All Forum Posts by: Connor Dunham

Great Work Scott! I recently used zillow data sets for my municipality to project rental market rates, number of rentals, etc... for a project with my data mining class (1 class away from my masters). Their publicly available data is okay, but nothing like what our local MLS has. The most interesting piece of data I gathered from them is how cyclical listing price reductions are for my market.

For my day job I do traffic growth projections and demand modeling - kinda similar. At least I know where the traffic will be in 20 years. It would be interesting to compare where Tableau says the development is going to be with what I see at work and whats programmed in our model.

Welcome. I'm up to Podcast No. 85. So close to catching up all the way. What's your favorite strategy you've learned about so far?

Yes, @Curt Davis. I am living in the (not so hypothetical) property. Just wanted peoples' two-sense on the subject.

Hey BPers,

I had a discussion at the local investor get together and wanted to fact check and learn. If I improve a duplex (replace a 35 year old boiler with a high efficiency one, add garage door openers and raise the rents), and I want to refinance a year after buying (to eliminate PMI payment and lower int. rate 0.5%) would the appraisers take into account the property was improved or just use the comps (these have risen 6-7% in the last year)? I plan on giving them the invoices to help their decision if it will make a difference. What are you thoughts?

Going from the list price and adding $7500 for closing costs (just in case - this is an FSBO) you come in at 1.2% monthly income / purchase price. They talk about the 2% rule on BP all the time, but I don't see it on AK MLS properties that I would actually live in. When you are in the 1-2% range, people have said they find it hard to cashflow or have the property pay for CapEx. People in larger cities often have a hard time finding 1% deals, but at 1.2% in FBX, its worth a closer look.

Looking closer: definitely not going to have one side cover all expenses here, but it really comes down to living for (using your numbers) $1150 per month, learning to manage the property (assuming you aren't going to hire a property manager), and making sure the property cashflows $100 minimum per door after you leave (looks like it does). Make sure to have multiple exit strategies.

Also, you might want to get some quotes from local property managers to verify your stand-in number for management. I've heard 12% from some people down here. At the same time you can get their estimate of what the unit should rent for and their vacancy rate (as a check against your numbers). 

Long answer short, it's worth pursuing if you think you would like living in the property. I wouldn't compromise my living standards at that price / cashflow. I would call the utility companies and triple check those utility numbers. If they won't give you the history, you can show that you have an accepted offer and they are supposed to show the history. Good Luck!

Hi Matt,

How are the utilities set up? It seems to be light. Is the property on oil or electric? separate meters? shared boiler/furnace? As a comparison, I budget $475 in a duplex I owner occupy in Anchorage (water and gas are shared).

Insurance: You are probably $75-$100 higher than you'll get when you owner occupy.

Maintenance: snow removal should be included under this item.

Appliances and other unknown rehab: I had a fridge go out within a month or two, consider buying a home warranty with the purchase. In retrospect I wish I had - there's a lot of advantages about them when you read up on it.

Buyer paid closing costs: Are you splitting? is the seller paying these? 

PMI: VA loans do not require this, but anytime there is less than 20% LTV, it should be considered in the analysis somehow...

Reserve funds: I don't qualify for VA, but for AHFC they require 6 months PITI. Do you have this much? It can be risky when your reserves are too low right after a purchase.

3 month vacancy: Have you considered doing a vacation rental (AirBNB) to cover the gap?

Just wanted to follow up with this post and say the boiler has been successfully replaced. Parts - $5,650 (should have gone with Supply House in  retrospect)

Labor - $3,000 (I would totally pay this again in my market).

Learned how to install a boiler - maybe not worth much, but I have a mechanical mind and like to know how stuff works in case anything goes wrong.

Welcome to the site. setup "anchorage" or other keyword alerts for a specific area you're interested in. 

So, I've listen to the first 70 in 2 months now. I had been reading the forums mostly till I saw a friend from college on here who said he signed up after listening to the podcast. I had listened to one or two but I thought "if it's that good to get someone on this site I've gotta listen to all of them". I just wanted to see if anyone has listening them or binged on the podcasts.

@Derek Carroll  I got 3 quotes. Labor was: 1500 from unlicensed plumber friend, $6500 from a larger operation, and $3000 from the guy I'm going with. Seems a lot higher than the rest of the country - (median household income $53,046) but here it is $76,495 (as of 2012).