All Forum Posts by: Bill Vaughan

I am interested in an 85 unit complex in Irving Texas that is 60% leased and is really good shape. The problem is that the building is in a commercial area. Anybody have any comments on how hard it is to lease something that is out of the way in a commercial area? Our thought would be to take fliers around to local companies and say walk to work, no commute etc. The tenant profile is heavily hispanic. The bank has only leased 2 units in the last month but we arent sure how much marketing they are really doing.

I am not asking about that property, it has been remediated. My question going forward, how do you operate a building with asbestos. IS it easy? hard?

How difficult is it to convert a C class complex away from All Bills Paid? How long does it take, do you generally lose revenue, etc etc

I need help.

I am considering several multi-family deals that may or may not have various asbestos exposure. My little experience is in helping my mom with a 12 plex she bought. She bought it on the courthouse steps and then realized she "had to" or chose to remediate.

Whats it like operating multi family where you know you have asbestos? Does it affect normal make readies?

Is it a big problem? little problem? Please advise all operating and buying experience

Texas Investors, I have a question. On your rental property, is the 50% rule accurate?

George

Down here in Texas we have alot of foundation problems. One way you can help is by helping other find a good engineer. Is there an association of structural engineers? Any good questions that you can think of to vewrify credentials? etc etc

You never put down a deposit until your offer is confirmed. I believe deposits are minimum of 1% of offer price. Investors forfeit entire deposit after it is sent in. Investors are allowed to bid after 30 days and offers are taken every night(including nights b efore 30 but investors are not eligible to bid then)

Personally I am a value investor. Following are some excellent books to consider

www.efficientfrontier.com blog that discusses investment performance over time, and various strategies.
www.tweedy.com Mutual fund company and private manager. On their site under research are alot of studies show value investing outperformance over time

www.gmo.com Manager that runs tens of billions. if you register you can read their commentary. their opinion(and alot of other investors) is that high quality stocks are the best buy right now(Microsoft, CocaCola, IBM, Exxon, Walmart) These stocks outperformed several years ago when lower quality stocks were decimated.

www.vanguard.com they have alot of free investment tools

Email me if you want more info or websites.

I forgot the main lesson I learned from this. A relatively clean inspection DOES NOT mean that repairs will be light.

Update-rehab bid approximately 22000. Bathroom(3000+-) complete gut. Floors float ceramic above dated tile. tub brand new, old tub rusting rusting and tiles not secured to wall(That was error/miss #1 we have now learned to check how well tile or shower wall is attached, if their is hollow sound problem, also was not careful in checking for rust. Vanity also rusted also needs to be replaced)

Kitchen missing cabinet doors and inside of cabinets with bad looking contact paper, also chipped tile and damaged trim on countertops(mistake just didnt realize it might cost so much to fix, it looked ok on the service, IT very likely wont cost too much more to put in new kitchen.

Mistake #3 needs sub floor where garage conversion. 500 dollar mistake. We didnt realize hollow sound was missing sub floor.

Rehab #4

We toured this property with PM this afternoon and are estimating about 16000. We initially had thought 8 thousand.

Mistakes installing new 4200 AC system, We were able to fix 1st AC and I think we had naive assumption AC could be fixed

#2Kitchen. We thought we were not going to fix countertops but one has popped up and another countertop has bowed.

Flooring. carpet is living room is worn out, there is no pile left. We missed this, and assumed we could clean. Result new vinyl plank flooring in halls living area and breakfast room. Tile in kitchen and bath.

Comments We were extremely lucky that 1st rehab was only 6000. We assumed that most of our other rehabs would run in that range. Since then it has been 22, 22(estimate) and 16000 estimate) AC systems are very hard to check out we will be asking AC contractor to review in inspection period. We will also be asking contractor to review properties during inspection period as well.