All Forum Posts by: Mark Totzke

Thanks Tim and Peter. I assume this is possible but can Buildium report on cash flow month by month?

I own and manage three single family homes and eight apartment units and am looking for good management software that can make tax filing easier. I currently use excel but though there might be some packaged software that provides monthly financial reports. Does anyone use Quick Books? Would you recommend it? Which version? Any other software that you would recommend?

Hi - I use Renters Warehouse to manage one of my single family homes in MN. They have managed the property for three years now and they have been great to work with. They are pretty cheap ($80/month) and I have had good luck with them funding qualified tenants. The fee for finding a qualified tenant is quite high though, one months rent. If you can find your tenants that will put a lot more money in your pocket. Mark

Hi Dean - I use Renters Warehouse to manage one of my single family homes in MN. They have managed the property for three years now and they have been great to work with. They are pretty cheap ($80/month) and I have had good luck with them funding qualified tenants. The fee for finding a qualified tenant is quite high though, one months rent. If you can find your tenants that will put a lot more money in your pocket. Mark

Hi Joe - I live in Saint Paul and am looking to invest in a multi-family building in or near Saint Paul. Id like to find a building in an up and coming area that needs some renovations. I saw your post and though I'd check if you have any buildings that might be good acquisitions for me. Thanks Mark

I would suggest take out a line of credit or HELOC to grow your real estate business faster and to its full potential. You can get those loans for prime + 1% (4.25%) today. Take your cheap money and reinvest in more real estate. Your other property should still cash flow even with a 80% LTV 2nd loan. You could easily buy another 2 properties with that.

Yes, the Como property I'm flipping is a category 2 vacant property. It took 4 months to get everything up to code and get the certificate of code compliance. I take part of the fault for the lengthy rehab time because I was trying to save money by using a handyman. I learned shortly into the project that I must use licensed contractors. The 5 inspections and getting everything up to code put me 30k over budget but luckily I got the property very cheap. Will profit 11-12k.

Welcome Mark. I'm also an investor in Saint Paul. I have two rentals in SP and flipping my first house in the Como area this week. Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm a real estate investor in the Twin Cities area and am closing on my first flip in Saint Paul on Friday. A bit of advice, stay clear of category 1, 2 and 3 vacant lot buildings in Saint Paul. It has been a major pain with all of the inspections and fees. It is unique to Saint Paul and a lot of the foreclosures are on the vacant lot list so be aware if you are investing in Saint Paul. It may work for buy and hold but it is a very lengthy process so not ideal for flips. While it is nice to be able to pay cash for properties, it's more advantageous to leverage the banks to maximize your buying potential.