All Forum Posts by: Andrew S.

Good odds of a quality tenant if it is maintained.  Good odds of a historic good relationship between the tenant and owner as well.  Creep on their venmo history, it's like facebook you can see who transferred the money to them if it was public.  If it's the amount on the lease from the person on the lease, don't worry about it. 

I would not be willing to pay someone $30 for them to show me the unit, there's a lot of pre-screening to be done on a application with employment, rental history, debt obligations, general questions.  I won't pay for a credit check to a car company before they allow me to see the vehicle or test drive it.  Some of the bigger property managers in nearby communities have made a bad name of themselves by nickel & diming $30 from a bunch of people.  I know many people who rent who openly talk about not willing to rent at a location managed by those companies. Negative word of mouth on your company would be hard to change around. 

To reduce my wasted time - I schedule showings in a similar time range, somewhat like an open house. Will create some competition in prospective tenants and waste less of everyone's time. Seems normal to have a percentage of tire kickers.  My pre-screening questions also scare away some people.  I have a free application process, will select a tenant to move forward with, then they complete a Cozy background & credit check to verify nothing weird.  

If they don't meet my credit/ background check criteria, then I run my next qualified applicant through that. 
I don't tell my other applicants they weren't selected until I have a signed lease. 

Hello everyone,

I'm reviewing my insurance policies from 2020 for tax recording.  My replacement costs, labeled at category A are equivalent to ~$90 / sq ft.  With the recent material prices, I've heard of new construction costing $150 - $200 / sq ft for a single family home.  I assume most insurance companies will increase their renewal costs next year. Is this something that other investors are updating their policies to increase their replacement amount?  I understand this will increase the amount I pay.  

Thanks,

Andrew 

@William C.  Great comment on the subjectiveness of my post haha.  We are an historic mining town so there are many homes that were built between 1860 - 1930.  I'd consider anything newer than 1970 a "newer" home.  Obviously this isn't the same across the country. My family for example probably considers a home "Old" if it's pre-2000.  

By "new" I'm actually looking at the major components of the home - does it have updated electric, plumbing, roof, furnace?  Can those systems be relied on for 1-2+ decades from purchase?  If not, then expect more maintenance.  If yes, then expect less maintenance.  

I have an multi family property that is all electric baseboard heat. Cheap and easy to replace if needed, as well as multiple heaters in each unit.  So it's possible someone's heater in 1 room is failed and it's not a big deal to them and I don't even know about it??  But if a central furnace goes out, the cost, complexity, and sense of urgency is higher.  

I think ~$100 per unit per month is a fair maint budget and another ~$100 per month per unit for CapEx is a decent start for ongoing minimal work. I've purchase value add properties so the maintenance costs are high up front, then fairly minimal but I still save for the future.

Those typical numbers of 5% to 15% are reasonable for my experience.  If you're looking at older out of date properties - go with the higher end. If you're looking at newer / more up to date / more maintained properties - go with the lower end. 

Sounds challenging to cash flow unless you double rents.  Tough call but probably walk. 

$14k per month is a very high income.  Most banks use 2 years to define stable income - is their $14k per month been ongoing for 2+ years?  2 weeks?  2 months?  

Comparably as an example, I've heard people say they make an annualized stock market return of 120% (much better than index funds) , by making 10% in one stock over one month with a small chunk of money.  Not equivalent to 120% on entire portfolio. 

If it's not owner occupied, you'll probably be required to put 20% or 25% down

Go buy a few rentals and rent only to Section 8 tenants. Please inform us of your experience 

Hey everyone,

Hope you are having a good Thursday.  I'm advertising a 1 bedroom side of a duplex for rent.  The current resident will be moving out next weekend so I haven't given any tours while he is moving.  The advertisement pictures are pretty good I feel like, but it's a 600 sq ft 1 bedroom. It would be understandable that someone would want more space.  Our market is fairly hot these days and it's in a good location. 

I have 2 qualified applicants - one local and one out of state retiree. Both meet my qualifications.  The out of state applicant wants to put down a deposit and sign a lease based on the pictures.  

Would it be best to wait until next weekend when they can see the apartment before they sign a lease?  Or just take the deposit and signed lease and they get it without looking at it in person? 

Thanks.