All Forum Posts by: Mark Takata

Thanks @Todd Rasmussen! Good move! 

Excited to attend the next one! This is the best thing since sliced bread! :P

...no really it's an awesome group with some regulars and also new faces but it feels like a community of like minded folks all trying to bounce ideas off of each other and help learn from one other.

No Agendas, just great conversation and learning. Elyse did a great job discussing how to evaluate market areas and this next month Todd's up for Buy.Rehab.Rent.Refi.Repeat!

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Blue Mound.

Purchase price: $183,500
Cash invested: $45,800

3+2 moderate sized $1550 rent

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Wanted my first deal to be straightforward just to get started and learn everything I could by experience

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Offered less than listing and resulted in a counteroffer that I accepted

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional loan with 25% down

How did you add value to the deal?

Minor renovations including laminate flooring

What was the outcome?

Closed Dec 12, 2019 and moved a renter in Jan 11, 2020

Lessons learned? Challenges?

First of all and most of all have a contractor or handyman ready to meet you at your property ready to roll with a detailed statement of work. I made the mistake of not having a clearly defined SOW and ended up having to do a lot of the work on my own staying up for over 24 hours in order to get the jobs done before a flight back home

Along with that get the required jobs done first like lock replacements, lockboxes, fixing things that are broken before making updates that are cosmetic.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

A Keller Williams agent and his preferred lender.

@Anthony Dooley thanks for the advice! Apartment upgrades when tenants move out is underway. The most recent 2 have been upgraded and are now at market rent. Just need to find a way to fix the rent collection part. Thinking maybe there’s no reason in this class to switch to annual lease. In your experience have you had to get new lease agreements signed stating additional fees that will be charged? I was thinking that my dad could charge a fee for those that do not direct deposit as a means to increase income w/o being affected by rent control as well as to encourage transitions to direct deposit.

@Matt R. Thanks for the tips, there is currently an account set up at chase bank to collect rent but like you said my Dad is leery of providing the info to tenants. I’ll check with the bank to see what they can tell me about this process, but this is what we figured would be a good process as well. Especially for those who aren’t too tech savvy. Chase did say that with a business account, tenants can take cash to a chase branch and deposit into the account whereas a personal acct they need a money order.

Hey BP, 

Background: 

I'm trying to help my dad improve operations on his 8 unit appt complex in the West Adams area of Los Angeles, CA. He currently has 6 of 8 tenants on month to month (2 newest including one that moves in today 9/1/18 are the first on 1 year leases); drives there every month to collect money orders and drives back again when they are late (he does charge late fees w/o exception). There are a few tenants that are late every month and pay the late fee every month. Ultimately looking to hire Property Management, but in the mean time looking for some suggestions.

Questions:

1. Strategies to transition existing tenants from month to month to 1 year lease agreements?

2. How to transition existing tenants to electronic payments/direct deposit or are there any other recommended forms of payment? Cozy seems to be recommended, but some of his tenants are not too tech savy; he has one that doesn't have a cell phone at all -just the land line in the appt. 

3. The 6 of 8 that are on month to month are way below market rent ($300-$400/month) are there any recommendation on how to bring them up to market rent? especially for those that are consistently paying late - the latest request was for my dad to accept rent 23 days late. I've asked him to send me copies of the rental agreements to see what the terms are for late payments - not sure what he can legally do. 

4.  Ultimate question: Looking for referrals for Lawyer/CPA/Property Management Company in the West Adams Los Angeles, CA areas.

Thanks BP Community. I'll continue to scour the landlord forums as well.

@Curt Riffel 

Thanks for the detailed list! I'll definitely keep looking in those upper middle class areas! 

@Kenneth McKeown 

Thanks for the info! I will definitely start looking into these areas! I'm looking to stay away from the high end real estate to hopefully protect myself from any market correction that may be heading our way - I've heard this from both Grant Cardone and J Scott so I figured its probably wise advice. Do you have any thoughts on this approach relative to what you might be seeing in your market?

Thanks again! 

@Ellie Perlman, 

Thanks! Yeah BP has been an excellent resource for creating a strong foundation, but need to start taking action at some point, so I'm diving in! Thanks for the resource! I'll have to spend some time familiarizing myself with it - seems like they provide multiple services; do you primarily use it for their Publications? 

Mark

@Curt Riffel thanks for taking the time to reply! I will definitely look into these areas. As a newbie to REI maybe I'm identifying what I'm looking for incorrectly when I say B/B+, I'm looking for middle working class where I'd find quality tenants in safe areas - just trying to avoid the high end part of market. Does that still equate to the areas you identified?