All Forum Posts by: Anton Ivanov

@Nick Tzenevrakis

To answer your question about accounts - if you're buying the property in your name, technically you don't need any separate bank accounts.

However, I would highly recommend you set up at least a separate checking account to manage everything related to real estate. This will help you keep things organized and make accounting much easier in the future (like during tax time). 

If you ever start buying properties in a name of an LLC, you'll separate bank accounts for each of your LLC's.

@Courtney Jones

I don't necessarily think MF are better than SFR in terms of returns, but it does help you scale a little faster and make management more efficient if you have a goal to own 50+ units.

@Gerard J.

Sure, I'll send you a PM.

@Dan Albrecht

I drove around the city and the areas I liked and identified several developments of multi-family buildings. I then put together a list of their addresses from Google Maps. So basically it was a manual process.

I wrote a detailed post on Reddit about exactly how I ran this - pm me and I'll send you a link.

@Lauren Bishop

No problem!

@Darnell J.

I'm not going to lie and say I didn't dip into the reserves a few times when I was short on cash to close. I don't like doing it and always replenish the reserves right after closing, but it has happened. I've never completely used them all up and I wouldn't recommend that. I think as long as all of your properties are cash flow positive and you have a personal emergency fund and good income from other sources, you will be ok if this happens sometimes.

@Jenelle H.

I don't believe in market timing, so no I would not recommend waiting. You don't know how long you're going to wait for. It could be 6 months, it could be 6 years. It could be forever. I'm a big believer in starting now, even though you may think it's not the best time (it never really is). In the perspective of 10-20+ years it will not matter much where the market was when you started, but every year you delay, you're missing out on huge returns down the line.

As far as income/savings - I think there are two possibilities here. One would be to focus on switching career paths and increasing your savings rate. I went from earning about $40k as enlisted in the US Navy to $150k+ in about 5 years time. Not saying everybody should do it, but it's just an example of what's possible.

Another option is to really educate yourself and embrace creative financing. I'm not an expert on this, so I can't really tell you which "method" works best, but there are creative ways you can buy properties with very little or no cash of your own. This can help you get started while your income/savings are low.

@Sebastien Hitier

I think our high savings rate can more be contributed to having no kids and no expensive hobbies. We pay very low percentage of income tax (because of real estate, businesses, and other deductions) and have mostly 100% employer-paid health insurance.

@Oliver J fryer

I think what you're doing is smart - most investors, including myself have a checklist of things they run through for each prospective property. Whether it's written down or not, it just gives you a quick refresher to "check all of the boxes" before pulling the tigger.

@Kristopher Orr

You just missed me - I was there a few days ago, but I'll try to remember to hit you up next time I'm in town.

@Jeff Kehl

Congrats on the 200 unit portfolio - it sounds like you should be sharing your story instead of me!

If you're referring to the numbers on a building I posted earlier in this thread - yes, this was purchased recently, in the last year. I've bout many similar buildings at about the same prices in KC in the last 18 months. I only have a single property in Atlanta that I bought a few years ago and have not been active in that market since.

There are definitely great opportunities to be found, although it is getting harder due to rising prices. I don't really think I'm that great at finding or putting together deals. I've just had lunch with an investor in KC, who bought 20 units at around $25k/door. After about $10k rehab, the rent for $650/each. These were 2 buildings in pretty bad shape and mostly vacant. The current owner didn't want to deal with them. That is what I would consider a great deal - mine are ok.

I'd love to meet up - I'll send you a pm.

@Marcello Oliveri

I don't think there is anything wrong with buying outside of the 435. I like Grandview and Lee's Summit especially down south. 64110 is ok, but property there would probably be too expensive to cash flow. I would never buy in 64128 or in 29/30. Hyde park can be OK, as long it's the North/West side. As you start going closer to to the 71, the areas get really sketchy.

There is a pretty good post here on BP that goes over many zip codes in KC. It's pretty spot-on: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/276...

But it's hard to say which ones are the "best areas" because it depends on what properties and tenants you're looking for. There are C/D class areas, like around Independence that may cash flow well, but I would never buy property there out of personal preferences.

@Kristopher Gomez

Average purchase prices on the multi-family I've been buying have been around $50k-55k per door in KC. Rent is around $700 at market for units in good condition.

@Brugu Sirimalla

I don't buy turnkey properties in KC, so I can't comment on the turnkey inventory there. I look through a variety of channels - MLS feeds, LoopNet, tips from brokers/agents, reaching out to PMs, asking if their owners want to sell and finally direct mail.

@Amit Kumar

Ya, I'm up for coffee. Send me a pm please.

@Joe Ansley

Pm me for recommendations on property managers.

@John Acheson

All of the financing I've done so far has been fixed rate. I'm not a big fan of adjustable rate loans. "What is the rule of thumb for cash reserves in real estate investments?" - I'm not sure if there is one? I have my 5-6 months of expenses target, but I know other investors who keep very little reserves because they want to invest their cash as much as possible. I guess it comes down to personal risk tolerance.

I agree with @Gregory H. that downfalls in the market will only affect you if you have to sell during the time and basically "realize your losses". If you're keeping the properties all through the downturn and collecting cash flow, the prices will eventually bounce back up and your ROI will go back into positive territory. I'm not sure what you can do to "hedge" this beyond having positively cash flowing properties and cash reserves.

@Caleb Heimsoth

I self-taught myself software development, built a few side-projects and wrote my first resume around that when I was applying to my first software dev positions.

@Andrew Sanders

Not a dumb question at all - all my properties have been on the MO side.