All Forum Posts by: Andrew Carlson

@Kenneth Westervelt

If you are on this forum, you presumably are or would like to invest in real estate. Call him up and talk to him. He might become a mentor or bring you a deal.

@James Bailey

I tend to agree with Todd. I have 3 crusty guys living in my building. I’ve gotten higher rents from the other units I’ve fixed up and turned over, but at this point it’s not worth the expense of kicking out the 3 crusty guys because they’re getting close to market rents anyways, and their units would be a massive under taking.

@Julien Jeannot

I’ve sort of made the same mistake with my first building. Rents were 675/725 for 1bed/2bed. I thought I could maybe go up $100 because there were really no comps in the area. Turns out I should have completely vacated all 12 units, done full on remodels and got the rents to $1,000 for 1 beds and $1,200 for 2 beds live and learn. No big deal.

@Tom Maurer

Had this problem as well. I just ran my ozone machine a couple nights during the renovation. Air it out during the day. Then paint the ceiling.

@Gino Barbaro

That does help. I will continue renovating on turnover. I don’t think the rent increase is great enough to justify serving tenants with non renewals and spending the money fixing up the units. The cash flow situation is good as is, and the tenant mix is working great.

@Gino Barbaro

I’m always curious as to how people reposition apartments with tenants in them. For example, do you remodel a unit with a tenant in it, and tell them what the new rent will be? Where does the tenant go?

Or do you kick them out and tell them to re-apply when the unit is done? Do you empty an entire complex of its tenants and do all renovations at once?

I’ve currently got 5 of 12 units renovated simply by fixing them up on turnover and kicking a few bums out, but the remaining units have great tenants, but are paying below market because I haven’t renovated the units.

@Gino Barbaro

Thanks for the encouraging words! Huge fan of the podcast!

@Bud Gaffney

Should have clarified…I’m talking like under 30 units…not necessarily duplex’s and 4plexes.

Everything I come across doesn’t cash flow, or squeaks out a couple hundred bucks a month (which doesn’t even cover Cap-ex). Every broker I talk to says the same thing “yea that’s pretty typical these days.”

Everyone ALWAYS says “you make money when you buy” and “buy low sell high!”

Ok, so what is the end game here? Buy high, hope it goes higher? Hope interest rates are lower when the 5 year balloon payment comes due?

@Joe Fermin

Hey Joe,

I used a local bank and was able to put 10% down and collateralize my personal home for 2 years to get up to that 20%ish down payment. So maybe try to use your personal home or current rental property as collateral?