All Forum Posts by: Bill D.

 Do you have an opinion on this? Are seperate eins worth the expense?  I am planning to do more entity creation in 2015 and am contemplating seperate eins vs nesting them under one...

I have been using quicken real estate property manager for several years and it seems to work pretty well but as the business has grown and reporting has become more important to me I am considering a move to QuickBooks. 

thanks in advance, 

Bill. (Former jersey boy)

David

I am starting my 8th year as a landlord and I also still struggle with this.  I think Jesse hit the nail n the head tho... if flipping improve slightly above comps and if renting improve right to comps with one or two "extra touches" to draw them in.  I have 3 leases that will be ending this spring and I am trying to put together my game plan for those 3 as well.  I definitely look for low maintenance/durable options. I also have heard others on BLOGS mention that rental rehash should pay for themselves in 3-4 years (increased cash flow due to reno should pay for reno within 3-4 years).

Good luck.

I would go with the 30 minutes as well...

I have 3 clustered together 25 minutes away. 1 within 2 miles. 2 that are 2 hours away. I do all the management myself EXCEPT for tenant selection/placement. I agree with John that showing properties is a huge time suck that I cannot afford.  I can still review all the background check/ info that my agent collects on prospective tenants but at least I don't have to deal with no shows and neighborhood lookers.

@John Chapman 

 Thanks for the response.  "...over thinking the buy and hold business a bit."  LOL! BINGO! Do you have a spycam in my office??

Sorry for the confusion but I guess what I was getting at was a way to better track my numbers and know how well/poorly each property is doing.  For example:

Here is my real life scenario today... feel free to drop your 2 cents on this one. I am thick skinned and open to learning.

I have a 4 bed, 2.5 bath, 2500sqft SFR that I have owned for 6.5 years. It has had tenants in it from day 1 with no real improvements from me other than a new dishwasher. Purchase price was $245k in 8/2008 (REO) with 20% down. It is now on a 15 year fixed which started in 10/2010 at 4.125%. That 2010 refi cost me about $3k. Current PITHI is about $1887/mo and rent is $2100/mo. Mortgage balance is about $150k and zestimate is $325k.

Current tenants are moving out this spring 2015 and I want to bump rent to about $2400/mo. It is in the process of getting a new roof and exterior paint due to a hail storm last summer (putting that insurance policy to work). What improvements should I consider and what budget to increase my cashflow? It desperately needs new flooring throughout (original 2001 carpet in place). My plan is to do a laminate type product on the entire first floor, carpet on the stairs and upstairs (plus buy an extra 6 feet to redo stairs in about 5 years). Other than that it has laminate counter tops, golden oak cabinets, brass fixtures, 4 inch white tile baths, you get the idea... 2001.

Based on my research of comps on rentals.com it is very obvious that there is a line somewhere of diminishing returns when updating a rental, but I haven't been able to exactly pinpoint it yet. That is what has brought me back to ROI, ROE, COC, etc... there has got to be some way for the math to tell me how much I should spend on this house and avoid the over improvement trap...

Currently working my way through "The Real Estate Investor's Pocket Calculator" to better understand the metrics and ratios I should be using. Other properties have required improvements and refinancing over the years and I am now trying to evaluate where each individual property stands as far as being profitable compared to other opportunities out there (multifamily?)

All good input... want to give me your 2 cents on this one??

Here is my real life scenario today... 

I have a 4 bed 2.5 bath 2500sqft SFR that I have owned for 6.5 years. It has had tenants in it from day 1 with no real improvements from me other than a new dishwasher. Purchase price was $245k in 8/2008 (REO) with 20% down. It is now on a 15 year fixed which started in 10/2010 at 4.125%. That 2010 refi cost me about $3k. Current PITHI is about $1887/mo and rent is $2100/mo. Mortgage balance is about $150k and zestimate is $325k.

Current tenants are moving out this spring 2015 and I want to bump rent to about $2400/mo.  It is in the process of getting a new roof and exterior paint due to a hail storm last summer.  What improvements should I consider and what budget to increase my cashflow?  It desperately needs new flooring throughout (original 2001 carpet in place). My plan is to do a laminate type product on the entire first floor, carpet on the stairs and upstairs (plus buy an extra 6 feet to redo stairs in about 5 years).  Other than that it is laminate counter tops, golden oak cabinets, brass fixtures, 4 inch white tile baths, you get the idea... 2001.

Based on my research of comps on rentals.com it is very obvious that there is a line somewhere of diminishing returns when updating a rental, but I haven't been able to exactly pinpoint it yet. That is what has brought me back to ROI, ROE, COC, etc... there has got to be some way for the math to tell me how much I should spend on this house and avoid the over improvement trap...

Thanks in advance, always learning....

Hello everyone!  My name is Bill and I am a real estate addict ;)  I found BP about 2 years ago but just started logging in regularly this month.  I NEED HELP!

Timing... I have always been interested in real estate since I was 14 years old and my parents moved across town in northern NJ; they kept the older home as a rental. Out of college I bought a REO condo in 1994. In 1995 I got my real estate license in NJ. In 1998 relocated to the Denver, CO area where I still live today. Saved Aggressively. Managed to do one flip in a ski resort town in 2004. In 2007 after reading the Millionaire Real Estate Investor and the deals started showing up, went all-in on the SFR market here. Buying in a down / scared market allowed me to make money without being exceptionally detailed in my property analysis. I did my best with Excel spreadsheets based on the book to cover all the bases.

Now it is 7 years later and I have a portfolio of 6 income producing (as best as I can tell ;) ) properties. Now I am on a mission to create systems that allow me to organize and optimize that portfolio (then I will think about acquiring more).  Quicken, Excel and a wall covered with white boards are my only tools today and I feel that I am not keeping up.

I am seriously considering making the move to Quickbooks, but in a prior career I was a software consultant and I can't help but be skeptical of how much value will Quickbooks bring to the table considering the purchase cost, education, set-up consultations, hardware upgrades, security, etc...

Currently reading "The Real Estate Investor's Pocket Calculator" and trying to decifer which calculations I should be using to evaluate my properties and make better decisions regarding improvements and rents.

I am VERY OPEN MINDED and WILLING to investigate any direction or leads you might suggest regarding software and/or services to help me get my business optimized (or at least running more efficiently with better data). Maybe I need to create it but... it seems to me that there are a lot of real estate investors who continue to re-invent the wheel.  Shouldn't there be a piece of software where you can just input some of the details of the property and it gives you all the analysis and metrics you need to decide if it will be profitable as well as how to keep it profitable (What-if scenarios)?

Thanks in advance fellow investors!

-Bill

New for 2015... get my business running more efficiently! I just joined BP as part of my New Year's Resolution because I feel like up to this point I've been profiting from timing. I jumped in hard in 2007 and started buying SFH. Now I feel like prices here have bounced so much (we are at new record highs in the Denver Metro area) that it is time to slow down on the acquisition side and optimize the operations. On BP I have been paying particular attention to discussions about the metrics I should be using and how to accurately measure each property's success.

"Newbie" here... thanks for the thread, can you clarify "DSCR" for me?? Thanks.

I track ROE as well to make sure I'm not letting too much cash lay dormant in a rental property.  Time to refi???

7 years ago I read that book and it definitely launched my real estate investing.  I think you got your answers above but I do recommend the book.  Keep going, you are on the right path...