are 60% though, that's $15,360 NOI or a 6.14% cap rate, and cash flow is $3,360 per year.

That's 6.72% cash on cash and it's starting to look awfully thin.

Be sure you are budgeting for every possible expense, including the increased property taxes when you buy it AND capital expenditures! You don't want negative cash flow. Ever.