All Forum Posts by: Zulf H.

@Ryan Gillette

Thanks for your feedback, very helpful. The leases are not expiring on the same month, they are between April and November so I have time to do the rehab. As you mentioned, I was also considering holding on to the good tenants and working with them to come to a middle ground. However there might be some tenants that I am OK with not renewing the lease. I would update this unit and rent it out for market price. 

Dear BP Members:

Hope you all are doing well . I wanted to get some advice and also best practices.

I recently purchased a 9 unit bldg. and the rents are at least $200 below market value in the surrounding area (Heat and Parking are included in this below market rent). The bldg. and apartments are in good condition, the previous owner had the property for 20+ years and maintained the bldg. very well but never increased any rents. I am considering notifying the tenants about the increase in rent or if they move out, just do a quick update and rent it out at the current market price. I am not too involved with the property as my realstate agent helps with renting them out and dealing with the units.

Below are my questions:

• Should I increase the rent to market value or try to negotiate with the current tenants and find a middle ground. OR should I just ask them to leave once the lease is over and do a fresh quote of paint and rent it out at the market price? I would really like some ideas here ….
• I was considering renting some of the apartment's myself ( without the help of a real state agent). What site do you recommend that provides Background checks at a very reasonable price.
• Also do you recommend a website or company that provide the full suite of services for renting ( positing the listing, finding leads, credit and background checks, and any other services that are useful to the landlord. )

Thanks for you input.

Zulf.

Thanks @Joel Owens. The commercial property I recently purchased has been appealed and the reductions is till the end of the year. However I have never done any appeals on my other properties. I think using an attorney is the best bet as its convenient and I can have a professional do this for me.

Thanks @David Stefanovic & @Brie Schmidt

I would like to do it myself for the savings but I am just not sure if it requires quite a lot of time and research. I am assuming this might be a time consuming process therefore most people are using attorneys.

I am tied up with other commitments other than real estate so if this is time consuming I would prefer using an attorney. Also few of the properties are under an LLC.

Thanks for the recomemdation.

Hi BP Members :

Hope you all are doing well. I recently bought a 9 unit bldg. and the previous owner had used an attorney to lower their assessed tax value. It was a 3 year commitment where they would pay the firm a portion of the saving. I have several other properties and I have not been doing the appeal. I am probably going to start working with someone to get the value assessed on all my other properties to see if I can save some money. Below are my questions:

1) Is this something I can do myself? Is it easy? I don't have a lot of free time but if its a simple process I don't mind doing it as I would save significantly since I have multiple properties.

2) Can you recommend any attorneys or firms that are good and focus in the Chicago area.

3) What is the average fees or % of savings that I should pay to these attorneys?

Thanks for your help!

Zulf.

Thanks everyone for you feedback. I am not exactly sure how to thank you all in the same response ( @Marc M, @ Steve Mallow, @Matt R, @Brent McCurdy & @Elizabeth Colegrove )

It have been a few weeks since I purchased this 9 unit building. I have a handy man that handles all the snow, cleaning, Law mow, small repairs, etc..)

Thanks again for all your advice!

Zulf.

Dear BP members:

Hope you are doing well. I recently purchased a commercial property and also have a few multi units from before. In the past I was using a company to do the snow removal and landscaping services.

However I have recently found a handy man that will live in the building and manage the snow removal and mowing the lawn for my properties. I need to provide him with the equipment.

My question is what equipment do I need to purchase for snow removal and mowing lawn?

Obviously I will be purchasing a snow blower, but I would like to get some advice on what has worked for you in the past

·      Gas or Electric

·      Is there a specific brand that is very duarable

·      Since I have multi units there is more concrete than grass and plus I have parking lots in the rear.

·      What do you do for pouring salt?

Any other advice you can provide regarding how you deal with your building supper for these activities will be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

ZH.

@ Mark 

@Mark Ainley

@Carrie Alluri

Thanks for the info. I will give them a call for quote . 

Thanks Michael.