All Forum Posts by: Anton Ivanov

@Zachary Caudill

I've heard good things about Cozy for small landlords as well (never used it myself). All of the large-scape PMs use AppFolio that I've worked with and I personally like their reports the best.

@Ryan James

My observations:

• Vacancy at 7% on an 8-plex seems low. I would do at least 10%. Judging how the rents are $475/month, I'm also guessing this is either a C/D area or a very small town, which may contribute to higher tenant turnover, higher lease-up times, higher possibility of missed payments, evictions, etc
• Repairs at 5% also seems low, especially if I'm correct about the tenant quality/neighborhood this is in. If it's an older building, with aging systems, like @Owen Dashner pointed out, you'll have even more expenses maintaining everything
• Insurance Estimate at $720/year: if you really can insure an 8-plex for $720/year, please PM me because I'd really want to know the carrier. Even my master commercial policy is not this cheap
• Missing utilities? Do the tenants pay for 100% of water/sewer/electric/gas/trash? I would double check that there aren't any common utilities you will be paying
• Missing landscaping? You will be responsible for snow removal and landscaping of the property. If you want it to look nice and have good curb appeal, don't skip this!

@Michael P.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!

@Yochai Paz

I've bought 4 SFRs through them a few years ago and was very happy with the outcome. Feel free to PM if you have specific questions.

@Scott Edwards

I think part of the reason this isn't usually taken into direct account is everybody's tax situation, bracket, etc. is different, so it's very difficult to estimate how owning a particular property will impact their tax liability for the year.

With that being said, it's a definite benefit of owning real estate and more sophisticated rental property calculators do show the tax benefits (like depreciation and mortgage interest deductions).

@Will E.

I realize this is an old post, but I would second what many others have mentioned here - once you find a tool/software that you're comfortable, don't forget that accurately estimating market rent, vacancies, operating expenses and cap ex is extremely important.

No matter how good or accurate the calculator you use is, if you're providing it unrealistic or unverified inputs, the output "analysis" that you get back will be very suspect.

I also always suggest running analysis on a few dozen properties in the city/area you're interested in for practice. Even if you don't plan to buy these properties, this will give you the experience and confidence that you're doing things correctly.

@Henri Meli

Thanks for the great idea! I'll try to reach out to the BP team and see if they would be interested in publishing it.

@Thomas Garcia

I think a high savings rate helps with anything, not just real estate. It's the key to growing your investment portfolio while you're working full time.

@Devin Arrigo

Honestly you'll probably learn more while closing on your first deal than in all of the books/forums/posts you've every read - this is coming from personal experience.

One thing I would highly recommend during escrow - order a full property inspection and be there when the inspector is on suite doing their thing. Walk around with them, ask them questions about anything that comes to mind, ask them to point out any discrepancies that they note.

You'll have to learn how homes are built and operate to be successful in this business and this is the best way to start with that.

@Raymond Hill

One thing that really helped me and I would recommend to anybody new to real estate is to run your cash flow projections on at least a few dozen properties, even if they're not the ones you want to buy. Basically, no matter what software or tools you use to analyze rentals, you want to practice with them until you feel very comfortable on how the process works.

Another note, is that what I often see is not so much as mistakes in the calculations (if you use a tool/spreadsheet, the likelihood of this is small), but incorrect "inputs" into the calculators. For example, many new investors forget or underestimate vacancy, maintenance and cap ex. Some are overly optimistic about appreciation potential of their properties. Some overestimate the market rent or underestimate the rehab budget.

Getting those numbers right is absolutely essential, otherwise your calculations will not be accurate...