All Forum Posts by: Brian Roberts

@Remington Lyman

Have you thought about keyless entry options for your rental? The one on my personal home locks automatically when the door closes. It's not a smart lock either. No wireless needed. A 4 digit pin gets you in and out. After construction/remodel/tenant turnover you can have your maintenance guy change the pin.

@Lee V.

The duplex I own has all shared meters, water,electric and gas all in my name. I actually like the fact that they are in my name as I can make sure that all of the bills are current and not shut off causing problems in my property. Having the water usage in my name would also clue me in if there was a leak that the tenants didnt tell me about as usage would be higher.

I have it written in my lease that I pay all utilities up to reasonable average usage. When I purchased the property I got 2 years of past bills for all utilities to get a baseline on cost and keep them all in a spreadsheet monthly to track monthly averages. Using that info I can budget that cost as I do mortgage or insurance. My gas and electric are auto bill payments so I get an email when its available and when its paid but I do no work. My water i pay by check because the city charges for online payment. So my utilities take me all of about 2 min a month to make sure they are current and functioning properly.

I know you said they are new units so a baseline would be impossible but after a year you would have a good idea of cost that you could incorporate in your rental fee. For now you could get estimates on cost based on square footage and make an adjustment next year.

@Nelson Van

Not having to worry about the roof/siding because of the HOA isn't really true. Most HOAs can charge a one time fee to cover large expenses such as roofs/siding/ that all owners are required to pay. They can also raise your monthly fees to cover their costs. That's why it takes an incredible deal for condos to work for MOST investors. So not a real savings on capex. Chances are that repairs that they hire out arent going to be as fiscally responsible either as it really isn't their bottom line they are killing.

@John Collins

So as it sits now you could cash flow $300 per month. That means that $60000÷300=200 months as a rental to make profits you could make tomorrow. Even at what you might get out of it at $600 per month that's still 100 months of operating.

If I had the option to make 200/100 months of cashflow in advance with out ever having to rent the property I would

I you were only going to profit 5k then I would rent it for sure as you could make the same profit in less than 2 years.

@John Collins

Sorry for the confusion. That wasn't what I was getting at. How much does your property cash flow if used as a rental? 60k÷cashflow would be the number I was asking. Point being if your cash flow was say $500 per month it would take you 120 months to make the same 60k as selling. If you were making $300 per month cash flow it would take you 200 months of perfect renting and no major out of pocket capex. I personally buy and hold, but there is a number that makes sense for me to sell as the short term profit would expedite how quickly I could grow.

@John Collins

How many months would you need to work in your rental to make 60k? That's the biggest issue with being set in just flipping or just holding. There will always be a number that makes sense for you personally to do one or the other. Even if it's not your preference.

For example my 35k property cash flows $300 per month in a C neighborhood. So $3600 per yr if rented and no major problems occur(eviction,major capex). If I could sell it for 55k tomorrow I would do it in a heartbeat. The 20k would take me 6 perfect rental years to make. However the proceeds of the sale would allow me to buy 2 similar properties. Having 2 would increase my cashflow from $300 per month to potentially $600 per month. That would allow me to scale twice as fast.

All depends on your situation and needs. I think most would agree that both flipping and holding are jobs even when using property management. Just because you flip this one doesn't mean you are stuck only flipping.

@David Hulit

I'll play devil's advocate a little bit here. Personally I am a buy and hold investor also but the name of the game is to make money. If you could sell at the 400k you mentioned and only owe 217k that's a profit of 183k. Even after you paid a realtor and closing you would still profit 150k or so. It would take you 7 years of full occupancy and no major capex to make that much money at your estimates numbers.

That same 150k used as a 20% down payment on a small multi you said your interested in getting to would buy you a 750k property.

As others have said it all depends on your situation. Sounds like you have done well so far!

@Robert Arquilla

I self manage at the moment so I dont know a lot about local property managers. The real estate agent I use has started managing properties through Keller Williams in the Howland office . I'd be happy to send you some contact info if you would like.

As far as my rental goes, it has been pretty smooth. I have learned a lot about the process in the city and am working on finding my next deal. Hopefully 2 in 2020.

@Robert Arquilla

Hi Robert,

I'm actually in the Warren market as well, my duplex is on the other side of the mahoning river from the property in question. A few things that I can tell you and a little bit of advise on the area. Warren has a lot of potential for rentals but unlike some areas around Trumbull county, street to street can make a huge difference in neighborhood and rent. That neighborhood has one of the best bbq spots in the area and is generally quiet. Again, depends very much on each particular street.

Your rental estimates are definitely close, I'd say on the lower side of your estimate but the upper is possible. A house that size is likely to get someone young and their first place or someone of retirement age. That being said lawn service may be expected. If so your monthly maintenance number is much to low.

Also as an fyi. The city of warren has a 3% income tax on any money made in their city(your rental income) If you get out of the city into say Howland or Champion you can avoid that. They also charge landlords a fee yearly to operate a rental. I believe its $75 per door/per year. The health department will do an inspection of the property in order to get the water into your name until the property is rented. They will give you a list of things to be completed/fixed in order to use it as a rental.

Not trying to discourage you as it is all manageable. Anything else I can help with feel free to message me. I have some good people on my team that could help you in your first deal.

@Helen M Leyzerovich Nathan G spelled out pretty much exactly how I deal with my older property with combined utilities. One thing to consider in the future would be to ask for the statements for the last few years for the utilities as a stipulation in your offer when purchasing. I like to do that as many of the multi unit properties in my area are old hoses that are split.(all combined utilities) By doing that you can verify some of the numbers that sellers like to use as selling points. Sometimes they are accurate, often times they arent.