All Forum Posts by: Hal Cranmer

Great guys - thank you very much. I will definitely look into all of those!

Hey DB - That does sound outrageous. I am about to buy a 4 plex and have not seen the final insurance quote on it, but I have a rough number that it will be about $300/month or $3,600 per year. I have two triplexes already and their insurance is about $2,400 per year. I have a great insurance guy but I live in Minnesota so I think you might be a bit out of his territory. I go through American Family and have been very satisfied with their service. I have made several claims as well and was very satisfied with their service and payouts too. I have no stake in AmFam - just a satisfied customer.

Hi-

I've been investing in residential properties since 2006. I have flipped four properties and currently own 8 rentals, mostly duplexes, triplexes and a couple SFR's. I'm about to acquire another duplex and a 4-plex. I say this to show I am a reasonably experienced investor.

My realtor came to me the other day and said he may have 2 11-unit apartment buildings in about a year if I am interested. The owner is getting up there in age and looking to retire.

So if I have a year (at least - maybe I pass on these), what would people on this forum recommend for me to read/study/learn about commercial real estate and apartment investing in general? If not these apartment buildings it might be good to find some others.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Matt,

I will pay the taxes outside of the Roth because if I used the taxes to pay the Roth it will create ANOTHER taxable event.

I told Equity Trust that I will be taking all my funds out of their company today. But I was wondering if the readership of BP has any other companies that they have been happy with regarding SDIRA's or 401ks?

Thanks,
Hal

The company is Equity Trust. I will be looking to transfer all my funds out of them as soon as possible.

Hi. Before I start this post I want to acknowledge this is my fault for not being more careful, but I am still really ticked off.

In June, 2011, I switched my wife's 401k from an old employer into a SDIRA. I distinctly remember telling the company I switched to that I did not want this to be a Roth or to have any kind of taxable event.

Well they switched it into a Roth anyway, and I missed it. On Friday I received a notice in the mail that I will have to pay about half of the IRA amount in taxes and penalties for the conversion.

I called my CPA and he said I am screwed. It's not his fault - I didn't send him anything because I thought it was not taxable. I also called the IRA company to see what they could do and they basically told me nothing - I should contact my CPA.

I pay this company a whole lot of money each year to maintain my and my wife's SDIRAs. I get incredibly slow service from them when I want to make an investment and now we are going to lose the equivalent of about half my wife's 401k savings account.

I was wondering if BP allows me to give out the name of this company so other people do not suffer from such poor service? For the money I pay them you would think they would have this process down just a little better.

If anyone has any advice or tips on what I can do to appeal this, I would love to hear it.

Thanks,
Hal

Hi Everyone,

I have a buddy way up in the Zillow organization who put me in touch with one of their senior project managers. They are sincerely interested in helping smaller landlords and investment property managers run their businesses more efficiently. I will be having a discussion with this person on Monday to explain some of my frustrations and how they might be able to help me out with new features.

I thought it might be good before I have the discussion to throw it out to the BP community and solicit feedback. They are really interested and any feedback you can give would be greatly appreciated by them.

So please brainstorm away...

Thanks for the responses and ideas Brandon and Kelly. I do have a lender who will allow me to put just 20% down. As for the boilers, I like that heating surcharge idea. Also, I have a plumber coming out on Monday who says he might have an idea about putting some 'wall hung' boilers in the basement that could heat the individual units. The pipes are all accessible (not in the walls) in a 'boiler room' in the basement.

It looks like the basement has a bathroom down there as well. Would that help to rent it out as something other than storage? Worst case, I'm assuming I could still rent it out as storage to other people. Is there a good size that is a popular storage area for people if I do divide up the current rooms? Or is there a way to rent it out to a more lucrative business now that I have found there is a bathroom down there? There are not really many windows so I don't think I could turn it into another unit - not to mention the rezoning/approval headaches for doing so.

Hi,

I am interested in a 4-plex that is right across the street from one of my other rentals and in a very good rental area. Here are the numbers:

Purchase price: $340K
Downpayment: 20% (68K)
Monthly mortgage payments (4.375% mortgage): $1358
Taxes: $6,552 (yeah, life in the big city): $546/month
Insurance: $300/month
Water, trash and sewer: $300/month (can't be separated)
Heat: $200/month (city gives you a smoothing plan to pay the same all year long)
Rents: $4500/month (it is fully rented)

It could keep going as is, but I think with a little rehab $15-$20K, I could get at least $5,000/month. I have 4 multifamily units in the area and know the rents well. Here are some questions I have (other than do you think it sounds like a decent deal):

- There is one gas boiler feeding all the units. But there are separate water heaters for each unit, which the tenant pays. How difficult would it be to separate the boiler into different zones so the tenants pay the heat? Any idea of cost ranges? I'm not sure if the boiler room is big enough for 4 separate boilers.

- Part of the $4500 rent the current owner is charging includes two big rooms in the basement that he rents out for Karaoke (?!) and card playing parties to some of the current tenants. I think I could get that $5K in rent WITHOUT the basement rent, but I was wondering if anyone has any creative options for these rooms that I could collect more rent from them? I didn't see a bathroom down there so I'm guessing it would be hard to rent them out to anyone but the current tenants, or maybe it would be worth looking into adding a bathroom? Any other ideas? I am guessing you have to have the place rezoned if I rented it out to anyone who might want to have a business down there?

Any other thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Hal

Hi,

I have a duplex that I am trying to sell in a great area of Minneapolis. It has 2 - 2BR units and the upstairs will rent for $1090. I am leaving the downstairs vacant (the current tenants will be moving out Sept. 30 and pay $1045 in rent). I am asking $189,900 which means that an owner occupant could live in this building for about $200-$300 per month if they buy it with an FHA loan. As you can see, renting is much higher than this and FHA they are only putting less than $7000 down.

I believe this is a good value because I just sold another duplex close by for $200K that rented one floor for $1245 and it went in one day to the first person who looked at it. I had another offer for $210k but it was already under contract.

Everything works in the duplex and I have had very few minor issues (no major issues) in the three years I have owned it.

I would like to advertise the fact that someone could live in this place for just $200-$300 per month. Should we put this in the MLS? What other creative strategies should I use to sell it? Any advice would be appreciated. We put it on the MLS about a week ago and had two people look at it so far but were not that interested.

Thanks.