All Forum Posts by: Kari Morales

@Christopher Smith thanks Chris. I am working with a highly recommended PM. I will ask him.

I am looking at putting an offer in for a fourplex, but I am having trouble getting solid information from the seller about the past rental history.

My agent, at my request, has reached out asking the sellers agent for the last 5 years of rental history. The sellers response was, “it is very popular and has a less than 5 percent vacancy rate over the last 5 years that he has owned the property.”

My question is, is it standard procedure for a seller to provide past history, rent rolls, or financials before an offer is put in, or does this happen after an accepted offer?

Also, for those with experience buying multifamily properties, would you put an offer in based solely on the sellers word, 5 percent vacancy rate, without seeing the rent rolls or financials first? I appreciate your insight as this is my first multifamily property and I am trying to learn from others that have more experience than I do. Thanks.

@Michael Noto

Excellent response, I appreciate your help.

@Wesley B Williams thanks for the reply. I reached out to a property management team that I had been speaking with recently to see if they even cover that area.

I asked my agent to find out who currently manages the property, or if the current owner is the manager.

As you mentioned, I would need a property management company as this would be impossible, and undesired, for me to do being so far away.

I appreciate your feedback, this is new territory for me.

I am looking at a purchasing a 4 plex in a rural area and was wondering what questions I should be asking the seller.

I have already asked about utilities, for example, owner pays trash, water, septic, propane, and landscaping, while tenants pay their own electricity.

My agent told me that all 4 units are currently rented, one being month to month.

I am concerned that this being a rural property in the Midwest, that it would be difficult to fill when vacancies arise. Is there a way to find out from the seller previous occupancy rates and where the tenants are employed? I have always stuck to larger metropolitan areas where information is more transparent and this would be my first multi family purchase. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Here is an update to my interactions with Invest1 properties and my opinion after speaking with Travis last week. Initially, I was hesitant due to the lack of information available about Invest1 properties, as their website is a very nondescript page without any solid information about who they are or the type of properties they offer. Red flag number one.

Next, after attending the webinar I felt there was a lot of pushing to finance with a company named New Directions. They are encouraging people to take money from their retirement accounts and using it to buy properties, not that I am am opposed to this, however, I felt it was a bit strange that they mentioned this kind of financing would use a 5/1 arm. I thought, who does a 5/1 arm right now, rates are the lowest they have been in years? Red flag number 2.

Also, at first glance, I thought that the alternate name they used, rentals2retirement was actually "Rent to Retirement", a company that I had researched here on BP. To me, I found it odd they would use a name so close to an already established company, or brand. Red flag 3.

Lastly, upon several request to obtain information about the properties they offered, my inquiries were always ignored or told I would receive more information later. Later never came, they never sent any information on their properties as I had requested. 

As a new investor, I have reached out to several other investors looking for guidance, one of the best pieces of advice that I received was from another BP user. He advised me to make sure that I trust the turnkey property company that I go with, unfortunately, invest1 aka rentals2retirement only left me with more questions and a feeling that it might be a scam.

Hi Greg.  I found your post while I was trying to find information on invest1 properties also.  I watched the webinar also and was curious about their operation vs other turnkey companies out there.  After doing a web search, I wasn't able to find much information about invest1, or the properties they offer, which concerns me a bit honestly.  

@Jonathan Oh,  great reply, thanking  you. After reading other’s responses and following similar threads on the forum, I have realized how much more I need to learn. I agree about learning the neighborhoods, I am going to do more research, narrow down my favorite markets and go out and actually see the properties and neighborhoods before I invest. I realize it does work for some investors to buy the property without seeing it first, but I consider myself fairly conservative and very new to investing, so I need peace of mind.

@Zeke Liston. Thanks, will do. 

@Andy Eakes 

I have been looking primarily in the midwestern areas such as Kansas City, MO, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Evansville, IN and Fort Wayne, IN to name a few.  I'm still pretty green when it comes to choosing a market, I am not sure what data to use to determine which area would be best.  I plan to buy here in SD also, so I could definitely use some local connections.  Thanks!