All Forum Posts by: Peter Falk

In WI, court records can be searched on CCAP (foreclosure action/judgements, etc) and assessor search by address shows any delinquent taxes (all useful if you want to try to get a feel for seller motivation of a specific property).

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $243,000
Sale price: $379,000

We moved here after selling our previous live in slow flip which took around 5 years (spent the last year or so relaxing before selling). We were able to redesign this dated ranch (including flipping the basement staircase around to make room for a huge pantry) and sell it as a modern Ranch into our heated sellers' market.

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

Sold our last live in flip and needed a place to live, so picked a home in a good neighborhood knowing we could come up with some plan to update the space.

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

Was on the MLS

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional financing

How did you add value to the deal?

Renovated everything inside and added a basement rec room and full bath.

What was the outcome?

Successful sale and bought another outdated home nearby to update and eventually sell. In our long-term live-in flips, so far we have been able to meet our goals of making at least 30% return on our money spent on improvements (the strong sellers'market/appreciation during our holds has also helped!)

Lessons learned? Challenges?

We loved being able to more easily relocate things with this Ranch floor plan and full basement (so could move plumbing around, etc. much easier than working with our current 2 story home where you have to really plan to make sure you can connect up with a drain line, etc. running up from the basement--as an example there had to use a laundry chute as a chase for water/drain/and electric to move laundry from the basement to the 2nd floor).

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

Bought and sold the property as a principal as I am a WI real estate broker (with the Stark Company)

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $243,000
Sale price: $379,000

We moved here after selling our previous live in slow flip which took around 5 years (spent the last year or so relaxing before selling). We were able to redesign this dated ranch (including flipping the basement staircase around to make room for a huge pantry) and sell it as a modern Ranch into our heated sellers' market. We sold to move onto a longer-term renovation project we plan to be in for 10 years while our daughter is in school in a great location. In our long-term live-in flips, so far we have been able to meet our goals of making at least 30% return on our money spent on improvements.

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

Sold our last live in flip and needed a place to live, so picked a home in a good neighborhood knowing we could come up with some plan to update the space.

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

Was on the MLS

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional financing

How did you add value to the deal?

Renovated everything inside and added a basement rec room and full bath.

What was the outcome?

Successful sale and bought another outdated home nearby to update and eventually sell.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

We loved being able to more easily relocate things with this Ranch floor plan and full basement (so could move plumbing around, etc. much easier than working with our current 2 story home where you have to really plan to make sure you can connect up with a drain line, etc. running up from the basement--as an example there had to use a laundry chute as a chase for water/drain/and electric to move laundry from the basement to the 2nd floor).

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

Bought and sold the property as a principal as I am a WI real estate broker (with the Stark Company)

I'm in Madison, WI and been a few years since I had a Sec 8 tenant (in a duplex).  I assume as a federal program, it's similar in all locations, but we had the program managed by a few local resources (Community Development Authority for Madison properties and Dane County Housing Authority for communities around Madison.  We (and I assume everywhere) have a local housing inspector with those programs tour the property to make sure it meets basic safety standards (handrails, smoke alarms, etc), and they also reinspect annually, so before you get ready to lease to a Sec 8 tenant, would talk with the local dept. for a list of their most common failed items to make sure it'll pass.

You also sign the rental paperwork that Sec 8 uses and know some local landlords didn't love that aspect of being told what lease form to use.

Yes, I would talk with the Sec. 8 case worker as they may decide to take the tenant off the sec 8 program for drug issues, etc.  It also makes no sense why the attorney would think you can't evict for breaches of lease other than non-payment of rent (disturbance, property damage, etc).  

I completely agree that if as long term tenants don't know current market rents, would show them similar places if needed and kindly say that you have a mortgage (I assume) based on current market value you had to pay (or just say you do) and you need current market rents (or much closer to it) to cover that.  I also agree if they are good tenants, it is worth a little back and forth on maybe settling at a much higher, but still discounted rent.  Good luck

Hi Brian,

Let me know if you find yourself wondering about Madison, WI/surrounding area as that is my focus.  The city is big enough for multiple property management company options and a mix of investment options (student housing with UW Madison, huge demand for affordable housing, stable economy with biotech, hospitals, gov't, Epic Software and a growing population).

Yes, this is definitely not a Statewide question, but one you need to investigate at the local level.  Madison, WI has in my opinion largely regulated short term rentals out of making sense in most cases (30 day max short-term rental if you aren't renting out part of the house you actually live in), so within the City of Madison, largely left to maybe a furnished month to month option.  Other municipal areas have no/very few specific ordinances on short term rentals.

I agree completely that within most all large markets/cities, you can find a range of returns from single family homes that have high owner occupant demand and priced to where there is no cash flow as a rental and maybe hope for a break even and future appreciation/rent growth, or go to what may look good on paper (lower purchase prices in troubled areas) and deal with more possible rent collection issues, evictions/turn over, property damage.  If you screen tenants and manage places well, definitely have seen people do fine working in more the C class rental space.  There at least is always rental demand out there for more affordable options.  Long way to say, I don't know if you can just focus on cash flow and pick a market that way without the whole picture of what you are investing in (neighborhood, condition, etc) and if you go with a cheap place in a troubled area, do a good job of managing the tenants/property.  

Yes, I'm not an attorney, but WI statute is from my reading as well 12 hours to enter with notice to tenant (mail makes no sense as it takes days to arrive) so would just email/call/text, and no notice if a clear emergency situation.