All Forum Posts by: Nichole Stohler

@elliot 

@Account Closed , yes... the 4-plex was a bit rough.  The property didn't require a lot of rehab but keeping stable tenants was a problem.   The 7-plex was a dream.   Differences?  The biggest thing on the 7-plex was long-term tenants with a pride of ownership mentality.   The location was better too but the value of great long-term tenants was significant.   

I'm not sure the owner would have sold the property if it weren't for the downturn in values and inability to get financing for the amount still owed when the 5-year mortgage came due.    

@Derrick W. congrats on being 1 house away from your original goal!  When did you set the overall goal?   And what kinds of things did you learn along the way?

Deciding on new areas was tough for us since we had failed in the beginning by not knowing what we were doing.   We were definitely not going to invest in something new without either having help or doing a lot of research.   I would talk with people in the areas you are looking at investing into.  Ask about pros/cons, their best and worst experiences, etc.    You are looking to understand what is involved and if this lines up with your goals...

@Chris Gibbs , great point about the localization of any real estate investment and local regulations.   Cash on cash is better with the hotel.  It's also more fluid in revenue with opportunities to increase rates on a daily basis if you wanted to versus locked-in leases.  

@Chris Gibbs , we are in the mid-range business hotel class.   Definitely, would see Airbnb competitive threat for the vacation market.   For our guests, we see employees are booking through their company travel site and then choosing locations closest to business meetings/work.   No impact on CC&R's between either property.    Do you own any airbnb properties?  We're curious about this market but haven't bought anything yet.  

@Randy K.,  not sure yet...we haven't had the hotel long enough to compare yet as we've been in multi-family for several years.   It's a good question and I'll do a pros/cons update once we have more data.   Right now, I'd say that we still prefer multi-family but that's only because it's what we know.

Agree with @Ian Walsh, @David Fernandez, @Phil Reames and others here.  If the numbers work, the property cash flows and you are in a long-term mortgage then you can ride the waves in the market.   Now, take multi-family which seems to be at the top of the market in my area which makes the deal very skinny and then you have a 5-year commercial loan.... what happens in 5 years?  Possibly 2007 all over again?

@Lincoln Boland

absolutely!  Plus, there are so many more resources today to help you than there were when we were first starting.  Bigger Pockets wasn't around and we were naive about operational costs/expenses.   When the numbers work for a cash flowing property it is a different story. 

@Mike Krieg , yes we are seeing this in Phoenix.  We actually benefitted from it on the sale of our 50 unit and then pivoted to hotels for now.

@Elbert D. , appreciate the questions.  Midwest location was a dying factory town in Indiana.  We didn't have to repair credit... we were in debt but we paid it back over time. We couldn't make money on those initial properties and had financed the down payments with credit card cash advances.   We gave back the properties as they were owner financed but we were stuck with the down payment debt.    We then got back into real estate 11 years later and the trade up looked like:  4 unit --> 7 unit --> 28 unit --> 50 unit --> 80 room hotel.

@Aaron Ryan it's true that there are more moving parts with hotels but it is not a bigger headache.  It's all about the team you have in place.  With the 50 unit I had an on-site Manager who could handle everything.  With the Hotel, I have an operations side that handles the day to day.