All Forum Posts by: Julie Hassett

Thanks so much for the input!

@Ned Carey - thanks for clarifying that CoC doesn't make much sense past year 1.

@James Hamling - great insight on the difference between cash vs. leveraged purchase.

I got the answers I was looking for. Never disappointed when I ask a question here. :)

Thanks, Chuck! I just feel like the number becomes inaccurate over time.

If I'm calculating an annual return this year, it seems to me like it would be based on the money I currently have sitting in the property. Which just seems to me like it would be original investment minus cash recouped.

It seems like even if that's not the CoC equation, it should be some type of meaningful number to have. Or is it just me trying to juice my returns, haha.

Hi! Math question here...

As my property cash flows and I build up a reserve of money, does the "money invested" part of the CoC equation change? Or does it always stay constant?

Scenario: I buy a property for cash... $95,000 all in. It rents for $1250 per month. After a few years, I have $25,000 in my bank account that I can either leave there or redeploy elsewhere. 

So, is my CoC return always based on the original $95,000? Or at this point, do I technically only have $70,000 cash invested?

Is the "initial investment" static or rolling? Especially if, at some point, you use your cash flow to buy another property.

I could NOT find this answer anywhere online, so thought someone here might have some insight. Thanks!

 If you were investor there, would you sell before the hype fades?

Thanks for the input @Michael Kissi. I wonder if cash flows are still as good if you're buying now given how much it seems like prices have gone up over the last few years. But, yeah, that's definitely why I bought there! 

I own a property on Pelham Avenue in Belair-Edison. It's a neighborhood inside the 21213 zip code of Baltimore.

When I see property listings for other townhomes in Belair-Edison, the neighborhood is referred as "world-famous belair-edison neighborhood" and other such lofty phrases.

I get a postcard, text message, phone call or direct mail about once a week with offers to buy it from me.

I also own two properties less than a mile from there in 21214, which I get exactly zero calls on.

So, I'm wondering... why do investors want into this neighborhood so badly? What do they see happening there over the next 2, 5, 10 years?

Maybe I'm lacking vision, but I just can't fathom anything major changing in the area that would suddenly turn these places into goldmines.

I'd love to hear your insights if you have any. Thanks, BP.

@JD Martin - not quite as glamorous as a finely aged wine, but I don't think any of us got into this for the glamour!

@Jennifer T. - wow! I've heard of that happening to mice and rats, but never a raccoon. The task of finding, identifying and removing it must have been terrible. Keep on keepin' on....

I’ve always been amazed by the self-assuredness of seasoned landlords.

They appear so confident, capable and cool. So alpha.

Landlording is no business for the neurotic… the reactionary… or the timid.

I thought maybe this was an inherent personality trait.

“If you are driven, focused and unshakeable, then a good landlord you shall make.”

But, as a landlord myself, I’ve learned that those steely traits can be developed over time.

That in fact, they must be if there is any hope of long-term success.

Because you quickly learn that if you can’t steel yourself against the regular onslaught of events that the average person would consider catastrophic, you cannot grow a rental business.

Once the work was completed on my first buy-and-hold rehab, there was a horrendous leak. It caved in the newly drywalled ceiling, filled the carpet padding with mold and buckled the hardwood floors.

I stood there in the midst of the devastation while my property managers stood next to me in the midst of an unexpected afternoon project.

Perspective.

As the years go by and my experiences mount, I have begun to see what this perspective is born of...

Landlords have witnessed it all.

Landlords find dead bodies.

Landlords hear stories that would make Mother Teresa weep. Some of them are even true.

Landlords are immersed in the human experience every day.

Landlords are required to be a strange amalgamation of amatuer mathematician, contractor, lawyer, counselor, arbiter, designer, landscaper, mediator, administrator and bookkeeper.

Landlords have watched the deal of a lifetime turn into an infinite chain of problems after the ink is dry and the money is long gone. Sometimes this happens more than once a year.

Landlords have things like floods, rot and pests on their to-do lists.

Landlords are steeled against hardship because what we’ve made it through to get where we are now pushes us to believe we have the power to handle whatever surprises lay ahead.

We’ve been shocked by the unforeseen enough times to account for it every time the phone rings or we open the mailbox.

Even though we really would like to just. catch. a break. this month.

I’m not yet a veteran. I still get knocked down and wiped out regularly. Mostly by the weather and its impact on my aging properties.

But at least I know now that grit and determination will eventually develop into surehandedness and coolheadedness, if I can just come out standing each time.

Hi! I'd be interested! I have six units and the one that would be the most interesting is probably a SFH in Baltimore (21214) that we've converted into multiple units, including one Airbnb. There's much more drama than that one sentence conveys, so if you'd like me to share more of the story, I'd love to talk. And BP is THE reason I am a real estate investor!