All Forum Posts by: JJ Conway

Hi and welcome!

"Cutting her rate for a few months will surely turn into great word of mouth to everyone she knows. If you have other properties, you will get solid tenants due to your solid reputation as someone who cares (from her friends/family)."

(having trouble getting the quote function to work)

Is there anyone else who feels opposite about this?  Maybe it's because most of my real estate experience has been the into DC-Baltimore corridor but the LAST thing I want spreading is word of mouth that I'll give discounts or work with people for hardships.  That's almost like inviting poor tenants with a bunch of made up excuses to line up at your door.  Could just be the areas I've invested in, and not your area of the country.

Great thanks!!

Too bad Little Man has a football game same time.  Maybe we'll swing by after on our way home.

Hi Terry! Welcome. Check out this thread to connect with other local investors! 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/354561-re360-shreveport-bossier-city-meet-up---september-2016

Great tips above!

Definitely worth to making low ball offers - just gotta keep at it. It's a numbers game 100 no's to 1 yes. When you connect with a new broker, be sure to explain why you're making such a low offer and ask if they know of anything else coming online soon that might meet your criteria. MLS, in this sense, becomes the gateway to not-yet-advertised deals.

Exactly. This comes from the turnkey theories that you are buying a cashflow. So if I am able to pull $900/month cashflow from a property after management and other expenses, I should (at at 10% CAP rate) be willing to pay 90K for it depending on the rating of the neighborhood. Yet I have a house in a similar neighborhood, pulling $900/mo in rent that would never sell locally for more than $50K.But the out of town investor doesn't know that. They just know to buy a cashflow of $900/mo they would have to spend 90-120K in their local market.

Not saying OPs partner is taking advantage (I don't know them or the numbers of this actual deal); just saying do your homework as much as possible - especially when buying out of town.

I have facilitated FPU for years and am also a Dave Ramsey financial coach listed on his website so I **LOVE** the FPU materials and used to gift them frequently. Guess what I found out? Most people got offended. Even though they really needed it! If they are ready for it, they will seek it out on their own. If they're not ready for it, hopefully you'll have some good screening in place to figure that out before you rent to them (smile).

Having moved around a lot for work, I'm both a landlord AND a frequent tenant! From the tenant side definitely the things mentioned above: take good care of the place, fix things without a whole lot of name calling and blaming (one landlord did this every. Single. Time. And then would eventually say, "yeah the last tenant had a problem with that too" as she was fixing it - ugh). Minimize the nuisance rent increases (everyone says a landlord is leaving money on the table when they do this but all it does is leave a poor taste in tenants mouth). I don’t generally offer incentives but I've heard people who do things like "pick your upgrade" (ceiling fan, carpet replace, etc) on anniversary date. One thing that my tenants have liked is when something like a faucet needs to be replaced I'll let them pick it out if they've been there awhile.

Hope to be there -sans baby- tomorrow! Thanks for the invite. Also, does anyone have info on the SB REIA? Their site's been down and I would like to connect with that group as well too. Thanks! JJ

Disclaimer: I've not bought multifamily yet but have arranged retail/office space deals.

At first glance the numbers look reasonable. Though vacancy seems low if it's high military tenants. Definitely do what you can to verify rent and income numbers. I've been in an experience where seller falsified the rents of a retail strip we were trying to buy - and I knew because my church was one of the 3 tenants and we knew what the other two were paying for rent. Short of getting copies of the leases and expense ledger that's tough to do. Also, you want to know if those are the lease values or actual income coming in (lol). Please keep us in the loop - I'd love to hear how it works out for you.

And @AndryY I see what you are saying.

While there is nothing in this post that indicates whether or not the OP is investing by your standards, so not sure why folks are jumping on OP's investing style, the fact is that many new investors are one missed rent payment away from disaster. This is not the way to run a business and it's not how I teach investing.

Not casting judgement on anyone who got started that way (um, because I did, lol).

I've just lived and learned enough to realize that doesn't work for everyone. It can work, mathematically, long term but the stress and risk is too much for me, personally. I lost too much in the last economic downturn. So I teach my clients not to invest (in the market, real estate, or ventures) with money they can't afford to lose and I also recommend they maintain a healthy savings to cover things like vacancies, sewer main replace, etc.

At the same time business IS business. So this tenant has cancer. Next tenant will have something else. And how do you know that people are telling the truth? I once had an applicant who found out I was a minister. She told me it was my Christian duty to let her live free in my house if she had hard times and couldn't pay. I told her by not paying she is stealing, and I'm glad she expressed this before we signed a lease because there was no need for us to go further. In my business, I do as I recommended above. I have a list of orgs that can help, and I generally give one month to leave peacefully if they have exhausted their efforts to get support from friends/family/charity. This is how I personally balance my desire to treat someone as I would like to be treated and also run a viable business.