All Forum Posts by: Charles McCabe

@Kristen Thornton Just a thought after seeing your profile...if you're already doing marketing for a REA, you might be in a decent position to start marketing the same way to acquire your flips (like a wholesaler would).

Thanks,

Chaz

@Kristen Thornton With DIG and DPI, at least, you definitely don't have to join prior to meeting.  You can go to the first one for free.  And if someone sponsor's you in DIG, they get some little benefit if you join, and I believe you can keep going to them for $25/meeting, if that's what you wanted to do.  They both come with some retailer discount/rebate benefits to the member, too.

http://digonline.org

http://delcopropertyinvestors.com/

Thanks,

Chaz

@Adam Costa I haven't run into this yet.  Any particular municipalities to be wary of?

@Keni Etienne Welcome.  I'm another newbie in DelCo/MontCo.  Always happy to give you a second opinion on your calculations or whatever.  I've put together a couple of decent analysis tools; let me know if you'd like me to share them.  And if you haven't used the BP calculator, you should give that a try:  www.biggerpockets.com/buy-and-hold-calculator.

Thanks,

Chaz

@Max T. Good point.  I added an inflation factor.  I hadn't done it for my own purposes because I built inflation into the final numbers for rents and expenses, but I can see how it would be valuable here.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XfrOEQ1Olcl-DiP-XBkR4LBfKtHIxbHmXdSRLT1jJf4/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks,

Chaz

@Vonetta Booker So, there are a couple of things I didn't exactly hear you consider:

1. Partners.  You obviously understand the ways of the world, and if you find a deal, you will also find partners with capital.  How does the axiom go..."better half of something than all of nothing"?

2. No money down.  I don't have any personal experience, but I keep hearing that NMD deals do exist.

3. House hacking. Obviously I don't know anything about your personal situation, but maybe it would make sense to buy a MFR via FHA at 3.5% down and live in it (while you presumably rent out your existing house).

Just spitballing.

Thanks,

Chaz

@Michael Tucker Interesting situation you've got there.  Obviously you have some issues to be addressed around the differences between your math and the seller's.  Starting with the income...I assume he's not generating $4K+ in laundry revenue, so how does he get $15-17K?

Thanks,

Chaz

That's where I've been focusing.  Norristown, specifically.  I have my first duplex under contract a block from the MontCo courthouse.  The numbers just seem to be good there.  One thing I've recently learned to be wary of is the length of time it could take to get the zoning certification...their SLA is 35 business days (that's right...7 weeks).  They say it won't take that long, but won't say how long it will take.  Grrrr. 

Thanks,

Chaz

@Mack Woodward  Welcome, Mack!  I, too, have been looking into that area (Gwinnett County, 30044/30046/30096).  For me it's buy-and-hold rentals.  Honestly, the numbers seem crazy (prices about right, taxes nice and low, but rents CRAZY LOW), so I'd love to compare notes.

Thanks,

Chaz

While I've heard people discuss projecting the cost of replacing certain systems over time for rental properties, I haven't so far seen an actual calculator for that purpose.  Here's one I just put together in Google Sheets:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XfrOEQ1Olcl-DiP-...

By and large, I think it will be self explanatory, but I'll stop to explain the formula driving all the columns on the right.  Each column is a year in the life of the property, starting from your purchase, and each cell is calculated thusly:

"if the years remaining in the system's life are less than the years we've owned it, then divide the replacement cost by the years remaining in the system's life; otherwise, divide the replacement cost by the total life expectancy"

That way we project worst-case-scenario of having to deduct the entire replacement cost of, say, a roof with only 5 years left in it from the cash flow over those 5 years.  And after that, we deduct only the best-case scenario of the system surviving its full life expectancy.

I welcome all criticism, improvements, and general harassment.

Thanks,

Chaz

@Anthony Heyward If by "exciting" you mean "terrifyingly stressful", yeah!  Just kidding...mostly.

Thanks,

Chaz