All Forum Posts by: Mark McNaughton

@Alexander Wardell.  I did look into the rates charged by the property management company I am familiar with and it is actually $100/mo for the first property unit and $75/unit after that so with the triplex be looking at $225/mo I think which certainly does impact the calculations a lot.  The calculations for cost of replacing a tenant in each unit each year makes sense and I suppose is a conservative line to take.  Thank you for the advice.

Thank you for the advice, Alex.  As far as the profile picture goes I completely agree, but I have tried multiple times with no success.  I have seen the same issue posted multiple times on this site, and am confident it is not a problem on my end.  I’m going to try to tackle it with a different browser but when I tried last night, the site said it was under maintenance.  The sale price I posted was the asking price purely to show that at the asking price it still seemed like a good deal, I would be interested in making an offer for less.  I actually am currently using a management company that charges $100 as a flat rate.  I am not that pleased with the service I’m receiving and will be looking at other options soon.

Thank you all for the sound advice, I'll be following up with some agents when I get settled down in the Philadelphia area.

View report

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

This is my second post on the site and first after upgrading to pro. I've only used the rental calculator 5 times and have a basic knowledge of most of the terms contained therein. OK, cut to the chase. This deal meets all of the metrics that I've come across in evaluating potential properties after my 1 week of investment education. I simply refuse to believe that since 99% of properties are not going to work, that I found a 1%er in my first 5 go's. I realize that there could be a number of details absent from the listing that could tarnish this deal's luster. "As-is" verbiage from the listing leads me to believe that some type of repairs would need to be accomplished though there are current tenants with rental agreements that extend for another year. My $10k estimate for repairs is not based on anything at the moment. The absence of actual square footage makes it difficult to check to see if the rental prices listed are accurate. I'm also not sure what the listing means when it says the property is "zoned as a triplex". If it were not, would that mean additional fees for having it zoned as such? Aside from some of these issues is there anything in the numbers that doesn't look right?

Also unrelated: is there any way to account for high vs. low turnover rates in the calculator? In other words accounting for the increased cost of advertising during a vacancy or do you just have to manually inflate the property management fees?

I recently found an interest in this real estate investment business through a bunch of arrows in my life that ll pointed in the same direction.  I'm committed to expanding my portfolio over the next few years.  I'm still trying to figure out my niche but I'll be moving to Philadelphia soon so I'd like to start there.  I found a property that after analysis met some of the benchmarks discussed in the beginner's guide.  I did have a few extra questions regarding the condition of the property as well as how accurate the rents published on the listings were for the 3 units in the triplex.  As I found it on realtor.com I opted to "email the agent" and received a call from I think the brokerage firm approximately .01 seconds after hitting send.  A few calls later I was finally connected to a buyer's agent.  How do you know if someone is a good agent for you?  I think I'd like to focus on multifamily in the Philadelphia area, should I be pursuing an agent through these forums?