All Forum Posts by: Joseph Ziolkowski

@Syed H. I can understand that. All of our major capex expenses are taken care of up front. Updated electrical/plumbing. New furnaces and water heaters, newer roof, siding and windows. I'm also getting into the property for $2700. Therefore, my cash on cash return is 108%. Snow removal, I can get taken care of for really cheap, so I'm not concerned about that. I appreciate the feedback, what other expenses should  do you consider on your properties? 

St Paul, closing on a duplex July 30th... 

Purchase Price: $189,000

PITI including Mortgage Insurance: $1237

Total rent: $2200

Capex (5%): $110

Maintenance (5%): $110

Vacancy (7%): $154

Property Management (10%): $220

Water/Sewer/Gas paid by landlord: approx. $125

Cash flow: 2200 - (594) - 125 - 1237 = $244/month

Once we refinance and remove mortgage insurance, cash flow will be around $364/month

@Eric Schmid

@Eric Schmid

@Eric Schmid

When using the 50% rule, does that include vacancy and capital expenditures? Also what is a good way to accurately calculate expenses on a small multi-family. If it's managed by a company, will they have most of that info? If it's managed by an individual, what is the best place to get that information rather than the pro forma? Thanks in advance to anyone who replies!

I try to get a solid 8 hours a day. Sometimes it’s more like 7, but for being in college I feel that is pretty good. Other times though, it falls it 3-4 hours on the weekends ;)

I have decided to share my first flip project on a 2/1 property I bought in central Wisconsin. These types of posts really intrigue me, so I decided I would share my own experience on my first fix and flip. I bought the house in December of 2016 and closed on September 29th, 2017. The reason it took so long was because my father and I did most of the work ourselves,with the exceptions of a few things we had to hire out. Anyway, the purchase price was $10,500, rehab costs were around $40k (included a complete rewire, all new plumbing, new electric baseboard heat throughout, new insulation, new windows and doors, new water heater, new flooring throughout and pretty much everything else including cabinets, counter-tops, fixture, etc.), holding costs of $1000 and closing fees around $3500 making my all in at $55,000. I ended up selling the house for $68,000 and made a decent profit of $13,000.  My profit would have been greater if I would have taken the time to find a good, trustworthy contractor. That is definitely the biggest mistake I made on my first fix and flip, but I still ended up positive because I factored in unexpected costs that might have occurred. Overall, this was a great learning experience and I am excited for the new year to hopefully get some more deals under my belt!

Here are some before and after pictures of the property:

You're welcome!

Hey Elsa, The way I found my first mentor was pretty awesome. So my freshman year of college, I was reading the book The Millionaire Real Estate Investor. In the book the author interviewed many successful investors and he stated what city they were from. I went to the University of Wisconsin Madison and one of the successful people he author interviewed was @Chris Hake and who was based out of Madison, WI. So from there I did some research online found his email address and sent him an email about meeting him. Sure enough he replied and I biked 15 miles one way from my dorm to get to his business. (It was around 25 degrees out!) Anyway to keep this post shorter I met with him and he gave me some great information and at the time I was actually transferring to central Wisconsin and he had a friend from the area, Derek Dombeck, so from there I got his contact info and when I transferred the following semester I got ahold of Derek and during that first phone call of talking with him he offered if I wanted to attend a REIA that he was hosting 2 hours away. Once again to keep it short, from that we got know each other and I interned for him for about a year, and it was the best thing that I could have done! I learned a ton and it built my confidence