All Forum Posts by: Balaji Srinivasan

Thank you @Michele Fischer and @Colleen F. I think I am priced right, not below market, but inventory is very tight and there are not many 4 bedrooms as comps. 

I will take your inputs and decide based on the stronger application. 

Hello - 

I am in the process of renting out a property and fortunately (for me), i have a very high quality of tenants who have applied and i am trying to find out how to select the best.

1. Is it legal in Michigan to do a 2 year lease that includes a price increase at the end of the first year? ex: 1800 / month changing to 1900 /month at the end of the first year?

2. In competitive situations when you have multiple people interested, does a best and final approach work, so the tenants can offer incremental rent or term etc?

I'm normally in the opposite situation where i offer a discount to get a highly qualified tenant so i am surprised by this situation. 

Thanks

BAlaji

Folks-

Hope you can help me, i have an application from a prospective tenant, the self-disclosure shows an adequate income-to-rent ratio, and the income source is from a business. The credit report and background check does not indicate any red flags. 

How do we verify the income and other debts for someone running a business, as they wont have a paystub or W2?. They claim to have just sold a home and not able to find something to purchase quickly and hence looking to rent.

They have offered to pay for 6 months in advance, in lieu of lower rent.

Any red flags?

Folks-

I am looking to purchase and rent out a 3/1.5 1500 sqft condo property that also has a basement with 2 bonus rooms of ~450sqft but no garage. Large open kitchen with large island. 

I am surprised that the rental comps are lower than I expected at ~1400. 

What impact will the lack of a garage have on a rental? For my math to work, i need the rent to be ~1600. Is this reasonable? Alternatively, what rental price increase can i expect in Sterling heights?

Balaji

Folks-

I am looking to purchase and rent out a 3/1 1350 sqft property that does not have a basement.

I am unable to find many comps without a basement (finished or unfinished). What impact will the lack of a basement have on a rental?

Balaji

Michael-  I don't care about a specific rent, just an example of what I am expecting from an investment of around 125k. Don't worry about me as a competitor, at best I might be able to purchase one property a year, we are thinking about this as a retirement investment.

Thanks for the idea of Westland and Livonia schools. I will look into that. 

Thank you, Michael and George, for your feedback! We are deciding to pass on the property, due to the location and not being able to make the numbers work. 

Are there other suburbs where we can target math like this

110-130k purchase, 10-20k reno, and target 1400-1600/month and in a location considered safe ?

Hello-

We are in the process of closing on a SFH in Livonia, close to Inkster and 96 (not on Inkster but a few blocks off).

Can someone guide what rent we can expect for a 1200sqft 3 bed 1 bath home? It has a 2.5 car garage, a full 800 sqft basement (semi-finished)?

I am surprised that Livonia has very few rentals compared to Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti,at this time there are only a few rentals to compare and they seem to range between 1150 and 1650. 

I need to target ~1559-1600 for the numbers to work. 

Can you please help let me know what i can target?

Balaji          

Matt-

Thanks for your response. I am not new to investments, i have invested in realestate in India and SFH rentals in the US, but not income properties in the US.

Can you clarify how i can find out how many people the property can be rented to? I see that the property has passed certificate of occupancy, but am not sure how to verify if its zoned as residential or non-residential and what approval is needed to rent by the bedroom? If i have a residential home in Ypsilanti and decide to rent to unrelated individuals, do i need to get my property zoned as a non-residential home?

I think the current rent is ~4300/month all utilities are paid by the owner, i think with some investment the rent can be pushed to ~6000/month. the rent is not equally shared across the rooms and there is quite a discrepancy, ~400 to ~700 

My biggest concern is not the cashflow as we can be patient and want to hold for the long term, but the risk of not knowing the current residents when we purchase, not knowing how they were vetted and any downstream problems that might cause.

With M2M, if people dont vacate after 30 day notice, i still need the eviction route? What legal pushback should i expect?

We were thinking of asking the property to be vacant at closing, so we can start with a clean slate when we purchase and possibly refurbish to target either students or the millennial's

Balaji

Hello- I am new to BP, and we are considering an investment property. This is a 9 bed 2 bath property that has been rented by the room for many years.

What are things to consider when buying? All tenants are M2M, obviously we dont know who they are. Would it be better to start with a blank slate and ask for vacant possession, or to inherit the tenants, transfer the security deposit and leases to us when buying and draw new M2M lease? 

The rents are undermarket and we would like use the turnover over time to fix areas and raise the rents. Is that a good strategy?

These are not student rentals, all the people living are between 50 and 80 years old. 

Appreciate all your advise and support.

Balaji