All Forum Posts by: Lewis A.

A very useful perspective, thank you William.

 Thank you Nathan, these are very helpful.

Most of us charge fees/penalties in our leases. The normal late fees, application fees etc. Can you mention what other fees have worked well for you please?

Some ideas to start the conversation.

We email our tenants all notices and they agree to that method of communication in their lease. If they do not acknowledge a notice in a set period of time the notice is attached to their door, we are exploring adding a penalty fee for this in the lease to compensate administrative costs.

We very rarely pay utilities on behalf of a tenant, when we do, we charge that amount to their invoice at no additional cost. We are thinking of adding a 10% charge to those utility bills.

We have considered court fees for a while. We go to court ourselves and are considering adding a penalty/fee for this as it requires preparation and a large part of our day.

I know this can all be dependent on state but I would like to know what has worked well for you please.

Hey everyone!

I understand that a number of us go through spurts of progress and then need time to build up finances before our next move.

The times when we make progress are super exciting but I’m wondering how you handle your off time?

What are some of the things you do in your “off season” to keep you moving forward and motivated?

No experience with this personally and I imagine much more experienced members will offer proper advise.

I think the type of residence will determine your responsibilities. For example is there an HOA?

My personal opinion is that you should keep out of it. Although your neighbor may be legitimately upset she should take that up with your tenant and not you. What exactly does your neighbor really expect you to do?

I feel for your neighbor but don’t see how you can fix this. Your neighbor may need some better sound proofing.

Hello everyone, I would like your input please.

We have a list of 8 distressed apartments and we want to purchase one as our next investment.

I know many do not like to invest in apartments but our first one is working well and we want a second one before going into a multi family.

We have searched listings and run the numbers on the ones we like.

Please tell me if you agree with the following strategy.

Write a letter to each seller stating who we are and that we have selected their property as one of 6 we are interested in. 
Give them a cash in price and a financed price! The letter would say that if they are interested they have x days to respond and we will then view the apartments that accepted before making our choice.

Our market is distressed and allows on occasion for low ball cash offers.

Am I right approaching it in this way?

Most important thing I can think of is to note the letter does not constitute  a promise to purchase.

Let me know your thoughts,

Thank you.

Given that the units likely need updating can you raise rent 1 unit at a time? If the tenant stays great, if they move out then you can fix it up and list it, then move to the next.

That way you won’t mess yourself up by having all the tenants leave in one go.

Thank you for the reply’s I appreciate the advise. Apologies if my post was difficult to follow.

Hey everyone, I would like some advise on how to make my next investment and in what direction I should go please.

Our primary residence has doubled in value from our low purchase price and renovations. Our lender tells us we could pull out 200k of equity. This property is mortgaged and with the refinance we would still be able to meet our mortgage although it would affect our ability to save until the new investment makes cash flow. It would also mean that what we purchase would be free and clear.

Our rental apartment is paid for and provides $900.00 per month net cash flow after HOA and insurance.

I feel our next investment will define our ability or our inability to further invest in the future.

If I refinance the 200k will cost me around $900.00 extra per month. So as I see it my investment should pay for the $900.00 and the new investments fees and provide a return worthy of the risk.

Option1. I can likely purchase 3 depressed apartments and fix them out of pocket over time to scale from $800.00 pm per unit to $1200.00 per month per unit.

$800x3=$2400-HOA$1350-mortgage$900=$150

$1200x3=$3600-HOA$1350-mortgage$900=$1350

I have difficulty seeing the benefit against the risk to my primary residence and to be honest scaling up would be difficult as I would loose money if units were not rented.

Option 2 is a duplex property which would only scale slightly over time with upgrades.

$2000-insurance/yard$525-mortgage$900=$575


Option 3 would be to find a 3 unit building that could make between $1875 per month after all expenses and mortgage and scale to $3075.00 with upgrades.

Of course option 3 is sounding better but finding a 3 unit building at my price is not going to be easy.

The 1% rule is becoming clouded when factoring in the cost of the home refinance.
Please provide feedback on my way of thinking. And suggest if you think a home refinance is a smart move at this stage.

Thank you.

Good Morning, I am happy to join the community.

My name is Lewis and we own 2 properties.

A single family home on the canal that we have been renovating.

An apartment that we use for rental income.

We hope to continue to invest into apartments followed by a duplex and eventually a small multi unit building would be our goal. 

Thank you again, we look forward to reading, listening and learning.