All Forum Posts by: Omar Merced

That's great news! Congratulations! 

For all those agents telling you to buy for fourplexes ask then where there's are located. The truth is many agents don't have  them and the few that do you bought them when they were cheap. I absolutely love this city and  have managed properties from the high-rises on the strip to this slums of alphabet soup.  Back when those four Plexes were 60k to 100k I wish I would have bought them all but now that they are $220,000 I wouldn't touch them with an 8 foot pole. Rents have been stagnant for these properties last 10 years. If they meet your criteria then absolutely buy them close but for me as an investor with my money and my investors money I go to somewhere where I could buy many more units with about the same rental rate in the Midwest.  Being close to your property is overrated sure it's nice to be able to drive by but with today's technology and a kick *** property manager you can get pictures and even videos of your property in real time. I can buy 8-9 doors for 4 doors in Las Vegas. Just my two cents. I wish you the best! If I can help let me know. I love this stuff. 

I'll let you know what comes up. Let's sit and talk sometime.

@Matt Moldenhauer Didn't @ your name for some reason.

@Robert Nason For that here we could buy and rehab a 78 unit that would could potentially gross $468k. If you come out here your mind will explode. Not bad with crime and there are quite a few properties that need repair. I projected the rents at $400 but I expect we'll be at $495 paying no utilities.

@Jay Ritchie Sounds good. Cool thing is we don't know how it will end...

@Matt Moldenhauer I would love to learn more. If there is anyway of balancing efficiency and price that would be great. It is early enough to make all the changes we need. When can we talk?

@Stone Teran I estimated $250k-300k however individualizing all the units is a substantial change order but in the long run will really improve the ARV. I'll let you know when we finalize the budget.

@Aaron Smith Yeah I was told. New to me. At the end of the day it's about retraining tenants. Here they have common water as well and I'll be changing that also. I am taking my experience from large multifamily properties.

@Nick Thomas This is a 6-9 month project but my projections are based on a 12 month turn time. However, one building is much nicer than the other so the plan is to complete one and get renters in as we work on the second. 

Hi Philip. My usual advice to all that are pondering the D question is don't. These markets are very management intensive and unless you or someone you are partnering with has experience you will might make too many mistakes and you will see that your pro forma go to hell.

Now that being said if you have done your homework looked at the city's plans and this neighborhood happens to be in the "path of progress" it might turn out well however it needs to make sense now. The path of progress play is a 5-10 year plan and at times does not work out. So buy it for what it is and if things change for the better good. I also agree with @Jay Hinrichs unless you can control the whole neighborhood or have enough to have the economy of scales it does not make sense.

Hi Kevin. I know in the beginning as you are learning there are so many things that you want to do and you want to do them all and do them fast. I think that is where a lot of people make mistakes. I think you initial thought is correct. Focus on one market on one type of investors become an expert in that and you'll se how other opportunities will present themselves to you. I am a big Ohio fan because of the low entry point and cash flow possibilities. I just picked up one of many that I will be doing over the next 5+ years in Dayton and moving on to Columbus and Cincinnati. So my advice. Slow down and get laser focused. 

Hi BP. Just a little update. It's been a really busy week. So I haven't had time to do too much with this project but here we are. So since we last talked heres whats happened. 

Set up an Ohio LLC. Closed title.

Waiting on underwriting for our insurance. (Hint. Do that earlier I procrastinated on this one)

Last week we went to the property and had an open house for contractors. We teamed up with a property manager @Account Closed and she lined up about 30 vendors to come out and give bids. We had a great turn out and have had many turn in proposals and still waiting for some. We had a couple of GCs and the rest were individual trades. From landscapers to electricians to the neighborhood association that looked at us with skepticism. We met some really good people and were impressed by a couple. Over the next two weeks we will be taking a really hard look and choosing the best proposals and sharpening our pencils. I really wanted a GC to handle the whole project but I'm not sure it will work. We will see. There are a lot of pictures so I am posting one here and the rest are here. Pictures. 

So one of the units was converted to a mechanical room. That's why it was listed as a 17 unit. The plan so far is converting it back. We are going to try to individualize all units with their own water heater and meter. Remove the boiler and go with a split system or electric base boards. In other words as the owner I am trying to get rid of all shared expenses. If all goes as planned I will be responsible for common lighting which by the way will be high efficiency LED lighting and thats it. 

So what's next. I have a call into the the city to talk about the taxes in arrears. Waiting on the final bill from water. Come up with the finalized plan for the rehab. That's all for now. I'll post more soon. Remember to follow the forum for updates. 

Having worked for one of these large funds briefly (they have no soul) I learned the innard workings of the operation and realized that their model is so flawed I knew I had just boarded the Titanic. The returns for their model have shrunk so much the only thing that saves them is deep pockets. But even deep pockets have an end. In the end their investors will move on to the next thing the oracle talks about and you should be ready to clean up Wall Street's mess...again.