All Forum Posts by: Mark Allen

Price appreciation is very low in military markets. Most military markets have high crime. ALL military rentals suffer from higher turnover which kills returns. I sold out of military markets because I was in my early 20s, less experienced, and saw the light in investing in high growth markets (Austin/Dallas). I started investing in 2009, so we’ll see how I fair through the next cycle.

An old Chinese investor who owns about 1000 apartment units and 30 or so single family homes called me in to value his largest apartment complex in Dallas. When I asked him why he's selling he said 1) he's getting very old 2) there's an inherent global recession coming worse than 2009 (he has three partners in this one apartment and has owned for 25 years). He held up an article from a Chinese newspaper that mentioned China unloading $3.1M of US treasuries. I'm no economist or pretend to act like I know what he was talking about, but essentially he said: Rising interest rates will halt any economic growth. Treasury having less bond buyers drives up rates. The debt is skyrocketing plus an increase in rates will make it worse. Tax cuts benefit wiped out by govt spending. The only solution they have is to print more money in this bad scenario. Which drives up inflation. Oil 100+ a barrel coming soon. Chinese arent stupid. They will allow bonds they own to mature and sell dollars on the forex market. Which drives down the value of dollar. Gold skyrockets. Housing, commercial RE, bonds, stocks - kaboom. Pretty much what Kiyosaki has been saying for years. Quantitative Easing won't bail us out. Dollar will be worthless. Crypto/gold are insurance. I'm preparing for both scenarios: A slight correction and a collapse.

Send me a note. I'll connect you with my commercial insurance broker.

Try 5Arch. Tell them I sent you and they'll take good care of you. Best portfolio loan products.

Are you self-employed? This makes a difference on either strategy from a tax perspective.

Seems better fit for retail, IMO.

Michael Rodriguez In today's market the most common challenge I face is price appreciation outpacing rents. The majority of buyers for portfolios are purchasing based on yield, and with portfolio debt at 5-7%, there's not much of a spread. I've sold portfolios for the top 5 largest institutional owners and there has been challenges with contract negotiations. They operate in a "box" meaning they aren't very flexible from their SOPs. So contract negotiations has been a long, tough process with some of these REITs/large private equity. Feel free to reach out if your buyers have issues financing portfolios.

Krishna Chava sounds like big brother is always watching... I'm sure turnover would increase if staff was scolding tenants for speeding or not picking up after their dog.

What do you mean by buyer hurdle?

In areas where crime is eminent, I don't see how this stops the problem (crime). 99% of properties know exactly who the trouble tenants or know that petty crime will occur. So how do you limit crime? For example, a drug dealer will operate out of their unit. People will visit their unit and exchange money for drugs. The manager knows who the drug dealer is, but they can't just evict them for saying they're a drug dealer if said drug dealer is paying on time... or you can't put a camera in their unit that proves they're dealing drugs. If the owner pays the city police a nice sum of money, the police should stick around the property and not let loitering occur, especially to that drug dealers unit. That will in turn cut off that dealers business and he'll have to move. Am I making sense? That's just the main way I see putting a stop or reducing crime. Not technology, unless it's an armed robot :)