All Forum Posts by: Christian Allen

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I agree with all your responses. It was not my negligence that caused the rats to choose her car over the 3 others which are parked in the driveway. I've taken as my steps as I could to help resolve the issue but in the end if the rats have a reason to want to be in the car they will find a way. I will let the insurance companies work it out if needed. 

I own a 3 family house with a driveway in an dense area of the city. Recently one of my tenants had an issue where rats had eaten through her car and caused enough damage that they considered it totaled (2019 Subaru ~$20k). I have done my best to put poison, traps, and ultrasonic noise makers to try to keep the rats away from her car but they are a problem throughout this part of the city due to it's location to a large area of restaurants and bars. 

The tenants has been trying to blame me for the damage to her car but I dont feel I am responsible since the rats are not living in the house and I have done all I can to remedy the issue.

Not sure how to help the situation, I obviously feel bad for her but it is a matter between her car insurance provider and her, correct? Do I share any fault?

@Michael Kingsbury My second FHA was about 3 miles away. The current rents I had for the property I was moving out of were counted towards my DTI but the new property I was purchasing was not rented so the potential rents were not counted towards my DTI.

@Michael Kingsbury that pretty much covers it. It is treated no different than refinancing an investment property in which you don't live in. 

@Mike OConnor how did this project turn out?

Welcome @Lauren Finn! I am an investor in the Providence area who buys small multifamily value add properties. Let me know if you find anything in that area and maybe we can do a deal together. 

The topic of AirBnB in Providence has been brought up in previous discussions but I wanted to revisit and see if anyone had comparison numbers between their long term rental and AirBnB revenue. I live in a two family on the East Side and the unit above mine is a newly renovated 4BR 2BA townhouse which I currently rent for $2400/month. With Providence recently passing the law requiring AirBnBs to either be owner occupied or outside residential zoning districts, I wanted to explore the option since the supply of STRs should be shrinking to see if it would be worth the added turnover and management. Anyone have experience in the area to give real world occupancy numbers and feedback on the Providence STR market?

I was going through the AirDna data and it seems promising but I believe their numbers may be over inflated. Their "Rentalizer" predicts I could earn $98k/year in revenue. Seems optimistic but even half that would be an improvement.   

@Eladio P. I've done basically both of the scenarios you described. Granted it was a few years ago (2016, 2017) and some would make the argument that the market is different now but I would disagree. In today's market as everyone continues to say, off market deals are likely you best option but I still see some stuff hit the MLS that could have some potential if you are creative.

The first property I did a FHA loan and did the renovation on the cheap by doing all the work myself and after a year it refi'd for 75% LTV. The key to doing this is finding a property that is cosmetically in the worst condition. You can't have any major issues or it won't qualify for FHA but the cosmetic updates can really sway the appraisal in the end. Even in the end if you have to front some cash to push it past the 75% LTV, it would be worth it to be able to get another FHA loan.

For the 203k to work you really need to find the worst of the worst properties in a good area. I was able to pick up one on the East Side for real cheap and put a ton of work into it to get it past the LTV requirement for a refi. If you are not familiar with big rehabs I would caution you some because you are going to have to deal with properties that have many different issues and some can become bigger issues.

The 203k process can be pretty long and drawn out because the contractor usually knows he has 6 months to get the job done and there's little incentive to get it done quicker.  On the front end you really have to have your ducks in a row and expect it will take more than the typical 45 days to close. This may be an issue for some sellers who are looking to get the property sold quickly so be prepared to deal with that.   

My advice would be to find a solid first deal and focus on that 100% initially. It's good to have the long term goal in mind but if this is your first rehab project you are going to be plenty busy trying to figure out the first to be focusing on how to get the second. Hard money is an option but that comes with lots of added risk. 

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. 

I think your intentions are in the right place but I'd give a little bit of caution about purchasing a property just to save a few thousand dollars on rent. From my experience, RISD and Brown students tend to want to live on the East Side, downtown, or Federal Hill. Usually in that order. I'm sure @Christopher Moss is very aware of the areas of student housing that give the best return but the general Washington Park area of Providence is too broad. For example, Providence's 9th homicide of the year occurred in that neighborhood just yesterday morning. Not the place you would want your son to live while at college.  

If you are interested in investing in Providence long term I think it would be best to buy something that wont create more headaches than benefits. Most of the houses in Providence are 100+ years old and do require attention to keep in good condition.If you plan to manage from NY I would suggest getting professional management unless you confident your son would be able to handle the management alongside his studies. The areas I stated above have a solid housing stock but have become very competitive on price. Consider your exit strategy as well. Everyone has been talking about a downturn for the last few years and RI tends to get hit hard during down economies. When your son graduates you may be left with a long distance rental which has dropped in price and you'll have to continue to hold before selling. 

Providence is a great city to invest in. If you have any questions on specifics feel free to PM me. I own a few multis in the city as well as live here.

The focus should be on increasing the supply of rentals by decreasing the barrier to entry for builders/developers. If there was a larger supply of rentals the cost to rent would go down. If there are 1000 people who want to rent and only 500 rentals, rent control is not going to help.