All Forum Posts by: Frances Buerkens

@Blake Dowe

Bangor Savings has a commercial HELOC. The cost is $500 for the appraisal. I got one this winter. Let me know if you want me to find the contact I worked with. He was easy and straightforward, and a responsive communicator.

$18K isn’t a lot for larger projects, but it will buy you a new heating system!

@Michael Ealy

We are struggling to pick a healthy market that will not suffer come the next economic downturn. We have to invest long distance since price to rent ratios are untenable in New England (and 1800’s structures for buy and hold are not ideal). We are looking in the Southeast and Midwest but lack experience in identifying what areas are not saturated with investors, making it harder for newbies to gain a foothold.

We have great credit, strong incomes, hustle, and high capital family members - but it’s overwhelming to find a safe and smart place for that money. It won’t stop us, but it is slowing us down. How would you pick your market? Or what city might you pick? We are seeking a 6-40 unit structure in a B/C neighborhood.

@Brandon Sturgill Picking the top ten cities is not as simple as reading a Forbes article, unless I want to join the competitive (and overpaying) masses in cities crowded with investors. My network has not been dropping strong rehab options in my lap because the areas I am in have a poor price to rent ratio. If I am going to invest outside of my backyard, I would prefer to make a data driven decision about what city has potential for growth (based primarily on job growth, not just development of hipster coffee shops), while exhibiting sufficient cash flow to enter a deal. We don't need a very comprehensive report, which is why I listed 3 stats - but we would prefer it to be nationwide. 

I do like your suggestion of contacting a commercial agent, though my assumption (which may be wrong) is that it would be secondary to picking a 3-4 cities to investigate in depth. As a salesperson who lives on commission, I am not keen to waste a broker's time until I think the area is where I want to be. Thoughts? I am certainly open to Ohio.

@Andrew Hogan I am familiar with all of those resources as mentioned above. I have spent time exploring each of them to identify the metrics most relevant to our work. I am also keenly aware of the quirks in the data, such as the fact that a city that expands its geographic boundaries will exhibit "population growth" but not a change in "migration". Knowing the data is rife with tons of these flaws, I would prefer to work with a demographer who would (maybe?) correct for actual growth or at least help us interpret the results accurately. As a scientist, I have a healthy dubious relationship with data and all the wrong directions it can send you. Since there are agencies that undoubtedly have affordable data packages that cost a fraction of my personal hourly rate to assemble myself, I have no qualms about paying for the data. 

It's your PM's responsibility to ensure that the tenant puts the utilities in their name - so in my opinion (since your contract does not cover this detail), you should not pay the bill because the PM failed to do their job. 

I was in a similar boat recently when the tenant failed to convert the water to their name - and pay their $200 water bill. The PM wanted me to pay the bill so they could add the bill to the tenant's existing rent. I was not comfortable with this solution. The tenant finally converted the water so things are still evolving. It remains to be seen if they paid their bill but it appears that it is no longer in my personal name. 

Sometimes land lording is babysitting. Luckily my other tenant who I picked and self-manage is phenomenal. 

My partner and I are trying to acquire a demographic report without spending $3,000/state. I know the data is freely available online via BLS, etc. but we don't have time to write python scripts to do a nationwide or southeast report. We're looking for stats including job growth, population growth, household formation. More stats are preferred, but those are the core three. Thoughts? 

We are interested in the data to help us pick a city to invest in commercial MF (5-50 units). Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Ohio are our top picks - but we're open minded!

How have you described the exit strategy in an operating agreement? What parameters did you fail to include in an OA and how did that impact you? 

Background: I am writing an operating agreement which will eventually be formalized by a lawyer to be incorporated in an LLC. This is a venture between me, my boyfriend, and my parents. They're bringing the money to the table and we're bringing the sweat equity.

The intention is to buy and hold rentals for "the long term" but neither party has a clear goal or timeline for selling - except that selling is most likely to happen eventually. The goal we all share is "financial freedom". 

Failure to write a comprehensive operating agreement could impact the relationship I have with my family - so it better be solid! 

Thanks in advance, BP community! You guys are awesome.

Land close to the beach in Maine is generally flat and swampy and often has a lot of vernal pools. Vernal pools are ecologically significant seasonal pools and are only obvious to the naked eye in the spring (unless a more experienced person knows a way of IDing them off-season???). Geeky science lessons aside, this impacts your development options.

Vernal pools are protected by Maine DEP. You cannot build on them or drain them which would impact your land value and development options. I assume that the presence/absence of vernal pools would be evaluated during a land survey process when you apply for permits. This is something I learned during a real estate license class five years ago, so you should double check my memory before calling this fact.

Potential workaround: Placing the portions of land that have vernal pools under a conservation easement could ease your tax burden (which is significant in Maine). That land can't be developed anyway so I doubt there's a downside to doing that. 

@Theresa Harris thanks for voicing your caution. For clarification: Are you referencing using a single heat pump for multiple units - or are you referencing one heat pump per unit? 

https://www.efficiencymaine.com/at-home/home-energ...

I'm sure you've seen this heating comparison chart, but I'm posting just for good measure. It's obviously geared toward SF homes, but it's still relevant.

Do you think that installing heat pumps would be less scary for tenants? We have been considering doing heat pump based systems with electric baseboard as a backup for our 2-unit.

Hi Pavel! Welcome to BP. The Southern Maine meetup usually occurs around mid-month. This month's location will likely be South Portland. If you check the forum in a week or so, you'll see the post promoting it.