All Forum Posts by: Brian Adzadi

@Jason Lam

Hhhhmmm...... I think your last question answers the whole question. Hear it from the horses mouth, call the tax collectors office and ask.

@Sabina Wolk

Depends how soon you plan on acquiring this MF unit. Are planning for the next year or the next 2 years? If its next year then all those suggestions will not allow you to pull money on time when it comes to purchasing the property. You need liquid assets where if you need the money tomorrow, you can do that without waiting for any extra documents or release papers.

I would suggest just saving your regular income and let them pile on.

The simplest rule I will suggest is to "Earn more but spend less". Meaning, if you can earn more money by doing overtimes or side hustles, do that. At the same time, whatever bills and expenses you can cut down on, i.e. : Car insurance rate, cable bill, kids extra curricular activities, vacations, credit card bills, restaurant outings.

By doing that, you are earning more money and just stuffing them away in the bank. You will be amazed at how quickly your money grows.

Another option is to take a loan from your retirement account, whether your 401K or pension to use as a down payment for your MF. Just be weary, there are a few caveats that you must abide by.

@Derek Ackerman

I am sort of in your position at this point, it is difficult carrying out family duties while working full time. However, once you set certain systems in place, you can definitely go into rental property investing.

If I were in your shoe, I will look at the distressed properties which have the main aspects of the house in relatively good condition. That will be your roof, foundation, support structures and HVAC. Those are the meat and bones of the house and when they are in good shape, you can say the house itself is in pretty good shape.

Look for houses that need more cosmetic work: drywall, flooring, landscaping etc. I will then see if I can use my go to guys that I use for plumbing, drywalls, flooring etc. for my own house to come and do work on the rental. Whoever is willing to do the work, yay, whoever can't, find someone on Yellow pages or Thumbtack to come and do it.

If you are a little handy yourself, be a weekend warrior and fix the small stuff yourself.

Give yourself no more than 1 month to get the work done.

If your partner does not work or works less hours than you do, you can have them be the coordinator of the renovation, so to make the work go faster.

@Kathleen McCabe

Yeaaaa......Hate to burst your bubble my friend but not happening. You can have a burnt down house or complex in the most seediest area of Manhattan and you will still need to have a minimum of $800K to invest with. Most of the players in Manhattan are hedge funds, so its not even individual millionaires or billionaires investing their money but a collective group. So what chance do you think you have?

If you want to invest in NYC still, you are going to need to look at the other boroughs like Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn (Even that area is being oversaturated with hedge fund investors).

Be careful being a landlord in NYC, the overly tenant friendly laws should make any rental property investor want to run for the hills.

@Vadim Mosneguta

Just off the bat, condo's are the worst type of properties for rentals. The HOA fees eat into your cash flow and they tend to have all these rules which your tenant can easily violate.

Single Family vs. Multifamily has been an ongoing argument. Each one has its pros and cons. Once you weigh them out, then you will be able to make a confident decision.

Single Family pros: Easier point of entry, less competitive market, requires lower down payment, wider pool of people when selling (you have families and investors who would want to buy your property)

Single Family con: Only one source of income (if tenant decides to stop paying, you're SOL), more expensive to maintain if you have multiple SFR (If you own 3 SFR and each require a roof repair or change of HVAC, more expensive than just doing one roof repair for a multifamily)

Multifamily pros: Multiple streams of income (if one tenant does not pay, at least there is another one who), greater cash flow, less overall maintenance (you only repairing one roof or one HVAC as compared to multiple if you have 3 or more SFR)

Multifamily cons: Harder point of entry, more competitive market, requires higher down payment, narrower pool of people when selling (its mainly investors who scramble for multifamily) 

Those are the general pros and cons of each type of property. Now its up to determine which one fits your goals, lifestyle and finances.  

@Oscar Navarro

Wow. Never knew the 203K loan program is so strict and defined. Thanks for the heads up. Will remember this forever.

@Ronnie Hutchinson

This is a business. Treat it like it. You are not dividing one of the bedrooms into two. You are adding a bedroom. Leave it the same and call it a day. You are the landlord. You can do what you darn well please with your property. If the tenants don't like it, well...there are other properties they can go rent from.

Besides, remember, you are about to add another individual to your property. So that means, more electricity usage, more water usage, more wear and tear. You need to be compensated for that.   

@Steve S.

I think you may have to bite the bullet on this one my friend. Once you have given back the tenants their deposit...

1. You are never seeing that money back.

2. You are telling the tenant and the judge (If you ever take it to court) that the tenant has left the property in a satisfactory condition where no money was needed to do any repairs.

Next time, think like this: "There is ALWAYS repairs to do after a tenant leaves". No matter how pristine they leave it. There is always something to do.

You jumped the gun too early on returning the deposit. Do you know how long it took me to get my deposit back after I moved out of my apartment? Nearly 3 to 4 months.

Take as long as you need to make repairs and whatever is left, you give it back to them.

Don't know the laws in Texas work though.   

@Scott Scheel

Your statement could not ring anymore true.

I have a friend who is also a former coworker. I had told him about my rental property endeavors, he was impressed and told me how he wanted to go into flips. He suggested if we could go into doing flips together. I personally don't care for flips but was willing to entertain the idea.

I told him, if he is willing to go into real estate investing, he should read some books and do research. I gave him "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and "Rental Property Investing for Dummies". To me, pretty easy reads. I finished Rich Dad is less than 3 days. About 3 months later, I asked him if he had finished reading the books. Of course the answer was "Nah".

My thoughts on this was, how do you expect us to go into any kind of  real estate investing partnership if you are not willing to read two simple books.

After that, whenever someone tells me they are thinking of going into real estate, I take it with a very fine grain of salt.

@Account Closed

You may not like my answer but I am a realist. The two of you are not in a solid position in your career field yet but want to go into a business venture that requires major capital without a co-signer. How well do you think this is going to play out? I will wait......

This will be my recommendation for you, which follows along the line of Dave Ramsey's saying: "Live like no else so later you can live like no one else". Increase your savings by lowering your lifestyle. That means getting a studio apartment, yes not even a one bedroom. Your biggest expense is housing, if you can bring that down tremendously, you can save tremendously. No entertainment, no bars, no restaurants, no friends (only be with those who support your decision to save), no brand new cars, nothing that cost more than a $1,000. 

Every money you put into savings. You will be amazed how much you would have saved once you do this for about a year. When you are ready to buy, you will have more than enough in capital and will definitely not need a co-signer.