All Forum Posts by: Gil Keren

I'm considering acquiring a duplex in SF with long-term tenants in both places. The property is priced low because of that. I intend to live in one of the units, and perhaps sell it in a few years, hopefully with a profit. Currently the yard is shared, which is not ideal for me. I have the following options:
- Owner move in to one of the units. Not ideal, as the yard will still be shared. 
- Buyouts. With lawyer fees and two units, I think we're talking about a 100k easily? That is, if the tenants are interested. 
- Ellis Act. I see people refer to that online as a last resort, but I'm not sure it's that bad. The down side is that I won't be able to rent the other unit (rent is low anyway), and it would prevent condo conversion in the near future. On the up side, when I sell, I'm selling a vacant property which will increase the value of the property. 

I guess my questions are:
- What would you do?
- Is an Ellis Act affecting the selling price by a lot, due to the inability to rent in market rates and perform a condo conversion?

@Jaret Lara Seems Indy is getting harder for cash flow, even though good deals always show up. Get a good team on the ground, know what you want so you can move quickly when the time comes

I have contacted Tasheana who commented above, recommended!

Anyone had a good experience recently with an agent for buying rental properties?

I'm out of state and looking into investing in a few rental properties in Indy. Looking for an agent that is used to working with investors, knows the neighborhoods well, where development happens, the good and the bad blocks, the rents I could get, and most importantly is available and can move quick on a newly listed property (already missed a few properties because of that). 

Anyone has a solid referral? That would be so helpful. 

@Steve K.

Double it means 560$ every month. Can you explain why is that realistic?

Repaint: what if a tenant leaves every 1-2 years? Isn't repainting the entire interior every 1-2 sounds excessive?

Flooring: You mean replace carpeting every 5-7 years? If you have tiles for example, or pvc can't it last like 30 years or more? 

When evaluating deals for those 80k-100k SFRs in Indy, I allocate 10% of the rent for maintenance/repairs, and additional 180$/month for CapEx, per the computation at: https://www.biggerpockets.com/.... On the one hand, I think evaluation CapEx in the way explained in the link makes sense. On the other hand, for a 1000$/month rental, I allocate in total 280$/month for fixing thing in the house (100 repairs + 180 capex), which sounds excessive. 

I want to hear from actual landlords, what is a fair estimation here? Do you really need 1200$/year for small repairs? Do you really need to paint the entire house and replace flooring for a total of ~5k every 5-6 years? How much do you actually spend on those things?

Considering buying this SFR in Indianapolis that was built in 1920, for a buy and hold rental. The numbers run well, but I'm just not sure about the property condition - there are some signs of water in the basement, and I'm not sure it that's a small fixable problem or a major foundation issue. I'm attaching some pictures, would someone experienced give an opinion? (Last picture is some concrete chunks falling off the foundation, not sure if that's related or indicates some other problem?)

Sorry as pointed above I confused the terms. I mean how do you put the house under contract within 1-2 before the deal is snapped by someone else?

From what I've seen so far, when a good deal pops out in Indy, someone closes on it within 1-2 days. As an out of state investor, looking to make my first deal, It would take me a few days to come over, see the the property and close, which is too late. 

How do you do that? Closing without seeing the property? Find deals that others don't know about? Something else?