All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Bolcon

Thank you Anthony and Colleen (tag function doesn't seem to be working) I sort of figured this would be the answer just wanted to double check with people who might know more. 

How are you guys finding the market in RI to be right now? I'm currently working on a flip since my initial duplex investment soaked up much more cash than I thought. 

especially the lower end of the market seems to be really tough. People want so much once it's on the MLS that there is usually little margin, or they just get scooped up like hot cakes. Ended up partnering with two other parties on a bit of a larger flip. Since it's higher end there is more margin.

Not sure how others feel about this as I am pretty green but 20% for capex and repairs combined sounds very very high.  I consider them to be one in the same and then determine almost everything I can think of with a conservative estimated cost divided out over the life of the item and add that to my monthly cost.  I think my duplex estimate is below 10% of rent right now for capex/repairs.

Another thing that can kill you that people are pointing out is the taxes (although yours are still far lower than my area).  In my area (Rhode Island) I cannot find single family homes that work.  Even smallish 3/1's have 3k a year in property taxes or more.  Eats your profit alive.  I have to have two units or more to cashflow where I am (based on market values).  Compare that to areas in NC with $600 a year in taxes for a similar sized home...

Hey BP community,

I have a question on making sure I am doing things the right way.  Myself and my investing partner currently have a duplex that we self manage.  Her boss is moving out of state and approached us asking if we would be interested in managing her house as a rental rather than selling it when they move out of state.  This is a pretty nice house, it would probably rent in the 2k/month range so it would be decent side income for us and its close enough to the duplex we currently manage and also to work that it wouldn't be inconvenient.  

Now come to find out Rhode Island (and many other states) require you to have a Broker's license to manage property that isn't yours.  Neither me nor my partner have a real estate license right now.  I am wondering if there is any simple (and hopefully legal) way around this?  Can they technically manage it and just pay us to go over there and help them out with screenings and such?  It seems like a good opportunity to expand our experience but it doesn't seem worth going through a broker and at only two properties its not worth trying to form a management company yet.  Any advice is appreciated.

I'm convinced we got the rents we wanted and quality tenants for our B-/C+ area because we painted and cleaned.  Many people who came to look at it commented on how much cleaner it was than the other places they looked at.  And it doesn't take that long to vacuum, mop the floors, wash the walls, etc.  It makes a huge difference to people.  Also having moved into a filthy rental one time I know I was less than pleased, and told myself I would never be the type of landlord who expected someone to move into a dirty unit. 

Looks like I got the worst of it with $850. I'm going to keep my property for at least a couple of years I think. I got both sides rented to what appear to be good tenants (one side they were in their previous property for 5 years) for the rents I wanted. That being said I made some mistakes such as overpaying and underestimating reno. Essentially I was a bit fooled by lipstick on a pig from the seller's but it's lessons learned and the numbers still seem to work out.

I agree with you Anthony but I still work and live in RI so it's the easiest place for me to get started and the only reason I am okay with it is lack of housing, so low vacancy rates. Other than that the outlook is not as good as other parts of the country.

@Account Closed did you guys every find out your increases for properties in West Warwick?

@Anthony Thompson Yes and no.  Was it as bad as it could have been with a $2700 increase? No.  But it was still an 18% increase? Yes. 

It's not the end of the world but it hits my cash on cash return by almost a full 1% and reduces my cashflow each month (obviously).  I think in the future I may try to avoid investing in West Warwick unless the numbers are truly phenomenal.  The taxes are just insane.  I would rather increase my budget to go to a different town and not have to spend thousands more in taxes every single year. 

@Jay Hinrichs I'm not trying to be rude, and I could be wrong but I believe there are 52 weeks in a year.

As many people have been saying most of the traffic by far for my listing came through the Facebook Marketplace including the tenants we accepted. But it also produced a good percentage of nonsense. The best one is this:

Lady messages and introduces herself saying she does smoke, is single, middle-aged, etc. Then says she has 3 mixed breed dogs and she is living out of her car because she is going through a foreclosure due to a "predatory" mortgage or something.

Proceeds to send an article, an actual article in the paper about HER, about how she can't find anyone to rent to her and her three pitbulls. Regardless of what the Insurance company would say (it wouldn't be good) I don't think I want to be the landlord to take a chance when none of these others would. Not to mention the second something didn't go her way she would probably run to the paper to publish a story.

@Andrew B. @Justin R. Thanks for the advice.  I have contacted the potential tenant in regards to needing to sign a holding agreement with deposit that will convert to the security deposit.  Hopefully they don't see an issue with that.  If they do then obviously I will need to move on.  I am liking the idea of the holding deposit rather than adding in the calculations/contingencies into the lease.