All Forum Posts by: Greg Earnest

@Joe Black Congrats on the deal! I'm curious, how likely would you have been to do the deal if you knew that you had to lease up during the shutdown? 

@Alvin Uy sounds like a cool project. If you are building ground up with an ADU and JADU, do you need to apply separately to get the JADU converted post-build? Or can you get it approved before construction? Thanks!

@Guifre Mora Thanks for the comment. Would there be a difference in down payment for land if someone wanted to buy for building a property vs just holding?

This definitely makes sense--the smallest details matter in markets like MKE. Thank you all for the advice! 

Wow this is great info everyone, thanks for contributing. Seems like property managers will be a wealth of market knowledge going forward. And I can see how rent adjustment would be more sensitive the lower you get. I just sent my application to Brew City so I look forward to connecting with folks there.

@Michael Henry I never thought to use information from the Housing Authority, very interesting avenue.

@Rebecca Knox To your point about asking for real estate activity within 1/4 mile radius...So if I'm looking at a duplex, would I ask my realtor for some single families in the vicinity? Or just other duplexes that don't really comp out?

Hey Geoff, sounds like a fun time--looking forward to this!

Hi BP Community!

I am new to BP and have been lurking on the forums for a while. I am a recent transplant to Milwaukee (from LA) and looking to put in my first FHA offer in a 2-4 unit in about 2 months so that I can househack.

Something I’ve noticed in the city is that rent can change drastically from block to block-even with similar unit finishes and parking, which makes it hard to be confident in my underwritten rents. Zillow and rentometer seem useful, but not quite specific enough on a block by block basis.

How do people account for this in their analysis? 

@Thomas Ayres always good to see an optimistic perspective. With properties like this that could pose more risk, do you typically undergo a longer/more in depth due diligence period before closing? Would you be willing to have a unit vacant for a few more months to get that ideal tenant?

Thanks

@Mitch Messer Thanks for your insight. In cases where you've seen your rents go down that significantly, was there anything you did (besides dropping rent) to help mitigate this and get tenants to sign? Concessions, upgrades? 

Thanks for the Overview Elliot. I am a new investor looking to do something similar in the next few months. Two questions for you:

1. How easy/hard was it to find a good qualified renter during winter. I read somewhere that demand does down significantly for renting duplexes in cold months.

2. What were the advantages you saw doing the conventional 5% down over a 3.5% FHA?

Thanks

Greg