All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Johnson

There's a 6 story apartment building for sale with 3 floors completely gutted and empty. 2 floors have apartments in them, 4 each. 

Where and how do I go about estimating construction of apartments inside the shell of the building? Who even does that sort of thing?

Thanks @Tom S.,

I think that makes sense. Simple is simple. 

If someone wants amortized, how would I go about calculating that? I know my mortgage has little principle in the beginning and more interest, but then it switches over time. Do you know the math behind that?

@Account Closed What's the difference  between simple interest and amortized?
From your example, I divided 7%(.07) by 12, and then multiplied that by $25,000 to get the monthly payments of $145.83. The $1750 per year ends up being $5,250 after 3 years. So the cost of the 25,000 was 5,250 after 3 years.
That makes sense, but did you sign a contract saying you'd pay back at exactly 3 years? Could you have paid back sooner?

Hello BP!

I'm trying to figure out how to analyse rehab costs and one of them is using private money.

If I can buy a house for W amount of dollars, and it needs X amount of repairs, how much will a Y% private loan for repairs(Y) cost over Z amount of months? 

Basically how do I know the cost taking out a higher percent loan for repairs and then refinancing later back into a regular loan?

Hello BP,

My rental is a single family home that I'd like to upgrade with a nest thermostat. The tenants are great and it's cashflowing nicely so I want to do a nice upgrade for them as a reward of sorts. 

I've been looking into the nest products and think they are great. I was wondering if anyone has put the thermostats in their rentals and any pros or cons to getting them.

Are they tied to a certain phone? If my tenants move out, will I be able to get them off the smart phone thermostat remote?

Also, I was wondering if anyone has had success with other nest or smart home products?

@Maxwell Brown The big blue triangle with a pool? I'm in the area.

 I agree with Eric, I would love biggerpockets forums to be similar to Reddit.com where users could vote daily or weekly on posts they think are more interesting, which brings that post to the top. Then the top posts will be the most interesting posts. That'll make it easier on BP to find what people are asking about the most, it'll answer the more popular questions faster, and allow the community to really make a difference and be free employment for BP (finding the interesting topics and voting).

I believe Reddit's "front page" refreshes to the most votes in the last 24 hours, every midnight or so.

@David Chan I did the budgeting and I'll be the first to tell you... "I don't know what I'm doing." 

I've started reading the rehab book here on BP, those numbers are just made up guesstimates. Your questions, though I can't answer them, are extremely helpful because now I must figure those out.

The part of this that I'm still hanging onto in considering such a project, is that it seems like the 4 apts and 2 commercial spaces could fund the loan payments and then some. It wouldn't need to be done all at once.

Of course, this might not be a good deal at all. There's also that possibility.

Hello BP!

I have financing questions and would like advice on an Apt building.

This is a 5 Story appartment complex outside downtown.

First story is 2 commercial business spaces, one is leased.

Second story are 4 apartments 3 leased, one waiting on a business person to move in. I haven't seen anything but the hallway but they look very nice.

3rd 4th and 5th are gutted and unfinished

The whole thing is going for about $300,000 but I think I can get it for $250,000

Current income is $3,650

I don't have a business set up yet, but I'd like to figure out IF any banks will finance something like this where it barely covers the debt service, but if rehabbed would do great. 

This financial analysis doesn't include the 3-5 floor rehab, just a touch up of the second floor. Would a bank lend on something like this? I don't have a lot of money for a downpayment.

What kind of financing options are there for a project of this size? The DCSR on my report, I just noticed, is programmed incorrectly and is actually around 1.25. There's extra capital needed to remodel the 3-5th floors, but I don't know what kind of options there are for funding that.

The area is on the border between downtown and a less friendly neighborhood, but the city just got a big government agency to move in about a year or two ago. Though not a hot market, these apartments will fill up at decent rates.