All Forum Posts by: Steve Smithy

I have 3 fantastic 4plexes, when I purchased them the ROI was well above the normal 1% rule, and they still make decent money today. I am thinking of selling them because I haven't focused on finding good property managers and staying on top of them. So the property managers don't seem to be putting good tenants in and then the turnover is higher, repairs are higher, their placement fees are higher, etc. I am sure if I spent more time focusing on them I could do better, but if I spent that same time on another venture I am sure it would pay more in the long run.

I was thinking I could just sell and stop worrying about them, and invest the money in something else. But I don't have a better idea to invest in, other than just "the stock market". I was really into it when I first bought them and thought I would keep buying more, but now I lost the interest.

I chose 4plexes because of volumes of scale (1 tenant turnover doesn't mean I am losing money that month), mortgage implications (easier to just get a personal mortgage, with 5unit and up you need commercial mortgage), and I thought it would be easier to manage.

2 of the 4plexes are in Indiana and 1 is in Pennsylvania. I am near Boston.

What would you do?

Well for example in some places you don't ever own the land, you rent it like in Britain or such. The Govt gives you a XX year lease and can decide later to not renew it! Usually its long enough that you'll probably not be around anyway but not always.

I'm a US Citizen and I was thinking of buying a nice beachfront (or near-beach) property in a US Territory. Since they aren't quite USA, I was wondering if anyone had any experience in this area that could comment. This would be a vacation property, I might rent it but am not planning to.

I would say no such thing exists. If you don't trust them enough to be liable for their rent (knowing that they wouldn't stiff you), don't move in with them!

As a landlord I would never accept that if one tenant leaves the others don't have to cover the difference, I rent apartments as a whole, I don't rent out rooming houses!

Why are you still there? Because of a car to put in a garage (sell one and get a smaller car)? It's clear the place is not worth it, are you waiting for something really bad to happen before moving? GET OUT NOW!

I appreciate the POV that I should just let them build the big development to change the neighborhood since its their right etc, but I want to know if anyone has ever had any luck blocking these sorts of things? I was thinking of showing financial reasons such as how it isn't really going to be more tax money, since the amount they expect it to bring in will be more than spent by schooling, police, etc.

I view it like how people don't want more Walmarts because of all the negative things they bring to localities (local businesses close, jobs lost, etc).

The residents did try to buy the land from the town, but the town didn't want to sell to us! The residents wanted to make it a park, but the town said no and sold it to the developer instead.

Well around here a building that size has to be 10% Section 8 (low income housing), and almost the entire neighborhood is owner-occupied, not rentals! This is near Boston, so housing is $400k-$550k in this area for a SFH. There was over 50 people at the town meeting to protest, they couldn't fit them all in the room! They are proposing regular rentals, not senior or students. The company that wants to build it does a sort of apartment flipping thing, they build large complex, once its rented they sell the whole thing to a buyer and do the property management afterwards.

Here's the rub, if they do end up getting the green light I'll probably move, as I didn't sign up to be next to a huge complex. Which means I'll probably take a loss.

I know this is sort of detrimental and not a normal topic, but I am in the opposite corner on this deal.

I live in a VERY residential neighborhood. Everyone has a typical cookie-cutter house with a small yard/garage/white picket fence. Directly next to my neighborhood, a housing development company wants to build a 200+ unit apartment building. Not condos, apartments. The neighborhood is up in arms over it. All the NIMBY-ers were at the town meeting, but I don't think the town is going to block it. Naturally I don't want a HUGE 6+ story apartment building 50ft from my house (I'm almost next to it), and I'm trying to think of (legal) ways to stop it. It came up to the town because they want a variance on the building height, and other minor things.

Any ideas?

Unless the machines are incredibly old, they should have a counter on them showing how many quarters they have collected (it might be digital hidden in a menu), or how many "turns" they have done. It might not be obvious to the person doing the collecting though. You could in theory determine how much energy they use to do a load, and look at the utility bills. How many washers/dryers are there? IMO unless you have a mini-laundromat it isn't going to be worth your time!