All Forum Posts by: Marwan Marzagao

Thanks Joel,  I have decided not to pursue the opportunity but rather build on what we have so we can control the condition and what owners we take on.  

I am looking at the possibility to buy a PM company with 250 properties.  Personally I currently own/operate thirty.  I want to know what to expect, time needed and potential hurdles I will face and a good way to value the "business".  I have an infrasturcture I can plug into and would be converting everything to Buildium or Appfolio (another one of my recent posts).  

I would not be doing this full time as I would not be able to support my family until this got off the ground but the end goal would be to reach that point and transition fully to running and developing this operation. 

Any insight or thoughts are greatly appreciated. 

Thanks Andrew.  It's currently at 100%.  But again, people paying about 50% below market.  That makes sense to keep occupancy up and maybe stagger the increases so people don't take off right away.  There are some updates and repairs needed as well.  Have you ever had to incorporate utilities that were being paid by the owner?  I plan to go speak to all the tenants once the deal is closed and see how they react to possible rent increase and covering utilities.  Hopefully this will give me a gauge as to what the "first" increase could look like so I don't run them off.  Thanks again for the post!

I am in the final stages of the due diligence period on a 16 unit complex. I would like some thoughts around successful transition plans some of you have tried to increase rent, move some tenants out and transition utilities back to all tenants (water is currently paid by the owner). 

My initial thought is this will take 12 to 18 months for all the units.  But, I want to try and take advantage of Oct and Nov this year as this is prime time for finding renters.  Typically this is when students (main main demographic),  are looking for apartments for Dec.  I realize I may only be able  to open up a few units, but would be a big help to the bottom line.

My challenge is that every unit will need painting, new flooring, minor updates and repairs which, I figure two to three weeks of work to complete.  

Most units are on a month to month lease and the majority of the tenants have been there anywhere from five to fifteen years. 

If anyone has a strategy they have used to turn units with minimal vacancies, and/or increased rent with current tenants, I would greatly appreciate learning about it. 

I am currently looking at a property that falls into my portfolio in respect to location, property and potential ROI. The owner needs to sell because he manages remotely and he is tired of dealing with it.

Unfortunately,  I have maxed out my ability to take on loans for Realestate based on the number of properties that I have and conventional lending and I don't have the 20% at to put down if I did find a loan.

I offered the owner a potential Owner Finance options with a good down payment, balloon payment and higher than market interest rate.  He said he really can't do that because of his debt position with the property.  He did say he would consider having me assume his note and take over ( I don't have the details on this yet).

Has anyone been in a similar situation and positioned a  different creative option?   

I am looking for any ideas I can evaluate and present to this seller to make this work for both of us.  

I hope this is a clear request but I will be happy to answer any questions to help come  up with options based on what I know.

Thank you!

Thank you

welcome, I find it's always good to start out where you are most familiar and oversee the properties if, even with a PM.  Going outside areas certainly can help put and get better tax rates an worth considering.  I do my investing in the Shandon area primarily and live very close which make it easy to oversee the properties.  

As to your tax question, I think we all wish there was a way around the 6%. 

Some people try to work some "loop holes" but it's not worth the consequences if you get caught.  I have seen it happen.

I try to find the undervalued properties,  you can also appeal the value if you feel it's not accurate or based on POS price, this has worked in my favor and also I have not been abel to move the assessed price, but it was worth trying.

Good luck!

rentecdirect.com and truerent are ones I am evaluating.  Both are free to a certain number of units.  I just started trying truerent, it seems simpler than rentec but rentec has very good phone support.  This being said, I have not called truerent yet but plan to to ask some questions.

Good luck!

I am going through a renovation of a triplex.  I am thinking about using excel to track costs. My contractor is awesome, but old school and does everything in his note book. it takes forever to get him to get me info on where he is and it's not itemized.  Does anyone have a good cost tracker for renovations.  I want to share it with him so we can keep up with work, draws, timeline, adjustments to quotes ect.  It's too ambiguous and I feel that this is how we are going to get off budget.  Any templates or areas to find them would be greatly appreciated.

I have small electric ones in my one bedrooms. It cost me about $450 and maybe $100 to install.  They have  a lifetime warranty. I had one for two years and it went bad, I called the company, it turned out all it needed was a new fuse and they walked me through how to open it and replace it. I plan on buying them for my tank systems that are starting to rust out. I have not heard any complaints on power consumption.