All Forum Posts by: Alex Uman

@Daniel Smyth I suppose that only works if each of the rooms are separately metered. In the two houses I rented back at school they were simply 4bd/2bth homes with one meter. In the first house we lived in we paid $750/room with utilities included (wifi, heat, electric, water, etc.). That house also came with furnishings such as couches and beds. The second house we rented was a year long lease from July 1st to June 31st paying $630/mo. We had to pay all utilities except for water and the house only came with 4 bed frames, a small couch and a small dining room table. We had to supply all mattresses and split the utilities evenly between the four of us. I'll mention that lawn mowing and city trash collection were included in our rent. Our deposits covered the entire house, our rooms included and we had to fight pretty hard to get the majority of them back from our second landlord.

That being said, Winston-Salem is essentially a small suburban town in comparison to most bigger college cities, especially in the area that the university was located. My girlfriend and other students living in the more common cookie-cutter newer build 4bd/4bths I mentioned, paid anywhere from $800-$1000/mo for their own bathroom, mattress and utilities included. Most landlords for these homes didn't want to have to worry about separately metering these properties nor having utilities shut off for students forgetting to pay a month.

I'm sure my experience at a small school of only 5400 undergrads (of which less than a quarter live off campus) differs highly from the common experience of those renting and living off campus at larger schools. Figured I would at least provide my experience as many investors I know have targeted such specific areas to reap higher rents from students with parents paying for them.

@Forrest Hayashi to my knowledge it would be based off of the last assessment value if you sell it to your LLC for less than that previous assessment (typically dollar deeding it).

For scalability why not go with 30 year mortgages on both, tie up less cash and buy more? Why is your strategy so debt-averse? Or, on the flipside, get something all cash you can rehab and then refinance for a higher value down the road and pull more cash out of.

@Dave Poeppelmeier They have a running list of "approved student off-campus housing". Students need to register their off campus address with the school in order to be allowed to live off campus. They often allow exceptions for students who still live locally at home with parents. Trust me, I was not a big fan of this arrangement and was able to get out of their 3 year on-campus housing requirement when I returned from my semester abroad. Still had to live in a WFU approved house.

Various developers local to the campus have cut deals with the school to build cookie cutter student rentals (4bd/4.5bth new builds) and rent them out to seniors. Other than those it is difficult for local investors to get approval from the school without owning 4-6 doors in the direct vicinity of the main campus and for now only seniors are allowed to live off campus. As the school continues to grow I could see this changing, though the administration has expressed interest in making on campus living mandatory for all students.

In terms of legal grounds, I don't believe they have any and I don't think they should have the right to require students to live on campus (at a higher rent cost might I add).

@Chad C. for properties outside of Philadelphia county with lower assessed values it could be worth the expense but all depends on when it was last assessed. I've often advised investors to consider this before closing on a deal in their personal name as title will need a couple days to do a bringdown before closing.

@Rick Novotny here in PA moving a deed from a personal name to an LLC can end up being a costly process. For every transfer of title, the county and state impose a transfer tax (PA is a flat 1%, Philadelphia charges 3.28% on top of that, other counties often an additional 1%). Even if you dollar deed the property from one's personal name into an LLC, the govt will charge the transfer tax off of the assessed value of the property. For multis with higher assessed values this can end up costing $10k+ simply to move the deed into an entity's name.

I suppose a potential way around this would be to have the rents paid to the LLC for management but as @Kevin M. mentioned the deed would still be in your personal name.

From my experiences renting houses in my college town, typically the landlord either includes the cost of utilities in the individual rents or one of the student tenants will take on the bill and Venmo request the splits between the other tenants. At Wake Forest the different investment companies had to get their homes approved with the school before they could rent it out to students. They had limits on how many houses could be rented to students but that often varies from school to school. (Wake had a restriction on off campus living and sought to maximize the amount of students living on campus, oftentimes room and board was more expensive than the cost of renting off campus).

Look into the policies of the individual schools and try to find out what you need to rent to students in the area, that way you know what kind of process you'll need to deal with upon closing.

@Account Closed as with real estate anywhere, it totally depends on property condition and neighborhood. Philly is very block by block so crossing a major border could entirely change the acquisition price and ARV. I'll DM you to discuss further!

@Jack Korbutov welcome to the community! Southeast PA is an excellent market for BRRRR rentals. Feel free to reach out if you'd ever like to discuss the opportunities in our market.

All the best!

@Anthony Zayas Great work negotiating the deal down to a better price for the work needed. Found this one on the MLS and I can tell appreciation and proximity to Temple will make this one a slam dunk of a longterm hold for you. Good luck on the rehab and I wish you nothing but success on this one. Multis near Temple can definitely be tougher to find but getting in at the right price makes them a no brainer.

@Alexandru Nedelcu rents in that area vary depending on the condition of the property and whether or not students are renting them out. His duplex is one 2bd/1bth unit and a 1bd/1bth unit. I see recent rental comps for 1bds at $600/mo and $1295/mo and 2bds at $1350 and $1550. The goal would be to maximize these and rent for a total of $2700+. Obviously COVID has affected the student rental market making this a great long term hold for the growing Temple area. Would love to see your target rent for these units/what rehab you plan to do to get them up. Philly is definitely a hot market for investment and I have seen many investors pick up properties in the area remotely from the West Coast.