All Forum Posts by: AJ Romero

One of the investors in my local REIA is looking to retire and is looking to sell couple of neighboring four-plexes in a decent area of town (across the street from an elementary school) sometime next year. I am just starting out and wanted to focus on single-family homes because it is still possible to get them at a good discount here and the rental market is pretty tight, but these buildings piqued my interest.

The buildings are well-kept and on adjacent lots, bringing in $2050 and $2150 gross monthly, respectively. They've owned one building since 1977 and the other since 1994. Their tenants seem to stay quite a while - 7 years on average and those people are in month-to-month tenancies. The only expenses she said they had are :

"water ($120 - $160 monthly per building), trash (shared dumpster), insurance,taxes, yard clean-up and maintenance as needed. The back-flow preventers have been installed on each property are require an annual inspection which costs $50 each."

Of course I would like to to open up some discussion/negotiations with her but am not sure where to start. She hasn't given me an asking price yet - but I still need to figure out on my end the most I would be willing to pay. What do I need to ask for? I am assuming I will need Schedule E's, rent rolls, utility bills etc. - but since I am new to town and look pretty young people seem to be skeptical up front when I start digging for information. I am by far one of the youngest members of my REIA but our family is financially stable and has $$ to invest!!

My husband and I just closed on our first rental SFH today ... Yay!! We are now working to get it rent-ready...and one of the things that came up was a giant tree in the front yard whose root has completely buckled up the sidewalk in front of the house. I have no problem chopping down that tree before it destroys all of the sewer lines to the house but what the heck needs to be done with the sidewalk? Do I have to call the city? If so, who pays for this repair? If someone tripped and fell out there could they sue us?

Thanks for any feedback,

AJ

@Nicholas Dick - Welcome!! Nice to see another newbie from Southern CO!! My husband and I are just getting started down here in Pueblo starting with single families but the plan is to acquire more multifamilies once single families become less attractive to us.

Have you joined a local apartment association yet? I just joined SCRRA (Southern Colorado Residential Rental Association) a couple of months ago and there were a couple of big time landlords from Springs. Good luck with the learning process!

Thanks so much for the feedback! No it doesn't sound very attractive. I did think of subject to because I have read about it but never seen in practice. If there was an "easy" way to be able to rent out the basement separately it might make it more attractive but again I haven't yet seen the house so I don't even know if this is possible. I think I might suggest the rent-to-own thing for now and hope that she finds a better tenant/prospective buyer.

I have a friend with a SFH built in 1900 that she and her husband bought 7 years ago for 107K and completely remodeled, landscaped, the works. Her husband recently got a new job 2 -1/2 hours away and due to the neighborhood and slower sales market here they were forced to rent it out. Needless to say their first year of experience as "unexpected landlords" has jaded them (renter wrecked the place and skipped out leaving them with 2 weeks of work and $5000 worth of repairs).

They owe 97K on the house, payments are $760/mo and were getting $1075/mo in rent. She knows I'm interested in SFH for rental and I've agreed to take a look at the house, but I'm pretty sure her house doesn't meet the parameters that I'm looking for. It's not in my target ZIP codes and they owe more than the house is worth and I'm looking to purchase homes with at least 20% equity. I want to give her some ideas, but not sure what to do...should she keep renting it out, perhaps do a rent-to-own deal (popular out here), or even a short sale? Pros/cons to each approach?

Thanks for your help!

My husband and I have made the decision to start purchasing nice SFH rentals in our area to eventually fund our retirement. I haven't yet figured out how we are going to advertise to family and friends, but during a recent Facebook discussion, it came up that a friend who has moved out of town wants out of her house that she is now renting out due to an inability to get their desired sale price. I don't know the particulars of the property or the numbers she expects -- just want to know how to approach her about possibly making a deal.

Hey there!

My husband and I just went under contract on a nice little SF HUD home in a good area that we plan to clean up and rent on a long-term basis. This is our first "intended" RE investment purchase and I'm not sure what to do now.

Here are the details - it's a 5bd 3ba ranch style home with a full basement and 1-car garage. The purchase price for the house was 85k (cash purchase) and we can realistically expect 1100 - 1200/mo in rent. I know it's not the 2% rule, but the projected numbers for the financing we expect to get definitely make it better than the nightmare of our "accidental investments". While under contract I know there isn't much we can do with actual improvements to the property so I am curious about what procedures experienced investors follow now to maximize productivity and minimize cost?

Thanks!!