All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Z.

$4K is way too much. I have a duplex in Davenport and I pay about $1000/year for $1 million in liability and loss of rents. Most places I quoted were around the same cost though the liability coverage varied. I use Ross Diversified. Only downside with them is that you need to pay the full year up front. 

I ended up working with @Ragan Manning. 

I've just put my fifth rental property under contract and I'm really starting to hate manually dealing with bookkeeping in Stessa every month. I'm curious if anyone has found a reasonably-priced virtual bookkeeping service that is familiar with real estate investing? I'm not at the point where I can afford $1000/month for bookkeeping, but $200/month is possible.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $55,000
Cash invested: $15,000

4 beds, 2 baths former up-down duplex.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I was looking for a BRRRR.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

My first BRRRR property. Found on the MLS by my realtor. Asking price was $59,900 and their realtor said their lowest acceptable offer was $57,900. I offered $55,000 and they accepted.

How did you finance this deal?

I did a construction loan for the purchase price and used my LOC for a down payment and part of the repairs. I used a 0% credit card for a chunk of the materials.

How did you add value to the deal?

I added $30,000 in fixes to the property. New gutters, new flooring, fresh paint, new appliances, waterproofed basement, patched up walls, landscaping.

What was the outcome?

The property appraised for $100,000, and the bank allowed refinancing 75% so I could pull out $75,000. That left about $16,000 in the deal. It rented for $1350/month, so monthly cash flow is over $300/month and cash on cash return over 20%.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The rehab was delayed because it started in December and the weather prevented some of the outside work from being completed. I'll try not to do a BRRRR with outside work during the winter again.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

This deal was found by Elijah Grant. Cory and Victoria Gamble managed the rehab.

In general, very landlord friendly. The rental inspections are no big deal. When you first buy the property, you file for a rental license. They come out to make sure the place is livable and will make you make repairs if not. How frequent the inspections are is based on the condition of the property. The better the condition, the less frequent the inspections. (Again, as long as you’re being attentive to repairs as they come up, this won’t be a problem.)

The most important dividing line is Locust St, which is about 2/3 of the way south in Davenport running West-east. North of Locust is where you get more appreciation and lower cash flow; South of Locust is low appreciation and higher cash flow. You generally want to stay away from the central part south of Locust (check out crimes maps online).

Congratulations! Glad it worked out as you had hoped. 

Congratulations! That's a great way to get into a new home with low money down.

I’m also an investor and lender in Quad Cities. I’d be happy to connect. 

It really does depend on the area and who you can find, but in general I’ve seen rates in Davenport at around 11-12%, 2-3 points, interest-only for 9-12 months. 

I’ve worked with two turnkey providers and am 0-2. One was small and the other was a large national one. If you can get a recommendation from a happy investor who used a turnkey company, that’s the way to go. Just be careful: sometimes those referrals are coming from people associated with the company in some way.

Happy to share the names of the companies to avoid if you DM me.