All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Lohr

Definitely the LVP! I have that in all my units, even some that share walls, and I've never heard anything about 'noise transfer.'  And I've turned the units multiple times without having to do a thing to the floors. 

I built some Multifamily Townhouses recently. Here's all the things I had to gather before I was approved for the permit. Keep in mind some of this is both project and state specific. 

Pre-BUILDING STEPS

- permission from the planning and zoning desk

- topographic map from a civil engineer

- Building plans and elevations from an architect

- Site plans from Civil Engineer. All wet utilities and points of connection. Also a drainage report.

- Structural plans and calculations from a structural engineer, foundation with footing details, all joist and rafter sizes and spacing, and roof framing.

- Trusses from a truss company, then to be approved by the structural engineer with truss calculations to be done.

- Indoor sprinkler plans with hydraulic calculations and manufacturer spec data sheets. I had to go to the town and get a water flow test before this as well.

- Gas utility meters, needed to figure out where these would go.

- Soil report from a geotechnical engineer. Structural engineer needs to sign off on this too.

- HVAC drawings from HVAC contractor. CA energy code Title 24 consultant needed to approve of these.

- Electrical layout plan from an electrical engineer, both inside and outside electrical.

- Sections from architect, Longitudinal and Transverse.

- And last but not least the CA energy code, Title 24 Part 6. Will be different in your area but most likely needed. This is a consultant about the energy the building will use.

On the outside of the house right? If so, it's not that big if a deal. I bet it's already covered by a few layers of non lead paint by now.  You just have to have the tenants sign the lead paint disclosure form when they sign their lease. 

And make sure your children don't eat the paint on the outside of the house. (which you would prob make sure of even without the paint being lead)

@Dan Barr Oh I see you're in Denver! I just put a 6 unit under contract in Aurora. I used this SAME strategy. The building has some 3 bedroom units in it. I drew a big circle around Aurora and sorted by 3-bedrooms only. It was then that I found that they were going for about 1900 at minimum! Thats when I knew I had a deal. 

@Dan Barr To see what other units similar are renting for right?  I usually check them all. Zillow, Craig's List, Trulia, Hotpads, etc...  And then I look for averages according to the neighborhood, the number of bedrooms/ bathrooms, square footage, the pictures to see if it's an updated unit or not, and amenities in the unit. 

With that you can get a pretty good idea what you will be able to get in rent. 

I also look to see how many contacts the listing has had. Zillow tells you this.  If a listing has been up there for a bit and has had zero contacts then there is probably something wrong with the listing. (overpriced, bad pics, bad neighborhood, etc...)

Yes definitely. I've BRRRRed everything from a duplex to a 6-plex and none have them have needed to be gutted. It's all been cosmetic repairs.  

What you should focus on, along with the repairs, is can you drive the rents up to a point that will produce the value where you need it to be. 

For example, I found a 6-unit of all 3-bedrooms that was clearly being mismanaged. The prior owner was charging under 1000 bucks for each until which was unheard of in my city. To prove it I went on the rental search sites, filtered by 3 bedrooms only, and bingo there was not one SINGLE 3 bedroom rental listed for under 1600 in the whole city. Then I ran the numbers at 1600 per unit using the BP BRRRR calculator and even with putting a number that was way high for repairs the returns were still in the 30% range if I remember correctly. I know I recouped just about all of the $ that went in.

Look on the rental sites and search for what you can realistically get for rents and work backwards from there. 

I've BRRRRed it up from 0 to 20 doors starting in 2016. One thing I'll add is this thread that has helped me is it's been much easier by having another source of income during this time. It lessens the pressure to find that perfect BRRRR deal that gets you every penny out. It's also faster because I was able to find deals quicker that would at least suffice get enough cash out of the deal in order to continue once the refi was done. Also when you're sitting around waiting for the property to season before it will qualify for the refi you might as well be doing something else anyway.  I prefer volume of adequate deals rather than the home run that may never come. And there's a set of rules, like always making sure the deal cash flows, that I never break. 

@Mike Medina  Sorry for the delay. Mostly not the big banks except for one of them which was US Bank. But i seem to remember not liking the process with them. 

If you're having trouble I'd suggest finding an investor friendly mortgage broker. I've mostly used them for my deals. You could probably find one on this website that is based in your area. 

Age 38

20 units (all multifamily and 1 convenience store) 

Started by buying a wreck of a duplex in 2016

BRRRRed it up the whole way. Own three 6-plexes and that duplex. Have yet to sell. 

I've done 4 of these no problem and never my primary residence. (and 4 is a small number compared to others on this site) 

Talk to different lenders.