All Forum Posts by: David Barnett

@Rashad K. Congrats on the deal! Nice job on the rehab and a solid deal. I remember seeing this deal on the MLS (if memory serves me, it had a high days on market and a distinctive look!)

Did you keep the red exterior color or paint it a different color?  The red is pretty loud.

If you are looking for some Twin Cities investors that have Podcasts, I would recommend the following.  I think there are others, and I'm mostly partial to Podcasts that have a youtube/video element.  

VSM Real Estate: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy7c0glMjc9WDlbk89_7wGA

Pillars of Wealth Creation: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkg8HggkdPAuBaAQySJSEQQ

Real Estate Stiles:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgLtahYDXP8T-fEFJfBqHww

 When it comes to discounts, you'll likely need to be in the 5-10 unit area to be able to negotiate any sort of discount/bulk discounting.  It depends on the property manager, how big they are, how much they would like to retain your portfolio, etc.  

@Danilo Ojeda I don't think 1.5 months' rent for a 2 year lease is out of the ballpark of what you should be paying.  I pay 1 months' worth of rent for a standard 12 month lease and then 30% at lease renewal if the same tenants remain in the property.  If new tenants are sourced, I would pay another 1 months' worth of rent to the property manager.  The $100 a month recurring charge is not out of line, either.  Sure, there are slightly cheaper options (for example, seen a few that are in the $70-$80 range) and if the property manager does a good job, the cost is negligible.  

What I meant on the Podcast statement is that you need to be careful comparing apples to apples.  If you listen to a podcast where the guest invests in say Cleveland, their prices are going to be different than the Twin Cities.  Just because someone in Cleveland is paying a lower price, it doesn't mean that you will be able to get the same prices in the Twin Cities.  Are you listening to Podcasts with only Twin Cities investors, or basing your feeling of being overcharged based on the prices that you heard from just Twin Cities investors?  Last and not least, with one unit, you're likely not able to get bulk pricing discounts (volume normally equals discounts).

@Ivan Widman I have an exterior company that I think could do complete this job for you if you'd like another company to compare to Aaron Bible's quote.  Please PM me if you'd like their contact information.

@Frank Rubino Welcome to BP.  Very interesting strategy, and hopefully you're able to liquidate the condos at current values.  If you don't mind me asking, where are the condos?  I'm not sure I can help much on the commercial multifamily side, however, might be able to help on the out of state investing piece of your goal (currently live in the Boston area and invest in the Twin Cities, MN).

That doesn't seem too unreasonable based on the price that I pay.  Actually, if you paid 1.5 months up front without any recurring monthly fee and they continued to manage the property throughout the term of the lease, you likely got a better than average deal.  From my research, most managers charge 1 month for a 12 month lease and then a recurring monthly fee of $75-$100 (for those firms that do flat fee monthly management).

I would also be careful to compare apples to apples.  Are the podcast guests from the Twin Cities/Minnesota?  Prices vary a lot depending on the part of the country, etc.  Also, it would be helpful to know what part of Minnesota the townhouse is in.

I would argue that it's never a good idea to have the federal government involved in this.  I'd much rather it be up to the landlords, lenders and tenants to work it out.  Just looking at the whole debacle with the testing and supplies with COVID-19, do we really think that this will be done well?  There are mistakes all over the place with the stimulus checks, huge delays with unemployment checks being sent to folks who have been displaced (work wise) during COVID-19.  From my perspective, if you show me a federal program, I'll show you a program that is rife with fraud, waste, abuse, nepotism and the like.  In general, any proposal that the "Squad" comes up with, I'm against it.

@Alexander M Stanton Are you taking a big hit in volume due to all of the uncertainty with the local universities?  I would imagine that a leasing/rental agent in Boston is mostly geared towards undergrads, grad students, postdoc's, etc.  Hopefully you're able to place some tenants throughout this process, and the next few months could get very interesting depending on what happens with the universities, Governor Baker, and even workers in the city.  My hunch is that a lot of rental and housing demand in the cities (Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, Watertown, etc.) is due to how bad traffic is even if you go just south or north of the city.  If workers that are able to work remotely are working remote for an extended period of time (or remote work is fundamentally changed in the future), does this impact housing and rental prices in the city?  Very interesting to think how all of this COVID-19 stuff could fundamentally change real estate economics, demand, and pricing.

First and foremost, I don't have any experience with this plan. Secondly, I think this is a really bad idea. HML's are usually shorter term loans that are much more expensive. I doubt you'll be able to find a HML that wants to do a loan longer than 18-24 months, and if you can't refinance again with a conventional lender, you're stuck and will get foreclosed on.

@Kasey Libby Just wanted to say congrats on having such a sizeable war chest to invest.  I would recommend starting out in a smaller deal to get your feet wet.  I'm a little more risk adverse, and think that a first smaller deal helps inform future investments.  Worst possible scenario is putting all the money into one/two investment and then go bust.