All Forum Posts by: Christopher Collins

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $540,000
Cash invested: $80,000

Purchased a 4-family property.

Ah thats alot of bedrooms for each unit! Good stuff, seems like you have a very solid deal!

Just a quick comment on these comps and being devils advocate:

340 Washington Bld was sold for land value not rental income stream of a stabilzed property.

21 William Stamford, I actually bid on myself and I recall it was a 10-12 units or so, but still needed reno

But again, if those rents are realized and your basis is only the $700-800k you mentioned then you are in a good spot.

Yea if the rent roll assumptions hold up then your basis is still very solid!

Penn Johnson ffrom Stamford Mortgage/Danbury Bank is the best in the area on creating options for deals that have hair. 

Looks like you probably need a "construction to perm" loan. The $1.2M after rehab value sounds a bit high off the cuff, not that you might not be able to find someone to pay for it but could end up being the most expensive trade of a 4-family that I know of. I know one that was +$1M but believe it was barely at $1M. 

As far as ideas, i like the tertiary markets around Denver. A great longer term place to be, minimal weather risks, decent cash flow (compared to the Northeast) and a growing market.

Most of my rentals are in Stamford and Norwalk but always open to other towns if you need a flexible buyer who is willing to wait for you to find your perfect next place via a 1031. Feel free to send me a direct message, I am in no rush so can easily work around whatever your needs are.

1) have you hired a personal assistant in person? (aka non virtual assistant)

2) when hiring, do you have a set of criteria or interview questions you suggest using to vet the applicants?

3) In relation to minimum wage, what is your suggestion on the pay scale? i live just outside of NYC which tends to be a very high cost of living. I am open to "paying up" for quality but don't want to overpay.

4) who do you know that is successfully leveraging a personal assistant? 

Thanks!

@Ryan Deasy Yea, completely agree with you Ryan that there are "better" cash-flowing properties out there on a pure gross rent basis, but hard to truly compare without diving in with differences in taxes, utilities, maintenance etc. We also like the appreciation play for Norwalk rather than other parts of CT (not sure where yours are) so are very comfortable with our 18-20% cash-on-cash returns as we see them as being pretty strong risk-adjusted returns, not to mention the minimal hassle. Systems def help but higher cash flow properties are generally higher touch, that is why they are priced where they are. Lastely, something to consider is the exit of the investment. With single condos, there should be a larger buyers pool which creates more liquidity if you need to sell fast. 

If you bought those properties recently and they aren't a huge headaches, then those are just solid deals, congrats. 

Yikes! Yes, we try to underwrite the HOA as much as the condo itself. Proper reserves are huge. As a condo buyer you still need to look at things like the roof and drive way and common areas since you will be the one splitting the cost one way or another when they need to be replaced. Condos are not sexy, and not very scale able, but we like them as easy-to-run properties where we can manage them ourselves and may have some appreciation as a first time home buyer option. I have yet to see a single family house that makes sense as a rental in Fairfield county unless you rent to a group of 5-6 like a student rental.