All Forum Posts by: Jedd Braunwarth

@Brittany Sanders does you $30k estimate include your mold remediation? You mentioned homes in the area sell for $130 and up, is that for the 2 bed or the 4 bed comps? be conservative. without knowing more I'd say you'd you'd have to get this for low $60s to make it work. $30k goes quick of you add bedrooms, new kitchen, baths, and mold issues. what are the holding costs? buy all cash, loan or hard money?

@Allen McGlashing normally I'd agree they should pay but sounds like you may have a tough time proving what actually war the cause. was the door splitting before but nobody noticed it? now when she was using more force than usual to get in it split more? maybe she didn't even use excessive force and it opened. now she could come back and say that you didn't provide a secure door in the first place. Think with a tenant mentality and see how you would fight it. if some reasons are logical you'd have a tough time as the landlord charging them back. If damage was done and it's obvious how or intent then charge them.

@Trevor Carver I agree with the others. I think you have a great goal in wanting to get into RE investments. My advice would be that $1,000 isnt really enough to do anything. You make a 20% return and that only made you $200, still not enough to do anything. Are you working now in a job? I would work like crazy and save as much as possible over the next 6-12 months and see what you can pack away in the bank. Maybe its only $5k or maybe $20k, whatever it is you are proving that you can save money and work toward your goal. In the mean time go to the local REIA meetings and network as much as possible. Continue working to save money and network and sooner than you realize I bet you fall into a position of buying your first property. Don't force it with trying to with $1,000, work hard and put yourself in a better position.

are water rates really that low in your area? I ask as my 4 Plex water bill is generally closer to $40 per unit, so $160 per month. Mine also has garbage roller into it which is another $50-100 per month. maybe I am wrong and your tenants will be all utilities including garbage? I just don't know your local rates but they seem low. find finally, is there any long term play as far as raising rents once you do the $10k in repairs. it would be interesting to run the numbers at the new rent rates and see what that does to your cash flow. I think as of now your numbers on the deal are ok but certainly not great. I'd probably do the deal only if I knew I'd be able to raise rent quite a bit and property value would increase greatly over the next few years.

I was in this exact situation a little over a year ago. purchased a house for $31.5k, rehab for around $23k and list price was $100k. I decided to sell, got a full price offer the same day and closed. I took the profits a bought a 6 unit apartment complex. I don't regret that choice as my IRR is much higher now. I do think about if I should have just refinances to pull my money back out, keep and rent it and then still try to buy the 6 unit. Numbers get tighter doing that and I would have had to bring more money out of pocket to close on the 6 unit so I think I did the right thing.

hello, it's been awhile since I've been on here. Any way wondering if any one has any good meet ups going in the western twin cities area. I've been spending more time up here in the last few months and looking to connect with other investors. Let me know if anyone wants to meet for coffee or even put a small informal meet up together.

Minnesota, MN, Waconia,

@Joseph Fernandez, you do! You can choose to list the property for anything you want. Of course, just like an agent listing a house for sale, you have to look at comparables in the area. For example, what are other properties near yours renting for, is yours better or worse condition, do you have more/less amenities, are utilities included or not, etc. Start by searching other properties for rent on Craigslist, zillow or try rentometer.com. These should help you get an idea of what things rent for and where to price you rental. 

Finally, if you set a price and list your property and you get a bunch of applications right away that may mean you set it right or that you set it too low and it was a bargain. On the other hand if you get a bunch of showings and no applicants then you have to figure out why you are losing those renters to other properties. Most of the time the price does not align with the competition.

@Shaquetta Chittams. I think you have to first make sure that the price you settled on with the contract still works to do the repairs that came up. Were those surprises or did you have money budgeted already for issues like this? As far as the basement humidity, I think you can do many things to prevent this. Is there an air exchanger in the house? Moving air always helps basements dry out more. You could even do something as simple as buying a good dehumidifier. I had a house flip that sat a while as we waited to close and it got very damp in the basement so I turned the air exchanger on and put a dehumidifier down there and it was cool and dry within a day. 

I think you just need to confirm that the contract price still works and if it doesn't you have to give the reasons why it doesnt work to the seller and re-negotiate.

@Joe Splitrock @Account Closed completely agree with both of you. I think my posting is being taken too broad. I do not think that every tenant with an eviction should be considered. I am saying the opposite, and is what I do, that I say no to almost every applicant with an eviction, terrible credit or a past of criminal convictions. My comments are more to say that this is a people business and I am looking at the whole picture and am considering a tenant with a prior eviction. I am not just trying to be a good guy and help someone while taking a huge risk. My risk is minimized in this one particular instance because she has a co-signer, because she moved from her friends, because she has been renting recently successfully, has money saved in the bank and ironically I know her brother... This is the first time I have ever considered it and definitely does not make me open to accepting more in the future. So, my post was more to highlight that it does not ALWAYS have to be a no automatically and that communication could be key to finding out more.

@Account Closed not sure if you are aiming this all at me since you quoted me but those are a lot of assumptions you are making about mine and other potential tenants. I look at every circumstance differently and not everything is black and white. First, my potential tenant doesn't actually live at home and is paying their own rent now. They moved across state to be closer with family and get away from their friends. I could keep going but I am really not trying to defend anyone. You also made an assumption of being a new landlord, I am not, I have 17 units and my business partner who has been doing this for 45 years had more than one could count. My worst tenant so far was a single dad with a good job, nothing in his background and good credit. We were close to eviction with him but eventually he'd pay each month. It was terrible! This is a business and you need to make smart decisions but it's also a people business and it's our job to work and help people. That is the core of the real estate business.