All Forum Posts by: Noah Chappell

@Jackson Mertes welcome to the area! Not a realtor here, just an investor. As @James Hamling, you need to identify problem areas where you have a competitive advantage. If you have project management experience, identify a poorly managed asset and get to work. If you know about construction, get something distressed in the right ways and manage subs to repair it. If you're a city planner, identify inefficiencies in the market, places where development will hit that you're privy to. Feel free to reach out, always happy to bounce around ideas. 

@Dennis Meints tough situation, I'm in something similar with a duplex in the North End Neighborhood of St Paul right now. My thoughts are just keep grinding ahead. I think the fundamentals of the city are strong, and I agree that there are decent people around and there is pride in the neighborhood. Really, it isn't such as bad area, I think ppl who've been to a truly bad area would find it very decent.. 

About property manager, 145 is frankly high, 100/unit/month is what you should pay. 

I think you've had some bad luck and further difficulty with the rent moratorium, but I think your strategy is not all bad. You might consider renting on free market (not sec 8). Seems like when you get into a building bigger than a duplex, the lack of pride of rentership in sec 8 really makes management tough, unless its a truly specialized company. You might consider marketing to a group home, or making it a 55+ community, etc (guaranteed rent, more supervision, less feisty renters). 

Before renting it again, try to touch base with your manager about really repositioning the place, give the impression its a clean/ safe/ decent place to live, decent bright exterior and interior, etc. 

Like I said before, really nowhere in Minneapolis/ St Paul is too bad.. compared with the rust belt cities, etc. Anywhere where a burnt shells are selling for 90-100k is going to be somewhat decent. 

Just keep at it and you'll get through this! 

@Jennifer Gardner congrats on your condo! I didn't see how much you payed initially for your condo, so can't really say how much your PITI is, but my advice would be to re finance out so that you essentially break even monthly, then take that & invest in a section 8 multi family to balance out your portfolio. If you're lucky enough to own a break even asset in your areas, I'd hold onto this (even though though your % return from cash flow isn't great, how about your yearly appreciation?) If you balance your portfolio between a greatly appreciating asset & a high cash flow asset, then every few years you'll be able to borrow more from your condo to put into sec 8 type assists, & after awhile ideally your cash flow would make you financially free.

@Bill Zhou I also recommend @John Woodrich for taxes. He may also recommend good attorneys to work with. I'm fearful you'll run into the conundrum we're all facing right now, namely the best time to sell is the worst time to buy. Without razor sharp local knowledge, I'd be concerned you'd eat the capital gains or settle for a sub par asset if you're going the 1031 route. 10 cap properties are out there though possibly in less desirable peripheral markets, and likely requiring you/ a carefully chosen team to be local for some time to stabilize and put management in place. Investing as a money partner or limited partner in syndication doesn't sound bad, but depends entirely on your partner or GP. Honestly, 5 payed off townhouses are cash flowing well, and as I understand it they're affording your parents retirement. I might not rock the boat here. 

I agree about liability protection at some point, you might get an attorney to clean things up with your LLC, quitclaim deed the properties in, etc.

@John-Patrick D. Bailey you might want to consider Texas as it's nearer to you and known to have many strong markets, likely within driving distance of the larger metros. You could also consider the other southwestern states. If your cash is down you might start in strategies that require low or no cash. For example you could wholesale. Also, you could finance a BRRRR with hard money then refinance out - this strategy will likely require 30% of ARV as down payment, but you could likely find a hard money lender willing to allow a private loan for this or even some other collateral (payed off car, equity in another property, etc). Lots of good options.

@Ash Clarke sounds like you have a good foundation of knowledge and the 50,000 foot vision down. It's definitely an advantage to have access to many different markets at once. I'd probably choose a mid priced East Coast city like Baltimore or Philadelphia, or a midwestern city that's an airline hub and invest near the airport. Vacation rentals for travelers might be a niche to look into. 

@Anthony Buccanero hey Tony! Just DM me & I'll give you my thoughts. 

@Anthony Buccanero hey Tony and welcome! I encourage you to go to one of the many meetups, which are beginning to return to in-person. Great way to connect! 

@Angelina Ng it sounds like you're looking at a more affordable market, though I'm still not clear if your aim is cash flow vs appreciation vs a hybrid approach. You might want to clarify your objective in investing first. After that, realize there are many markets in which you can be successful, and recently popular markets have been in the Midwest and southeast. More important than picking the exact right city is getting a strong understanding of one local market and diving deep. 

To help make a decision and consider some of the factors affecting the markets in the setting of covid 19 you might want to check out these free resources: 

2021 Marcus Millichap Multifamily Investment Forecast

Milken Institute Best-Performing-Cities-2021

IRR 2021 Annual Multifamily

@Paul Begich Amazing story brother, all the congrats and positive energy to you!! Coming from another investor who's been grinding towards similar goals, I can say it's not easy, so what you've done is inspiring! Hopefully we'll cross paths soon and you can rub some of that good fortune off on me!