All Forum Posts by: BOB CRANEY

@Michael Corona

As other has said, if you have reasonably low rates of interest, it makes no sense to pay them off early. With that being said, there will be a point in your investor life cycle where you have “enough” and are no longer looking to grow your portfolio and want to work toward getting it paid off and enjoy the extra cashflow when the mortgages are gone.

As I have read numerous times from long time investors, there is nothing as comforting as paid off properties. In the early part of your career and the middle is the building time and often you don’t always need the cashflow and reinvest everything to build your capital base. There comes a time in most small to medium sized investors careers though where it doesn’t matter what makes sense on paper, it’s the piece of mind your looking for and less properties that are paid off is a simple way to achieve that.

If you are a financial planner you should already know about the SNOWBALL method, if not google it and you will find many detailed examples. Jeff Brown (Bald Guy) on this site, wrote several articles about similar strategy’s and they are all good reads for ideas.

This early payoff plan also only works if you have strong extra cashflow from multiple rentals after accounting for capex, maintenance and other long term costs that will come up in 10-20 year hold. The only other way to do it is pay the loans down with money from your W2 income if it’s robust enough to support that.

@Royce Talbo

Look at the Kraus Brand available on Amazon. I like the commercial look and heavy duty build quality, with all brass construction and commercial grade internal parts meant to last thousands of cycles.

I have used a few different of the commercial type kitchen faucets and the faucets were all priced aggressively on Amazon, had a really heavy feel, simple install with great warranty.

As others have said, stay away from the faucets at the big box stores, as they have been value engineered to meet a price point. Out of the 12 apartments I have used them in, I have had to repair, replace several in less than 6-8 years. They are just junk with more plastic and cheap internal components than the options you can find at your local plumbing supply house or online.

I like looker toilets for strong, stable tank to bowl connection but the fill and flush valves internally are only lasting about 5 years before they need new parts or replacement. If you have a lot of units you want to have some spare faucets to swap in for your tenants, while you wait for your “lifetime” parts to come in 7-14 days from the manufacturer

@Michael Duke

Save 5 times more

@Anthony Fecarotta

It’s hard to fight an entrenched neighbor who is a professional tool. You waste time, patience and it becomes a drain on you emotionally and financially. Imagine you finish your rehab and put the property on the market and your end buyer gets wind of Smokey the ***** next door. When they ask you about the neighbors, will you have to compromise yourself and said they aren’t so bad, Just to get a sale. It’s painful to learn about these situations after you moved in, but anytime you have a property in close proximity to others, like condos, attached rowhomes, townhomes etc, there is a good chance there will be a less than desirable neighbor near by. Cut your loss and sell/move and take the lessons you learned to your next opportunity.

@Jason J.

Trust your gut on this odd reaction and start to circle your wagons. This type of tenant sounds unprepredictable and combative. Begin to document thoroughly every contact you have with her. Do nothing verbally that you may have to prove later. Post notice on her door with the required timeframe notice given. Take a picture of the posted notice. I would also mail a notice, with proof of mailing for your records. Make sure it says you are coming in whether she is home or not and will be there for xxx time period. If you are there and she refuses you access, call the police and make a report. They may not be able to force her to let you in but you have established your attempt to enter from a 3rd party.

I have had this type of tenant then claim I came in and stole things during my inspection.

If you do get in, make sure to take pics or video documenting any violations you find and immediately send notice to cure these violations. Tenants who react like this one has are not reasonable and have something to hide. I might even recommend bringing a 2nd person with you as a witness. Your job to find out what she is hiding

@John Thedford

Maybe real granite is to much, but the granite look laminates available today are amazingly realistic. If you upgrade tops and also have your installer attach a full height backsplash of the same laminate color under the wall cabinets it looks really high end for a value price. As a bonus it cleans super easy and won’t stain if you happen to have tenants that like to cook with grease or oil that can splatter.

@Staneley Cesaire

Maybe the lesson you should have learned is to buy something that can be practical at the same time being more upscale. Ceramic top cook tops or ranges may look nice, but they are not tenant friendly or easy/cheap to fix when the top is cracked. Something stainless steel with heavy cast iron grates has the look of high end commercial but offers hard to damage use ability.

Call your local Sherwin williams and ask to speak with an outside salesperson for referrals to a investor/contractor friendly painter. Get at least 3 names and if you use one, make sure you get your paint from SW as a thank you. When the painter gives you a quote ask them to explain why the price is what it is. How do they price their work... by the square foot, by the room etc. When you understand how they price it then you can rough estimate the work and it should be close to what they would bid. You will find some painters like other contractors are more retail/homeowner oriented (highest price) and others are investor/builder oriented (value priced) and others are commercial/industrial. You want to use painter who is investor/builder oriented to best match up with your type of work/operation. They like a long term relationship with someone who is easy to work with, knows what they want and pays fair and quick. 

Sign up for and listen to the Old Capital Podcast. If your looking for a decent sized (30+ units) MF building, the large % of them will be controlled by a MF broker who specializes in apartment sales. These MF brokers are not interested in tire kickers and can sniff one out quickly. The principle buyer on the podcast says that a very small % of the 7000 units they have bought in the last few years were directly from owners without a broker involved. You should be looking to put yourself in a position to be taken seriously by the brokers (gate keepers) when they have a deal in play. Most of the brokers who come on the show say there is no chance they are sending a pocket listing to an inexperienced, unknown buyer, even if they have money. The tips and free advice shared freely on this show is worth tens of thousands of dollars and some other apt gurus sell it for that much. 

It sounds like you have a common problem of deploying all your capital into deals that do not generate a ton of net cashflow you can use to replenish your downpayment kitty in a short time. When you have a lender you have dealt with and understand their underwriting guidelines better, you can start looking for deals that will not pigeon hole you with DTI problem.

Another option is to keep some cash moving by flipping and selling instead of just doing buy and hold. Flip, Flip, Hold, Flip, Flip, Hold reinvesting your net profits in a buy and hold. Another option is to approach a bank about opening a working line of credit. Hard money from lenders or friends with rates at 8% and above is ok for short term but will eat your profits in the long run.