All Forum Posts by: Barbara G.

Well we put 25% down.  We flow about $2,000 + but don't figure PM, and figure all our renovation/repairs costs as original cost. 

I don't know what you call "quality" Tenants.  Ours are all immigrants and working class people.  We have the same tenants for this entire 1 1/2 years.   They all seem like nice family  people.   A few have a lot of trouble speaking English.   They don't have any problems with each other.  They don't complain.  We take care of any problems they have.  If one of their appliances like the stove or refrigerator stops working we have a new one in there the following day, because everything in there was from 1985 so everything that has not been replaced is 25 years old.

Hi

Thanks for the responses but first of all I made a big negative error

Zillow estimated our duplexes at $440,000 and not $500,000. Although they compared it unfavoribly to a duplex next to us that I consider not as nice as ours.  Its also much much older than ours.  Who knows??

There are 4 apartments with an income of $4,400 for the 4  Two apartments in each duplex.  That's more than the 1%

We also self manage and do most of the repair work  and the handi man work and the plumbing work and the kitchen installations our selves.

How are we doing here?

We Bought 2 matching Duplexes in Feb of 2014 and paid  $332,000 (+ closing costs) for both of them.

They needed approx $37,000  ($18,500 each) worth of rehabbing and were occupied with tenants paying $1,000 each.  We raised the rents to $1,100 and one tenant moved and we were vacant for  2 months while we renovated that apartment.   We spent approx $20,000 so far on renovations and estimate we have approx $17,000 more to spend on renovations.

The bottom line is we don't think we will be finished paying and doing renovations until March of 2016 so we have put all our cash flow back into renovating these 2 duplexes.  When we are finished the 2 will have cost us approx $369,000 and we will have gone without any money for over 2 years

We have saved approx $10,000 in taxes (we believe), and paid down our principal on our morgage approx $8,000.  Zillow puts the estimate of the 2 duplexes at $500,000 which if correct is a lot of appreciation?

So how should we consider this purchase?   Is it a success? or a failure? or just OK?  

These 2 were our first real estate purchase so it was our entry into real estate and we are glad about that

Nothing wrong with your brother being the realtor,  You can really make sure he helps you.  You have good leverage with you brother.  There is some way he can send you new listings automatically (I believe) .

Tell him you are depending on him.  Lean on him and he will be an asset.  Do you have bussiness cards to give out at the Real Estate groups?  They  are inexpensive so get them to exchange with people.  Get a coffee group of people you meet together for breakfast.  Just invite one or 2 people to meet you at a coffee shop or ask BP people in your area to meet you for breakfast/coffee

I second the advice hat you should join a few real estate clubs and/or Real Estate Meet Up groups in the area you are  interested in living in.  Hook up with a real estate agent also.  Keep looking and you will find something

Good luck

Who knows what to tell you.  He is hanging on for dear life.  Is he the best one to ask to leave?  If he is the only candidate and no one else wants to leave from the studio apartments?.   

Is there another apartment in some one else's building that you might help him move to?  

It might pay to give him some cash for keys?

This sounds like a  good investment for you.  Good luck with it.  Keep us informed

It aounds like everyone is telling you the same thing

You have to both get personally involved and give up on the realtor being in the middle of this.  Go down and speak to the Building Inspector departmet.  Tell them you need help and guidence.  Someone might feel sorry for you and help.    Get yourself a licensed contractor and get it over with.  Do you have any pictures to show them of the overhang before you started work??

You made some wrong moves here and now you have to bite the bullet and take care of it.  Don't fight with them just do what you have to do and take it as a lesson so you will never make the same mistake again.  

Good luck and let us know

It sounds too expensive to me  Your rent will be $2,200 and the  price of the duplex is $325,000 that is below 1% rule.  The taxes seem high also??  We just bought 2 duplexes and the costt was $200,000 each and the rent was also $2,200 each. I believe our taxes are %$5,000.  One insurance company dropped us for almost no reason and we had to get aother company for $400 more (of course we will be shopping for a less expensive company but alll sorts of unexpected expenses drop out of the sky when you are a landlord)   The condition of our duplexes  were near perfect as they are only 12 years old.  We considered them pretty much Turn Key but I never felt it was a great  deal.  We don't expect much Cappex but we just had to power wash them for $475 so there you go with maintanence within the first 2 months before we even had a reserve for it.

So take a careful look and run your numbers and see what you can live with.  Let us know what you deciede and why you have decieded it

Good luck

Instead of buying a town house that is a condo why don't you buy a duplex that is a side by side and jist looks like a town house but is a free standing 2 floor or 3 floor duplex with no condo fees.  Aren't these the same price as a town house condo???