All Forum Posts by: Derek Smith

Hello, Last Wednesday I posted my house for rent using the Zillow rental manager (Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads) just like I have several times in the past 8 yrs. The first night I got a lead, but over the next day I didn’t hear anything from any other potential renters. Turns out Zillow deactivated my listing sometime before noon on Thursday. I never got an email, call, notification, nothing. I didn’t know until I checked to see why I hadn’t received any leads. It’s now been 5 days of emailing, webforms, and phone calls, all of which have gone unanswered. I’m no closer to getting my house rented, the one lead was a no show on Saturday. Does anyone have any experience getting Zillow to respond? How did you do it? Anywhere else I should be posting to get traffic? Zillow has worked well for me the past 8 years but... I’ll try craigslist, but I like to stay off there because I haven’t had much success with people from CL. More than one FU response because of my no smoking & no pets policy. Any other ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks, Derek

Hi Jason, Maintenance was mentioned but don't forget about capex. I'm guessing by the price this is in an older neighborhood, some of the houses around Cincinnati can be 100+ years old and capital expenses could eat your profits. (New roof, furnace or A/C, appliances, driveway, water main, sewer, etc) IMO this is especially important in the lower end C&D properties. For two reasons. 1) I think those tenants are harder on everything, and as a result incur higher maint. and capex. 2) the lower rent can't cover this expenses as well, even at the 2% rule. A roof costs what is costs, wether it's on a 2000sf D class property or a 2000sf B class property. The difference is the cost represents a much larger % of NI in D class. There's an article on BP that summarizes capex costs. I think they came out right around $200 a month. I include 10% maint. And 10% capex in my underwriting. I'm local, look me up if I can help.

"have 10% or greater cap rates even with financing!" I think your first step better understand the language. Cap rates don't have anything to do with financing, it's NOI/ price or market value. For seconds, What are you trying to do? Are you trying to pull money out of your investments after only 11 months? Or do you have the down payment and are looking for conventional financing?

Bummer, last month and this month sold out before I could sign up. 

Now I'll be driving up to Ann Arbor during the first happy hour.

Have fun,

Derek

@Joe Fairless it had a block foundation that was cracked and pushing into the basement.

That's a show stopper for me, not something I have the willingness or budget to tackle at this point.

Did anyone else find better financing terms?

I use Guardian Savings Bank for all my personal mortgages and refi's and they're awesome. But 2.125 points + $600 closing costs for investment property is steep. 

Is that pretty standard in Cincinnati with 25% down?

Originally posted by @Derek Smith:

Originally posted by @Merry Briotta:

FYI, I'm going to be unable to make tonight's meeting. So if anyone wants to take my spot, feel free! 

Hi Mary,

I'll take your spot, I didn't sign up in time.

Thanks for posting so others get a shot.

Thank you,

Derek

 Well I'm a putz, 

Found a HUD home and tonight was the last night to submit an offer... So I went to look through that instead tonight.

Sorry guys,

Derek

Originally posted by @Merry Briotta:

FYI, I'm going to be unable to make tonight's meeting. So if anyone wants to take my spot, feel free! 

Hi Mary,

I'll take your spot, I didn't sign up in time.

Thanks for posting so others get a shot.

Thank you,

Derek

Originally posted by @Bryan C.:

Welcome to BP @ investing in the Cincy area.  I have worked w/ @Jamie Harris on a couple deals and he does a great job.  

I havent joined the Cincinnati REIA but thought about it....what kind of selling are we talking about? If its guru stuff I just let that go in 1 ear and out the other...if its people offering their "deals" that might be worth listening to.

I can't say with certainty if it's "Guru", but there has been 2 emails just today pushing a 2 day "seminar" this weekend about seller/owner financing, at a cost of $697 for members.

@Amy Braden@Jamie Harris

@Jamie Harris

Thank you for confirming what I expected. I haven't actually been to any of the meeting, but I've been on the mailing list for 2 years. Every time I thought about signing up, I was turned off by all the pushing for different "2 day seminars" for $500.

@Joe Fairless
The meetup sounds great, thank you for putting something together this is exactly what I was hoping for. I look forward to meeting with you all in the future.

And thanks to all the rest of you who offered your welcome and king words.

Hello,

I'm Derek Smith and I live in Cincinnati Ohio.

I currently have two rental houses and am looking to keep adding to my portfolio, whether it's more SFR, multi family's, or commercial.

I have a corporate job, working in corporate strategy and finance. I've lead teams through the study and approval of $100M projects, but still find it scary to push through deals when it's my own money and financial security on the line.

I'm looking for opportunities to meet like minded people in Cincinnati/ NKY. I've looked at the local REIA, but am rather turned off by it as they seem to always be selling/pushing something.

Anyone have experience with the Cincinnati REIA who can share their opinion? Good?Bad?

Thank you,

Derek