All Forum Posts by: Francisco Dos Santos

Thank you for the responses guys!

I will follow your advices and just patch the driveway, and paint the doors. I think the driveway is necessary to do right by my tenants. I originally purchased this property as an FHA and while I lived there, I got a flat tire from a nail that was in that missing part of concrete, so I do believe this is necessary.

@JD Martin noted, no Bahama blue colors in mind haha.

@Jeremy H. my reason for making these improvements was partly because I'm increasing rents, and also to make them nicer. However, I have a feeling the tenants wouldn't put as much value in it as I would. While looking at rent comparables to increase rents, I saw properties in similar condition with higher rents, so I don't think I need to make the improvements to raise rents.

@Wendy Man This property is on the southeast side of Florida, which did not get affected by the hurricane. The rates already have hurricane risk built in as we have hurricane alerts pretty much every summer. However I won't pretend to know the insurance landscape, and you may be right. If you know something I don't, please share it here so I can prepare accordingly for insurance increases next year.

Guess I will just save this money for my next downpatment!

Hello,

I bought a triplex last year, and now that I'm cashflowing comfortably I'd like to make some improvements. The driveway is cracked and has a big hole behind one of the parking spaces, so it would probably need to be completely replaced.

The color of the house i think could also be better, it's kind of a sad brown with no character or brightness. However, this may be cosmetic and I could be better off leaving it until it's necessary. The caveat here is that I do need to paint the doors and it'd be better to match the color to the future color of the property.

All that said, I've had no problem finding tenants and get plenty of applications around market rent. So do I really need to make improvements? Not trying to be a slumlord but want to hear your opinions.

Some numbers:

    Exterior paint+doors quote: $4300

    Redoing driveway: no quote yet but from what I've read ~$4000

    Revenue: $4380

    Cashflow (all expenses, 5% vacancy, 10% maintenance): $621

    Cash investment: $44000

I don't need the cashflow, but it would eat up about a year of cashflow . The property is in south florida and has appreciated (according to redfin) about $80k. It's also in a rough neighborhood, but there's a fair amount of new construction and renovation going on; both of the adjacent houses look better than mine. Picture below, you can see a part of the hole behind the first  parking space.

Would you guys go forward with both of these improvements? neither?

Thanks for the help.

I started from podcast #1 and I'm on #22 now! Looking to catch up in the next year or so. I've also read the millionaire real estate investor, rich dad poor dad, and the BRRRR book. Next step is finding a deal. Thanks for the welcome

Hello, my name is Francisco Dos Santos and I'm a new RE investor in South Florida (Broward/Dade area). I havent't bought my first property yet but I'm looking to buy a duplex with an FHA loan, put 5% down and househack that while saving up for another downpayment. If anyone here has experience in multifamilies in the areas I mentioned I'd love to talk! Hoping I can meet some great people here in the forum.