All Forum Posts by: Andrew Magoun

Tammy Richards , thanks for sharing that article. I'll have to go back and add some better CapEx numbers into the spreadsheet. The only issue now is finding good estimates for how much it costs to replace some things (like the roof or the cost of painting the house again). I guess there's always something!

@Tammy Richards, thanks for pointing that out. How have you accounted for that in your numbers? Do you just assume a certain percentage per unit per year, kinda like cap ex? If so, what numbers are you using?

I want to have my numbers run on the conservative side so even if things don't go the best I'll know I can still cash flow. On the other hand, I don't want to throw so much in there or have the percentages be so high that nothing seems like a good deal, even when it actually is.

I'm in the Portland, Maine area and trying to build out my spreadsheet for running numbers on buy and hold multi families (4 units or less). I looked around BP a little, found @Brandon Turner's investment calculator and used that as a jumping off point for running the numbers to see if a deal cash flows or not. I think I have just about everything captured, but being new at this I'm not sure and am looking for some feedback.

For expenses, I have the following broken down by month:

• Insurance
• Mortgage
• Accountant fees (for taxes)
• Cap ex (5% of monthly rents)
• Electricity (tenants mostly pay, but if there's a vacancy I pay during that time - I've budgeted $240 a unit per year, being really conservative)
• Specific fees to the town I'm looking in (storm water, unit registration, etc.)
• Landscaping
• Legal (trying to go with the "family office" that reviews leases, management agreements, etc. to make sure everything is up-to-date)
• Maintenance (electrical and plumbing - have this as 3% of gross monthly rents)
• Management fee (10%)
• Propane/heating oil (tenant pays primarily, but if there's a vacancy in the winter...)
• Property tax
• Snow removal/shoveling
• Vacancy rate (5%)
• Water

I'd really appreciate thoughts on what I may be missing and whether I'm not budgeting enough for expenses like maintenance or cap ex. Thanks in advance!

Brent Wooster I'm down in the Portland area and new to BP as well. I've been spending the last few weeks listening to the podcasts. There's beyond a wealth of great information in those. I haven't even really begun to explore the site yet.

The Attorney General has a standard lease agreement. That said, it's tilted toward protecting the tenant more than the landlord. I would suggest contacting a real estate lawyer that would be able to draft a lease that protects both parties' interests.

Jon, I use Adam Johnson at Dawson, Smith, Purvis, & Bassett in Portland. This is my first year using him and so far it's been going really well. I would definitely recommend him. We're starting to look for multis in the Brunswick area. How's the market?

@Mindy Jensenthanks for the update. I'm looking forward to what the new version has to offer. I probably use my phone 90% of the time for online stuff so making it easier to do useful things on the BP app will definitely allow me to become more involved. 

Robert, I got a two-unit that had just been renovated. The realtor we used knew the the guy who was redoing it so we got it before it went on the market for about 315k. From my understanding (which is limited), the market has really taken off over the last 2-3 years.

It's good to see I'm not the only one. Case in point, there was no indication that you had replied to my post. I had to search for the title of the post to bring it up to check if anything had happened.

I just started on BP and using the BP iPhone app. I primarily do this through my phone and the app makes it pretty hard to stay engaged. Two major issues I've already encountered are: •the app doesn't seem to have a way to alert you that someone has replied to your post, mentioned you in a post, or replied to a post you have also posted in. I wrote an Introduction post and now the only way I can find it (and whether someone has replied) is to search for it or scroll through all of the postings in that forum. I also had replied to a thread in another forum and can't find it easily through the app. I got an email saying that someone had mentioned me in a post, but there was no alert/notification/anything on the app about that. •When I try to post to a forum I have to back out of the forum I'm in and go back to the Categories page to actually post anything. If I'm in a forum and hit the post/comment icon I just get an ellipse of the "Select Forum" thing. I can't do anything to say what forum I'm trying to post to. When I back out to the Categories page it works just fine. Anyone else have these issues? Is there a setting I'm missing?