All Forum Posts by: Barbara G.

it depends on what YOU want to do.  It depends on whether you are making money on these paid off Single Family Homes.  Do YOU want to continue owning them in addition to  buying a multi family? Have you spoken to your accountant about what he advises? 

There is no information here.  All we know is you own 3 houses that are worth $300,000.  What is yur income from these 3 houses?   There is nothing anyone can tell you because  We know nothing about the Dollars and cents  so we can advise nothing.

Do you have the down payment for a Multi Family or do you have to finance the single family houses in order to get the down payment?

$4,000 a month is a lot of rent for something that only costs $79,000???

How much renovation do you need?  Are the apartments all occupied?

What kind of neighborhood are we talking about?  What is the age of the building?  We bought two duplexs (4 apartments)  that generates $4,400  in monthly rents for $330,000.  That costs  more then 4 times as much money for almost  the same amount of rent. 

I have oak floors in my entire apartment except for Tile in the kitchen and bath and I love it

Like everyone said why don't you just go to a cosmetic dentist and fix your teeth?

Life is only one time around

Hey Rob K:  Barbara Cocoran is NOT ugly.

Well Renovating half of the apartments at one time sounds like a plan.  You say your renovations are "cosmetic", what kind of renovations are you talking about?  We put in 2 new bathrooms while the tenents were in the apartment, although each apartment also had a half a bath.  We also did some new radiators.  We are planning on putting a kitchen in while the tenant is in the apartment.   We did the renovations on the cash flow.

I agree with @Lorraine Pennington

interview all 5 tenents.  Tell them you are preparing to renovate and raise the rent and tell them exactly what you are planning to do.  You will get a good feel of which one's will not pay more rent and which one's will consider staying with the raise and the renovation.  As Lorraine says, the cash flow is important.   Another thing I would be concerned about is renting the 5 apartments in a timely fashion.   its going to be more difficult to rent 5 apartmets at one time as oppossed to renting one apartment at a time. That's more money you will be losing..

I suggest you run the numbers.   How much will you lose in 2 months rents for all the 5 tenents. How much will that raise give you  in one year?  Could it take 3 months to renovate?  How much of a raise are you proposing?   Can you afford to lay out all the renovation money at one time?  

We bought our first 2 duplexes with tenents in place, paying $100.00 less then what we wanted or $4,800 less for the year.  One tenent moved out the 2nd month and it took us 2 months to renovate that empty apartment and get a new tenent so we  lost $2,000 (on the vacency), but we raised   the rent for the other 3 the $100.00 so we made  3,000 more for the year.    We piece mealed renovations on the other 3 apartments and still have more renovation to go for those 3 apartments.  We have owned the apartments 13 months now.

 I think you might want to consider renovating the apartments one at a time.  

Originally posted by @Rhondalette W.:

Closing on first rental property April 17th.  I am very excited but I know I have a TON to learn from you all. All of your advice is welcomed. Buying in Desoto Texas home is almost turnkey my contractor says home will be move in ready with $500 in repairs and paint. 

Any advice on selecting tenants and creating leases?

Thank you in advance,

Good Luck.  We would be interested in knowing the details.

What kind of property?

What did you pay for it?  What down payment?  What  are your expenses and how much rent can you get?
 BG 

Really good job on the Bathroom.  That's a new Bath tub/surround  and a new floor and new walls?  Very very good.

Would it pay to help some of your tenants get some kind of government funding to buy one of these houses you have rehabbed and they are living in.  Could you sell them one of your houses for $50,000 and would you be happy doing that?   About the tubs?  Why don't you get a white enamel touch up pen and touch up the chip?

Bg

Originally posted by @Thomas Neely:

@Barbara G., You don’t always have to buy $100k houses and put 100k into them. Moreover, I was thinking about having an investor pitch in on some of the houses down here! If you want to talk we can but I am not into managing a property that I do not own.

@Ricardo S., Thanks Man!

@Kenneth Hynes, Thanks Man! I use to live in the town when I was young. It is a perfect niche; no major investors to compete with, only small local ones! This will be my plan until I feel comfortable investing in 20k houses. I would say after 10 of these cheap houses then I will move up to that price range. Remember what Kevin Hart said “Stay in your own line” and that’s what I am doing. I don’t have all the funds and investors like most people.

@Ramon Jenkins, Thanks Man!

 Hi

Well what do you men an "Investor Pitch"

Managing property is just another bussiness that an investor might be interested in?  They do make money that way.  You will be running out of money soon.  Perhaps you would like to Partner with some people.