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All Forum Posts by: John G.

John G. has started 11 posts and replied 68 times.

Post: Avoiding a recession: How do you know when it's coming?

John G.
Pro Member
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Brainerd, MN
  • Posts 71
  • Votes 41

@Russell Brazil short and sweet....great advice.   I unfortunately, am already seeing a drastic tenant change in the last 3 years. Except, we are in a booming market and I own smaller multifamily's (house conversions) in the city.  Our area is getting developed heavily with large NEW multifamily buildings all over the place....in turn, taking my higher clientele and leaving me to replace them with lower class.  Its an interesting place to be.  I have been learning to develop systems to deal with it and at this point will continue to invest in the highs and the lows of the market.  As long as one does their due diligence and knows the numbers I think they will be fine.  BUT, still having cash reserves you are right about being a great idea. 

Post: Buying a property with a section 8 tenant in place

John G.
Pro Member
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Brainerd, MN
  • Posts 71
  • Votes 41
@Stefan Druzdzel one more tid bit I learned a while back on my first purchase. I was always asking “why hasn’t anyone bought this deal” “what’s wrong with it”. I learned very quickly to not focus on why no one else is buying it and rather put the effort into why I should buy it. IE crunch your numbers forwards and backwards, do your due diligence, if all that works out then you have nothing to lose. What you have is an opportunity to swing in with a low offer.

Post: Buying a property with a section 8 tenant in place

John G.
Pro Member
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Brainerd, MN
  • Posts 71
  • Votes 41
@Stefan Druzdzel here in Minnesota section 8 has guidelines of how much they will pay for all the different sized units based on bedrooms. I also bought a building with a section 8 tenant that was way underpaying. The present landlord stated the tenant had been there 8 years and they didn’t want them to leave. I needed to raise rent. I called section 8 asked what current rents were on a 1br they told me. I proceeded to ask them how much of an increase would my tenant be responsible for. So I raised rent with 60 day notice $100 and the tenant only had to pay $13 of that. They didn’t care much as before I did that I went into the apartment and did some minor repairs to build a relationship. (I replaced the nasty broken blinds $20 total) I personally am currently scaling and have been looking at a lot of multi’s. This has been very common finding units waaaay under rent. Every landlord gives the same response. That the renter has been there 6yrs, 8yrs, 15yrs, I even found one efficiency apt the guy had been there over 40 yrs. They don’t raise rent because of fear that the tenant would leave. (some r lazy too) My advice is call your county, find out what they are paying for a 4br and go from there. Some of my best tenants are on section 8. I just keep in touch with them and keep rents as high as their guidelines, which around here is actually more than most people are getting for rent anyways. Good luck!

Post: Starting Out - Spouse NOT on board. What do I do? HELP!

John G.
Pro Member
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Brainerd, MN
  • Posts 71
  • Votes 41

@Kevin Christensen my wife was the same way.  8yrs ago she was way against it.  I knew it was what we needed to do and bought it anyways, even used the emergency fund as our down money.  BUT, I knew my numbers well on the deal.  Moral of the story we r still married and r up to 22 units and she now helps....and enjoys the cash flow.  Which is way higher than if we would have spent our savings and enjoyed life as we went.  She now understands the definition of early retirement and realizes we can travel anywhere and we are still in our thirties.  

GO FOR IT!!!!  Good luck!

Post: Brainerd Lakes area?

John G.
Pro Member
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Brainerd, MN
  • Posts 71
  • Votes 41

@Mohammed El-Bashir feel free to message me any time

Post: First duplex, paying $5,250 more than asking price .. on market

John G.
Pro Member
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Brainerd, MN
  • Posts 71
  • Votes 41

@Michael Junior I agree with a lot of these guys.

Short and sweet, if you ran your numbers and it fits your criteria then overpaying 5k is no big deal in the end.

I have done it myself, and asked the same questions.  But looking back on that deal, I still own it and have no regrets.  The reason is because I crunched hard numbers and they worked.  In fact, 4yrs later it’s flowing quite well.

Best of luck to you and congrats

@Michael Juniorundefined

Post: less profit class B+ neighborhood or more $ Class C-

John G.
Pro Member
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Brainerd, MN
  • Posts 71
  • Votes 41

@Michael Guzik Thanks for sharing your wisdom.  I have yet to find a mentor myself.  I personally have managed my properties so far but am entering a new realm of exploring management companies to work with so I can "retire" or atleast get away from the grind of my Granite Countertop business and do some traveling.  With that being said it seems like the consensus is sticking with the nicer area properties.  We have been successful with our C- properties so far...but the recent "gut" check came when exploring a partial retirement.  You need nicer lower maint. tenants and properties but also need cash flow to "retire".

I appreciate the response. The BP forums are awesome as in my small town there are not a lot of people doing what we are doing to network with.

Post: less profit class B+ neighborhood or more $ Class C-

John G.
Pro Member
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Brainerd, MN
  • Posts 71
  • Votes 41

Thanks @Ray Johnson very good points!  

Post: less profit class B+ neighborhood or more $ Class C-

John G.
Pro Member
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Brainerd, MN
  • Posts 71
  • Votes 41

thanks @Christine Kankowski I appreciate the input!

Post: Countertops for basic flip

John G.
Pro Member
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Brainerd, MN
  • Posts 71
  • Votes 41

Wow, lots of great insight from everyone.  I currently am a realtor and own a granite countertop business.  So I might be a skewed view. But, I would say check your market around you, if you can find granite or quartz for a reasonable price I would for sure do it.  With a small square footage to jump from the HD laminate to a granite or quartz should not be very big.  At least in my market its not.  Butcher block is high maintenance and narrows the scope of buyers.  Usually people will accent their granite with a butcher block island or something.   Best of luck!!