All Forum Posts by: Ralph Chiaia

@Enrico Angella I hope you're right that I'll be more aggressive negotiating the next one! The numbers do still work so I'm lucky. We found the bulk of maintenance issues during due diligence but there are a few things that snuck up on us. I feel like one extra unforeseen thing is kind of the Murphy's Law of investing. In other words, "If we didn't buy it, it wouldn't break." 

Ideally I'd like to hire someone who takes care of everything: weed pulling, fertilizing, cutting the lawn, cleaning the leaves. Is that the best way to go? It's a fairly big property, 10 units. 

Thanks

@Corby Goade I think you hit the nail on the head and I think the trust issue has been resolved. We had a few heart to hearts both about business stuff and just general life stuff. I think that really helped. I feel like we got on the same page a few weeks ago (after I posted this) and have stayed on the same page. I think I needed to assess my own behavior.

@Rick Estacio we are buying them mostly in Home Depot but I’m certainly not thrilled with HD. I’d like to find better places to shop. I’m all ears to better ideas.

@Enrico Angella that’s a great question and my answer may be longer than you bargained for. So although I found it on loop net I had spoken to the owners before. My partner and I cold call a lot of owners and we had actually made an offer on part of the property before, less than half of the current total. We never came to terms on that and mentioned to them that if they packaged it it may be a better deal. When I saw it on loop net I was like “holy smokes they took my idea and packaged it”. The previous owner is also an agent (as am I) so I think she priced it fairly. That said, with all the deferred maintenance I’m finding I think I bought on the high side of reasonable. Another 5% off for repairs would have been perfect. There’s a fine line between negotiating and losing a deal. If I could do it again I’d negotiate a bit more on that. However, I’m glad I’m in the deal and the numbers do work so I can’t complain. For me the best part is the entrance into commercial loans and the connection with the bank.

@Kimberly Carlisle thank you, Kimberly. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

@Brian Alfaro thank you, Brian

@Ken Nyczaj honestly I didn’t think to either until I was with a friend who is a video editor. We were driving together when I got a call from my partner discussing a turn. It was a FaceTime call and she was showing me flooring and bathroom installation. When I hung up, he said, “you should be archiving this process.”

@Samuel Nichols I found mine through Jason hartman’s network. A friend of mine bought one in cash and was able to do a cash out Refi after 3 years and pull all his original investment out. That’s what made me pull the trigger on this. Contact me privately if you’d like the contact. Happy to discuss and tell you what I liked/disliked.

@Jonathan Oh off the top of my head the rent is $1345 and I set aside about 15% for Vacancy, Capex, and Maintenance and another 15% for tax. I have a property manager at 8%. After debt services plus money set aside, I pocket about 150-200 and pay down $175-200 of my mortgage. Certainly not going to make me rich but a nice single up the middle. So far it has been a stress free buy.