All Forum Posts by: Mark Costa

Quote from @Sara Nap:

"I couldn't find a legal team that understood how to enforce the billing portion of the lease." That's a funny way of saying it's illegal...

No, it just couldn't be enforced easily because NY is a tough place for landlords. I also may have been working with a lawyer who wasn't knowledgeable enough to effectively argue for it's legality. Neither my PM, nor my lawyer, were familiar with the technology so they weren't sure how to best support it.

Quote from @Jim Biggs:

So did you end up raising rents and keep in ABP all bills paid or get rid of it?

 We couldn't raise the rents because the contract was already written. I did raise rents for newer tenants.

Quote from @Jim Biggs:

@Mark Costa The whole world of BP is waiting for your answer :)

 I did try Livable for 6 mos; it was great in theory, terrible in practice. It's been awhile since the experiment, so I can only recall a few high level details.

1) There is always a delay between the billing period and when the tenants got billed so it was really difficult to reconcile the utility bill to the tenants' bills.

2) Related to #1, the tenants weren't that bright so the concept was lost on them. We were trying to educate tenants who were not easy to educate.

3) I couldn't find a legal team that understood how to enforce the billing portion of the lease. More specifically, tenants not paying their prorated share of utilities was not equivalent to not paying rent, so couldn't be enforced. Keep in mind this is NY, where landlords are expected to budget free housing for delinquents in their business models.

I  summary, we ended up sinking a lot of time into the process for very little gain.

Still carrier circle or are we picking a place that will treat us better?

@Mike Alt love the idea of restoration through targeted investment. I have two buildings around Lincoln Park. Not far from SU with some nice houses to start. However, there are a few rundown buildings that, if updated, would lift the neighborhood.

All of the points and questions above are perfectly valid. I do not think they are as far along as knowing where they will be working (or even if they are moving yet). I wanted to get an idea of where I could steer them to get the wheels churning in their heads. After that, I can work with them to talk about the pros and cons of different investment strategies.

I would love to know more about those B & C areas that haven't blossomed yet. What are the going cap rates for B & C neighborhoods in the Pittsburgh area?

Good morning and Happy Holidays, BPrs,

My brother-in-law is thinking of moving to Pittsburgh and I suggested he consider a nice house hack to get started. They are visiting the city now and are looking for suggestions on places to look. He and his wife are younger and have no kids, so their criteria are more focused on walkability, restaurants, and safety, and less on schools.

Does anyone have any suggestions on which neighborhoods to look to for investors or maybe a person they could have coffee with or talk to in the near future?

Thank you,

Hi @Tavon Moore,

I'd love to connect. I'll be at the meetup tonight if you can make it. If not, we can set up another time to meet.

Greg,

I think the prevailing approach is to have separately metered units. We do have a high percentage of properties that are shared utilities but I think landlord's typically charge a little more in those instances. Very rarely does the more equate to covering the utility costs though. My intuition is that as long as the total cost of rent plus utility bill back is equal to or less than they will pay somewhere else I should be fine. 

The only thing I get concerned about is whether people feel like other tenants are not doing their part to curb consumption. I'd like to install smart thermostats at some point to gather more data to use to ensure that the bill back is as accurate as possible but I did not get the sense that smart thermostats were supported at this time.

Hello,

I wanted feedback on a deal I am working on in the Syracuse, NY area. It's a nice neighborhood and close to amenities.I have an offer accepted on a 6-unit apartment building, which includes 5 1-bedroom apartments and 1 2-bedroom apartment. The rents are near market rate except for the fact that the rents include utilities.

I had to go private money because the seller wants to move quickly. Here are the numbers:

I found a company, Livable (http://www.livable.com/), that will implement Ratio Utility Billing Services (RUBS) on this small of a building for $5 per unit/per month if I collect the money or $10 per unit/month if they handle the billing. Has anyone had experience with this company? So far they have been very helpful, which is giving me a some comfort. Also, has anyone had problems collecting the bill back money from their tenants? I am a bit nervous because some people, particularly in this area, seem to lack the ability to pay bills electronically.

Alternatively, I could have my management company handle collections so it is all centralized. Do any property management companies handle this for their clients and if so, what is the extra burden? Although I'd rather have my property management company handle the collection but I do not want to throw a monkey wrench into their operations.

Finally, here are the numbers post-refinance:

Any feedback or questions would be appreciated.