All Forum Posts by: Carl Hebert

@Harrison Smith thanks for the kind words!

@Joshua Goston and @Brian Mitchell I have to agree with a lot of what @Jeremy A. says. Here is some info I gave Harrison and I will share with you:

 As you may of guessed L/A is a bit different from the rest of southern and central Maine.

There are some areas that are simple to avoid in both Lewiston and Auburn unless you like that type of property.

In Lewiston the biggest area to avoid would be pretty much everything inside the area that starts at the river, go up Main St. to Sabattus st, then to Webster, follow Webster to East Ave and then back to Lisbon st. draw a dotted line back to the river. Follow river back to Main st.

There are a couple of neighborhoods adjacent to that area that are hit or miss.

Auburn the area I avoid is to start at the corner of Court St and Goff St go along Goff to Dennison St, Dennison to Whitney, Whitney to Center/Turner St back to Court St. Not quite as bad as the Lewiston area but still pretty bad.

Same as Lewiston but not to the same degree with adjacent areas being hit or miss.

I do not see the market here doing anything like it has in the southern part of the state. Especially with multi's. The problem here with multi-families is the age of the product, most are 80+ years old and have not been treated kindly.

The plus side to this area is the rents have been climbing due to a shortage of units. A 3br goes for 1000+ even in bad condition. This is probably because of immigration and the city of Lewiston with their aggressive removal of apartment buildings (averaging around 20 buildings a year).

There was an article in the paper(sun journal) about Lewiston and the proposed rental registration fees. I do not have a link but it had some interesting info in it. Came out last month (Sept).

Jeremy hit it on the head about the crime, it is not bad as far as nationwide, but is seen as bad when compared to just Maine. 

For a little insight Lewiston was named 7th safest city out of 180 nationwide with Portland coming in 9th!

As for renters, I highly recommend doing a background check and credit check, charge the applicants the fee when they fill out the application. I put that info about checking them right in the ad and it really helps eliminate a lot of wasted time weeding out folks.

Hit me up if you have any properties you are curious about, I live in the area and own 6 buildings/18 units here.

@Lara Fobian we just finished a room this summer that was saturated in cig smoke, guy was a musician and this was his studio room. We washed with simple green and primed with latex kilz, two coats of regular interior paint. We added a vanilla smell to the last coat. You can get different smells if vanilla is not your thing.  Worked great.

@Justin R. Wow, I do not have any properties in Portland all mine are in the Lewiston/Auburn area. That seems really high, but again I do not deal with Portland at all. 

Since I live here I snow blow all my properties. Saves a ton of cash but does take time and I think you have to like doing it a little lol. 

I would go onto Craigslist or Facebook marketplace and search for plow services, I see them on there all winter and I am sure someone from the Portland area here on biggerpockets will have a good alternative to 8k for three car spots!

@Ivan S. thanks for setting these up for us!

@Mike Morey - I have had very good luck and prices through Allstate, I use Dave Bochtler located on Center St in Auburn, Only catch is their inspector does find stuff like roofs and paint peeling and they put timelines on fixing them. Never had any issues with outbuildings though no matter what shape they were in. 

I had one 3 unit that I couldn't get the roof and paint done in the time they wanted and they cancelled the policy. I went to Champoux Insurance Agency located in Lewiston and they also gave me a good policy price. 

Besides that one building (I have 5 others insured with Allstate) Allstate has been the best.

Back in country, hoping to make it down!

@Cody DeLong Looks great, love the sign, now I want a sign!

@Chris Cyr I have to agree with what has been said already about Lewiston/Auburn. I currently have 18 units in the twin cities and manage them myself. We are currently remodeling 2 units of a 3 unit on Academy st in Auburn that I acquired in March that was off market. I picked that one and a 4 unit in Lewiston up for 125k. You won't find anything like that usually on the mls anymore. Like @Cody DeLong said it seems people are shooting for pie in the sky with the current listings and from an investors point of view it won't work. 

You also will definitely have to factor in remod costs, almost every building up for sale is around 80-120 years old, lead paint, old furnaces, old doors etc etc. 

If you decide you are interested in something send me a note and I can tell you about the area it is in. From what you said there are definitely areas you would not want to invest in. 

I have a "quasi-management" situation with my portfolio in Lewiston/Auburn. A friend of mine sold his last two buildings to me from a partnership he was in and ended up working for me. I manage all the the office work while in Maine or while traveling. He takes care of everything else while I am gone. When I am in town we both work together on remodeling units and doing maintenance. 

This quasi-management has worked well for me so far. 

I know this post is a couple of months old did you end up making a decision yet?

@Kenneth LaVoie We are also looking for a place in warmer climes. Basically in the same shape as you just not as many doors lol, 18 in Lewiston/Auburn area.

Planning on renting a place in the Fort Myers area for a year and scout around and either buy something or build something. We went down there for a vacation to see if we liked the area and we did. We would basically be there in the winter and here in Maine in the summer/fall (June-Octoberish).

It has a decent airport with lots of flights to Atlanta (my wife travels a lot for her job and uses Delta). 

Siesta Key was nice, have you been to Sanibel Island? Liked the Sarasota area and may end up there.

Good luck in your search and keep us posted!