All Forum Posts by: Laura Williams

@Blake R.

Wow! That is a great lesson. Thanks for sharing. Curious what kind of basement renovation did the previous owner do without permit that flagged the city? I know Kansas City is like the Wild West with people working on their own houses and doing all kinds of repairs without permits. Something to definitely keep in mind when buying. 

@Blake R.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure what he decided to do but I would think getting registered by the city would be the right thing to do even if it cost more money. If there was some kind of safety issue where someone got hurt I would imagine it would look bad in court that your property wasn't even registered with the city. Also alot of cities are getting smart software systems to catch people breaking rules to issue fines and could come back to bite an unregistered owner. 

Agree with all the people who say not to get a partner and look into professional property mngt instead or a property closer to you that you can keep an eye on. So many things can go wrong with a partner and it never surprises me how many people do dumb things (that you wouldn't guess by meeting them) that could be catastrophic in a real estate deal. Stay 100% in control of your property and only use professional mngt who screens tenants and uses licensed vendors.

Any insurance companies out there who insure older apartment buildings (HOA insurance) at a reasonable price? I'm hearing alot of companies are stopping to insure older apartment buildings and wondering which companies other investors are having luck with for multifamilies in the Kansas City Missouri areas. So far I'm being told alot of big companies are refusing to insure older multifamily as of recently.

@Gino Barbaro

We got a bid from Caldwell and they wanted 1.75/day per machine plus monitoring and credit card fees plus every year the price goes up by CPI min 3% & the contract is for 8 years.  They don't cover if the machine gets vandalized etc. Is that what they quoted on yours? Our building is (in process of cancelling) using Coinmach and 3/4 of the washers had 2/4 dryers have been broken for months in spite of reporting them. So I'm leary of getting into another contract and being left with a ghetto laundry room in a couple years.

Those machines I sent link to from Home Depot are around $1200/each so was curious if you come out ahead to buy them and just have an appliance repair out when they break?? I would hope if you bought new machines they would last at least a year or 2 before anything broke? or long enough you made the money back?

Does anyone have experience with owning these types washer/dryer machines that use the QR code/coinless and ease of use and reliability? If tenants like or hate? Specifically the GE Launderday APP and this model??https://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-4-2-cu-ft-White-Commercial-To...

Looking at option to purchase laundry machines for a multifamily building rather than leasing them through a company. Would love to hear investors thoughts if it's worth it to buy the laundry machines outright ...if you make enough profit to be worth the hassle?? verses leasing them from a company that handles the issues when they break down but keeps most of the profit??

@George Red

I have one tenant through Save Inc and an inherited one through the KC housing program. The problem I have with Save Inc is that they promised the tenant she had a 1K voucher and then a couple days before the tenant was supposed to move in and she was going to be homeless and counting on our house they said her voucher was only 823 cause the 1k had to include all utilties which was never mentioned to the tenant & in the paperwork she had. Feeling bad for her we took the lower rent and just worked out that we wouldn’t install the central air and she would use her own window units. I’ve asked for rent increases twice now and been denied saying they have no money for a rent increase. Meanwhile our property taxes doubling and property insurance etc. So I’m actually quite annoyed cause it’s on the 3rd year without any rent increase. I will never work with Save again.  

The tenant who is in our KCMO housing is a perfect easy tenant (an older lady who has been in the same house for years) and we haven’t had too many issues except when the house failed inspection over something minor they didn’t pay us rent for 2 months. Even though the tenant was still living and enjoying the house those 2 months. I’ve also been asking my property manager to increase the rents here at least something to keep up with inflation and property taxes, insurance that has tripled in past couple years but apparently it’s a big deal and a process. 

I have had lots of section 8 tenants in st Joseph but the housing there has been a lot more reasonable and easier to work with. My property manager told me the independence section 8 office is much better to work with than Save or the KCMO housing and she only works with them for vouchers. 

So that’s just my thoughts on it. Be prepared to not get any rent increases or a major hassle at best. And nail down a definite amount of rent from the programs themselves before agreeing to rent to their tenants cause they will lowball the last second. 

As far as tenant quality in all the section 8s I’ve not had any horrible experiences but with any tenants you need to screen them…probably even more so if they are in these programs.  I look for history of the person paying bills and rent on time…being responsible. Basically good people.  I personally like the smaller houses for these programs where you can get a nice single person who is retired or disabled or works but needs a little help. 

 I’ve heard that section 8 houses that are all one level for someone in a wheelchair or an older person are really hard to find and you can get someone that will stay a long time because of that so maybe something to look for if buying for section 8. 

@Eric Mensah living in a duplex and renting out the other half as a short term rental (we were told) is completely legal and considered an owner occupant STR. You could rent the other half out 365 days a year as long as the other half was your primary residence. You'd still need to get registered with the city before listing your property and now we have these pain in the butt short term rental taxes we have to collect and pay every quarter. But you should be good to go and probably not a bad business plan. The city finally got airbnb and VRBO to delist several hundred (unlicensed) listings so the number of STRs in KCMO is way lower now than it was a year ago.

I would contact the head of the STR program and ask him about your specific property and situation before putting money down just to double check there's not any quirks that might keep you from it but the city did tell us duplex with owner on one side and airbnb on the other is legal and considered owner occupied.

@Namrata B.

Not sure if you're a member of Bridge Real Estate Investing meet-up group ..it's a facebook group you can join that has lots of local Kansas City investors in it as well as trades people. I usually go on there and ask other local investors for recommendations for trades people when I don't know anyone and need someone for a job such as new roof or driveway etc. You might have luck to post your question on there as well.

Also another facebook group to join (and ask your question on) is the Kansas City Real Estate Investors a Marei facebook group (MAREI) that is a large local investor organization that has about 14K members.

Hope this helps

@Michelle Park Senyard

I think with the high end condos it's that they are (in my opinion) inferior investments to houses...A) historically appreciation wise B) also because you have an HOA taking a chunk of your cashflow in HOA fees ...plus potential incompetence in the HOA board...potential assessments C) the rental competition with these beautiful new condo buildings being built. There was (what was nice at the time) a 10-15 plex apartment building that sold in Westport back in 2017 ish and last I asked how it was doing the investor was getting less rent there now than a few years ago cause it's no longer that great compared to these new constructions that have pools and podcast rooms etc.

I do think you could easily get a nice 3/2 house here for your price point in a desirable location. Rents probably would be $1600-2400 depending on location and how nice it was. If you were looking to rent a 3/2 here ...even in a condo ...in a decent area it would be almost impossible to find  anything renting for under 1500/month unless its rough or doesn't have laundry or not great part of town etc. If that gives you a sense of rents.