All Forum Posts by: Karlo Alamo

Hello friends!

I recently lost my job due to COVID, and I had a work history with a good income for 4 years. Now that I decided to chase what I really want which is Rental Investment, I've come across this roadblock. My credit is poor, I have closed credit cards debt that equal $11,580 (from when I made bad choices), however, I keep my current 3 credit cards with no balance and my only monthly debt is rent, food, and utilities and necessities ($1700). No loans or car loans. I was planning on keeping my savings account ($19,000 on 401k) to cover the downpayment in 6 months after I get a job and steady income again, and at the same time pay down my debt with the cashflow from that job. However, if I do that based on a $17 an hr job, my debt to income ration will still be over 50% after 6 months since my credit cards limits are so low. So what I'm thinking is withdraw $10,000 to pay down debt right now, and save my extra cashflow for the downpayment instead. 

Any ideas from the experts? 

Thank you!  

Thank you very much for all the advice! I didn't there were people in Bismarck from the BBP community! 

@Jennifer Greuel- Very well, that helps me adjust my expectations towards a price. How long did it take you to find that property, and how much do you mean by a good deal?

@Leslie Crosten - Well, I'm just starting to get to know the market and the aspects of how to do it properly. I haven't applied for financing yet, but I was under the impression that as long as is 4 units or less and I occupy the property, then an FHA loan with around 4% shouldn't be an issue. The reason why I projected a 10% downpayment (Not interest rate sorry) is because I read that if I do a 10% downpayment, then I wouldn't get any loan points.

@Lee Gierszewski - Absolutely! I would love to have somebody here to talk about Real Estate because I try to talk about it, but no one seems to care how achievable it is. I've been using mainly Zillow, but I always thought that I'd have a better chance to find good deals if I have access to MLS. But I agree with you and @Derek Dame, that in real estate there's always going to be good deals and I just need to find the way to recognize them. This is why I decided to get my North Dakota real estate license, I figured that's the best way to learn most of what I need to succeed.

Hello Community!

I'm starting as an investor of rental properties, and I'm looking into buying my first property. My goal is to get a fourplex maybe $150,000 with an FHA loan and a 10% interest rate. I ran the numbers on the BBP calculator, and my rent goal in order to get a 12% CoC return, has to be about $3,300. However, since this will be my first rental property I'm starting to learn how to properly analyze markets, and how to analyze deals. My city Bismarck, ND was a small city 5 years ago when I moved, but now it has grown dramatically (or so I think). So I wanted some advice on the approach I'm taking, and if there is anything I should be doing differently?

Thank you!

Good luck! I'm starting to learn how to assess cities and neighborhoods before looking for properties. Didn't know that was so vital to find a deal.

Beautiful brick Apartment building. sits on a whole block of its own having over 14,000 sq. Ft. Has a new industrial roof since 2017. Electric, plumbing, and water were separated out for each apartment about 10 years ago.

All the areas have their own furnace, water heaters, showers, laundry, and kitchens. Also, Central heat and AC, and firewalls between each apartment. Each place has interconnected smoke alarms.

Apt 1 is a 5bds/4ba

Apt 2 is 4bds/4ba, 2 office rooms, a laundry area, a kitchen-dining room & a living room. It also has a connected apartment that is a 1bd/1ba

Apt 3 is a 3bds/3ba

Apt 4 is a 4bds/4/ba (only two showers)

Apt 5 is a 2bds/2ba but is not finished. (this is where I would live to have free rent and finish whatever work it needs)

There are two large boiler rooms located on the Northwest side of the building that is used for storage.

There is a big park-like lot to the west that is part of the place.

Could be sold separately as it was surveyed and is considered residential.

Once again, Thank you!!!

View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

Thank you everyone for helping! here is a description of the property, and also the report I made from biggerpockets calculator.

Beautiful brick Apartment building. sits on a whole block of its own having over 14,000 sq. Ft. Has a new industrial roof since 2017. Electric, plumbing, and water were separated out for each apartment about 10 years ago.

All the areas have their own furnace, water heaters, showers, laundry, and kitchens. Also, Central heat and AC, and firewalls between each apartment. Each place has interconnected smoke alarms.

Apt 1 is 5bds/4ba

Apt 2 is 4bds/4ba, 2 office rooms, a laundry area, a kitchen-dining room & a living room. It also has a connected apartment that is a 1bd/1ba

Apt 3 is a 3bds/3ba

Apt 4 is a 4bds/4/ba (only two showers)

Apt 5 is a 2bds/2ba but is not finished. (this is where I would be living to work on it, and have free rent.

There are two large boiler rooms located on the Northwest side of the building that is used for storage.

There is a big park-like lot to the west that is part of the place that could be sold separately as it was surveyed and is considered residential.

Thank you very much! Very good input. That’s exactly what I needed! I knew it looks good, but I didnt know what else to check besides the numbers. I’ll go ahead and gather that information and keep it posted! 

Thank you!

Good morning!

I recently started to learn about rental investments. I've been reading and watching videos on everything that can help me succeed. I was practicing how to use the rental calculator so I could know how to properly analyze a deal. However, I think I'm doing something wrong because when I input the information about the property the returns are too high. I attached a link to the property to see how would you assess this deal. I live a couple of hours away, so I have the same resources as you, to put into the calc. So the ROI in around 26%... is there anything I'm missing? or is it just a very nice deal because of the size of the town?

https://www.zillow.com/homedet...