All Forum Posts by: Rob Donovan

So, I am looking to put an offer in on a 4 plex, but one of the other tenants said the neighbor may be in jail soon. If I do get the place, I don't really want to have a non paying tenant that will need to be evicted right off the bat. What are my options?

Hey @Tom Webber. I am in Dubuque and may be interested in your off market deals. Give me a shout and maybe we can make something happen.

Dubuque has a meeting the second Tuesday of each month. Usually we have a speaker at each meeting. We work closely with the City of Dubuque on issues that we have different opinions on. The city manager and housing and community development people stop in to talk to us on a somewhat regular basis. Very good meeting, lots of good information keeping us up to date on the things going on in Dubuque and around our area. No sales pitches from anyone, just a good informational meeting with a chance to network with other area landlords. If you would like more information, let me know or check out dubuquelandlords online.

Freddie, what ever came of this property?

Couple more things. Appreciation probably isn't going to amount to much in this type of neighborhood, so I wouldn't count on it. Also, you say these are very small units. This could lead to longer vacancy periods especially in this type of neighborhood. Make sure you can swing payments on your own for a while in case one or both tenants move out and you cant find someone else right away to take their place.

@Freddie Taylor, I am in this situation right now. The owner did not give me a price on an 8 plex he was thinking about selling, but said the county had assessed the price at around $350,000. I came up with my offer by running the numbers and submitted an offer of $287,500.  This provided me with a 10% return on investment. This was a good starting point for negotiations which we are still in. You have to run your numbers and come up with a figure that you are comfortable with. While I think this property can do better over time, I am not going to submit an offer on what might be possible, but what is currently happening with this property as far as income is concerned. Its all about the income this property will produce minus ALL expenses including vacancy, management, repair fund, cap ex fund, utilities paid by owner, taxes, insurance, grounds keeping etc. In the end, your offer shouldn't be based on what the owner wants, but what make financial sense to you. If it hurts their feelings, so be it. If she has been in real estate for a while and you can back up your numbers, her feelings will not be hurt. The BiggerPockets rental property calculator is a great tool. Check it out if you haven't already. Good luck to you.

William, would you mind sharing your excel workbook? I am using excel at the moment and would like to see how others have set up their workbooks. Thanks.

@Bill Gulley 

Why do you say stay away from land contracts?

We have 3 smaller Universities in town. I was told the one this particular unit is close to does not list off campus housing. Seems they want to keep all the business to themselves. I will check into it though. Thanks for the input.

Thanks for the replies guys. I took the easy way out this time and just asked before I did a search. I will look into the 1 key fits all solution. Hopefully they are not too pricy, lots of doors to possibly change out. Does anyone keep lockboxes at the properties like Realtors use. I was thinking this might be a good idea to have one for each unit (for smaller units like singles to quads), This way the tenant would never have a lock out and I would never forget a key.