All Forum Posts by: Oliver Sparks

Question for anyone who owns large multi-family dwellings:

I own an apartment building in Kansas that has a central fire alarm system. If one person has smoke in their unit and causes the alarm to go off, the alarm in all units go off, and the fire department is automatically notified and is required to show up (is what I'm told by the FD and PD). Even though there is no actual emergency, they show up anyway. After a certain number of calls to the same property within an annual period, the city starts charging my company per call (~$250/call). Is there a way to pass along the cost to tenants who have chronic problems with causing smoke by burning their food etc.?

Most of my life is spent living in and cruising around the midwest. Particularly in the Kansas City and Des Moines metro areas. And when I'm traveling to the outskirts and more rural areas, it bugs me that I see so many empty old buildings no longer in use. What was once a flourishing business district is now vacant and run down. There are, of course, a large number of reasons why these old store fronts or industrial areas are no longer functioning as healthy businesses. But, the entrepreneurial side of me gets my mind wondering what if...

I'm curious what some other investors and business owners have done to revive and rescue properties like these. And if the choice was made to bring a building back to life, was the decision actually the most economical? Or was it just for the sake of saving a piece of history?

There is a gas station at a very busy intersection in town that has an attached automatic car wash that is not in use. I am not sure why it's not in use, but I have contemplated asking the gas station owner if they have any desire to have it going again.

I'm curious whether anyone here has taken advantage of something like this and made it a profitable opportunity? I'm not sure how it would work as far as profit splits etc. Or if it's even worth a shot trying to consider getting it up and going. Obviously there are a bunch of questions that need answered before making the decision to get it going again. But because of the location, and there not being any car wash in the area, it's got me at least thinking about it.

@Luther Wilson III If you're looking for a GC to make any of this happen, particularly on the Kansas side, let me know. I also have several flip and buy/hold SFR opportunities at the moment. Hit me up if you're interested.

A blessing, but a challenge.  That is how I would describe some opportunities that have come my way recently.  I am a licensed class A general contractor, mainly doing residential flips.  I own and manage some single family rentals, as well as own and manage some apartments.  Recently I was approached about a couple off-market vacant commercial properties in the KC market that would make a terrific conversion to apartments, with enough space for roughly 60 apartments each.  Besides the existing buildings themselves, the close proximity to schools, easy highway access etc., as well as a strong rental market in the area seems to provide a great recipe for great cash flowing units.  Most of the partners I have worked with thus far came to me after they heard what I was doing and saw our work, and they mainly focus on investing in single family properties.  What are some suggestions you all can provide to point me to where capital partners are for when opportunities like these come up with multi-family deals?  The details of construction and pro forma for multi-family seems to intimidate single family investors, in my experience, so it seems to take a different kind of people that GET it.  The current multi-family properties I own were done with a combination of my own cash and creative financing, neither of which seem to be an option for these latest opportunities.

@Alex Olson Thanks! Currently Rentec is their platform, and I'll probably continue using it for this property. I'll need to educate myself a bit in it, but I would imagine it's similar to those you mentioned. Buildium is one I'm most familiar with.

@Mike D'Arrigo good points! Why fix what isn't broken is a good way to look at it. I'm thinking mostly along the line of how to implement it for any new tenants, as well as those who I inherit and have issues paying consistently on time.

@Dave Spooner Thanks for the advice! I'll probably include something in the contract around your suggestion.

@Dan Krupa thanks for the advice buddy! Yeah, I'm likely to set up ACH or something of the sort. This is on the Kansas side. Are you aware of any laws around the methods of payment?

I know that some people use different algorithms and demographic research to tell whether or not certain locations would be good for self-storage.  However, I'm curious to know whether multi-family investors have any luck building on-site self storage units even when there are other storage units in the area (less than a half-mile away).  I'm about to close on a multi-family property that has room to build some storage units across the parking lot, but I'm unsure how to know how justifiable of an investment this would be.  In this case it would be weighing the convenience factor of it being nearby, vs. there being some just down the road.  Thoughts?