All Forum Posts by: Alex Schmidberger

Hello James,

Welcome to BP. This was a great place to get started with all the information and helpful folks around.

I ran into a similar question as I am in the process of buying my first quad. Here are some things I always consider when comparing different properties.

• Age of the building. This leads to setting a percent for repairs and cap-x.
• The taxes for each unit (can usually be found on the county website).
• Who pays what expenses/utilities.
• Insurance cost for each.
• Parking availability for each unit. Its the little things that can really add up.
• Average rents for the bd/ba combos for each property in their area. 
  • Check to see if the rents they are currently collecting are above/below market average and could these be raised.
  • Some places to compare rents for that area are rentometer.com, zillow.com, craigslist.org.
• How much it'll cost to bring each unit up to rental-able condition. This I add to my down payment amount.

There is more that can be considered, but these are usually on the top on my list of information to gather when doing an analysis.

Hope this helps.

Alex

Count me in. Forest Lake

Thanks for the support everyone! 

I've currently got my eye on a 4-plex in south Minneapolis, but the fair market value of the property is at the very top end of my budget. If I decide to move forward on the property, I'll have to get creative on how to bridge the gap between the selling price and my max loan amount.

Hello BiggerPockets!

First I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Alex and I was born and raised here in Minnesota in a family with 4 brother (that's right, 5 boys total). I spent the 4 years after high school down in Indiana at Purdue (Boiler Up!) where I received degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management. During my time there I had a variety of different opportunities to travel around the US, work in different industries, and meet some truly wonderful people. Since that time I took a job and moved back to Minnesota to be close to the family again (I'm going to be an uncle next month!). 

On to real estate part. My father owned a couple rental units during my youth and from him I learn the basics of home repair and how to care for a property. I have started to look for my own place now and I am currently in the hunt for a multi-unit in the Minneapolis area, with the intention of House Hacking. After purchasing that one I plan to continue acquiring buy and hold properties, focusing on those that need some TLC.

Its been wonderful reading the different posts, viewing discussions on the forums and listening the webinars the past couple of months helping me to expand my investor knowledge. While my dad taught me to swing a hammer and paint a wall, I have been learning some of the finer points about real estate investing from you guys here at BiggerPockets!

Sincerely,

Alex