All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Schultz

Realize I'm very late to the game here in 2022 - One thing that people haven't mentioned is length of tenancy - a DW creates a more comfotable living situation where tenants are more willing to stay longer.  Also, as someone who has rented many many apartments in Boston (a relatively snooty market!) there are certain prospects who simply won't rent/look at something without DW. A warzone however, and I agree - no DW. 

@Dave Stokley, I appreciate the response - never heard of Thimble.

Thimble sounds like a great thought that could potentially help me have my cake and eat it too. Competing quotes are $90/week un-insured, versus a cleaner asking $150/week insured.  So, while $50/mo is real money in this case it would effectively bring my $90/week un-insured lady up to $101/week insured.  Cool.   

I own the buildings and am beginning to hear more sentiment such as yours, the "ehh, you'll be fine without."  As this is a traditional apartment building there's no passing cost onto the guests, but ofcoarse in theory these costs can be passed on.  Clean building = happier tenants = ability to ask for the slight monthly rent premium.

Thanks again David!

Stumbled upon this thread with a similar question.

I'm up here in New Hampshire with 2 six unit apartment buildings right next door to one another. These are traditional garden style apartments with interior stairwells/halls/commonspace. Not STR. Year leases. Pretty simple.

Weighing my weekly cleaning quotes.  Long story short, the cleaning lady (not a company) who I like the best is NOT insured and mostly does houses.  That said, her references check out and she sounds very professional/capable.  And her price is right.  

Do I put my foot down and continue to hunt for an insured cleaner, OR for a smaller project like this is the NOT insured lady a good solution?

Thanks @Greg Dickerson, very helpful!

Ben

Thanks @Taylor L. appreciate your two cents.  That seems to be the common theme I’ve been hearing.  

@Greg Dickerson also thank you.  Would you ask for the sub warranties in the PSA prior to close?  I imagine thats the "correct" move but in an effort do get this deal done is it worth closing with just a list of the subs and leave it up to me to pursue these guys post close in the event that something does come up?

(Maybe) Buying 24 unit apt building with 5 retail spaces. 

In Aug 2019 there was a minor fire in one of the apartments. As a result, the building was DOUSED with water and 12 apartments and 3/5 retail spaces were knocked off-line. The tenants were vacated, the 12 units/3 retail was just about gutted, and the this past Fall/Dec/Jan were used to essentially renovate + build brand new. The work is now complete and Certificates of Occupancy were delivered last week. Doors now back open. Hurray!

BUT, as part of the PSA, we’ve requested the seller assigns us the builders warranty (at least for 1 year). for the heavy reno work that was done. We can structure the PSA language to alleviate the seller post closing of any involvement SHOULD a warranty claim come up in say August 2020.

The seller is reluctant to assign us warranty info which seems to make no sense as its no sweat to him. First he said he contractors didn’t want him (or wouldn’t allow) to assign the warranty, and then he claimed that there simply wasn’t a warranty.

Q for you – Does this sound accurate? The work was (I’m quite confident?) done via his insurance carrier – is it possible they’d work with a contractor who wouldn’t issue a construction warranty for this large a scope of work? What do you know about the “assignability” of a construction warranty in a sale – my attorney seems to think its very reasonable/doable.  BIGGEST QUESTION - WOULD YOU PROCEED HERE WITHOUT A CONSTRUCTION WARRANTY ON THIS RECENT WORK?

Thank you! Ben

@Christopher L., thanks for starting this thread.

I see this is an older conversation but have a related question.  Perhaps @Doug McVinua @Ryan Kinsella @Eric Schleif have some thoughts?

I'm over in New England looking at a similar type of situation.  19 condos where 18/19 units are owned by the same entity with the 19th being owned by a private owner.  I'd be looking to buy the 18 units in bulk.  I don't mind the 19th owner, but could be nice to try and buy him out down the road.  

Regarding taxes, this issue that I'm running into is that all 18 condos are assessed at fair market condo values, substantially higher than if they were an 18 unit apartment complex (and a much higher valuation than where I'd like to purchase at).

Any thoughts on keeping these as condos but getting a tax abatement after sale?  If I show the town I purchased each unit for only "$85k" will they likely re-assess valuation and bring assessed value down from the current $140k?  Realize every municipality is different but any thoughts are appreciated!  thx - Ben 

@Loren Smith, @Alex Bekeza, @Erich Hauck, gentlemen, thank you very much for your input and assistance.  We decided to move away from this deal for a couple reasons, one of them being intensive management/learning curve (and lack-luster corresponding returns) due to heavy POH, something that I was reluctant to dive into on deal one in the MHP sector.  Circling back to hunting down Multifamily deals, but keeping an eye on other MHP opportunities that may pop up - seems to be much better yield here than MF these days!  Thanks again for your two cents.

Thank you @Thomas S.  Any sense as to a timeline for off-loading 16 homes as a new MHP investor?  The park is in a suburban market of a small (40k population) city.  Is this a first 6 months or 1-2 years? 

I'm looking at my first MHP deal and hoping for some general advice on POH.   

The park I'm looking at now is fairly dominated by mostly older POH (16/24 occupied pads) . All that I have read says to get rid of POH as they essentially seem to be more trouble than they're worth. With that said, these POH rents are more than double the $350 pad rents and add real money to the NOI.

I realize that POH heavy parks are not the business, but with that said, is there some percentage of POH in a park that's OK?  I would imagine every investor looks at this slightly differently.  Any and all advice or thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Ben