All Forum Posts by: Robert Lindsley

Hi there,

I have a 7-unit apartment building in Norwich, CT and I'm shopping for new insurance.  

Does anybody know a good insurance agent that services that area?  If so I'd love to hear about them!

Thanks,

Robert.

Hi there,

I own a small apartment building with 5 buildings. There are wires that stretch between each building for Duke Energy, Comcast, security cameras, etc.

Last month a Rent-A-Center truck took out a bunch of my lines - I have the whole thing on video:

https://youtu.be/BafD7fb5E-M

https://youtu.be/C0p-5q7MMiM

Their insurance company is refusing to pay the claim because they say my wires are not high enough and do not comply to NESC Guidelines.

Does anybody know what NESC is, and as an apartment building owner is there some expectation of compliance? I've never heard of any of this.

Thanks!
Robert.

Good morning,

I'm getting ready to kick off the process of refinancing one of my buildings - it's a weekly rental, although most tenants stay for 6-8 months.

We've been stabilizing the building since we purchased it a year ago and now we're in the process of getting everybody onto leases.  However, if possible I'd rather not wait to get leases in place to refi.

The building is 24-units with a current rentroll of $17.7k monthly. Ideally I'd like to obtain a cash-out refi @ 80% LTV for $1.6mm, with a building value of $2mm.

Does anybody know a good place to finance a building with no leases?

Thanks!
Robert.

Thanks @Michael Doherty and @Jaysen Medhurst!  I'll PM you directly with details.

Hi there,

I am trying to refi one of my apartment buildings in Norwich, CT.  The building is a 4-unit apartment building with 2 small office spaces. 

As part of the refi process I ordered an appraisal for the property.  Based on the comps obtained the value for the property came back very low.  When I read his report I saw he was using an ultra-conservative cap rate of 12.2%!  One of the issues is that it's been difficult to find comps for this building based on the area but I was honestly gobsmacked when I saw such an awful cap rate.

Now I'm trying to find information to convince the appraiser to move the cap rate so I can get a better (and hopefully more realistic) appraisal value.

Does anybody have information on the Norwich/New London CT area and has a good understanding of the cap rates in that area?  If so I'd love to chat with you for a couple of minutes to get your thoughts.  I'd be happy to share the appraisal if that would help.

Thanks!
Robert.

Hi there,

I currently own 2 multi-family buildings and will be 1031-ing them for a larger property in the near future.  I'm considering buying a few mobile-home parks (ideally parks with zero park-owned homes) and have a question for the group regarding taxes.

Having only owned multi-family buildings, I am reasonably versed in the tax advantages.  But what about mobile-home parks?  Are MHP's as good as multi-family apartment buildings in terms of taxes?  It seems like mobile-home parks wouldn't have the same tax benefits as MF, especially given that I don't want to own any of the homes. 

I would love to hear your experience.

Thanks!

Robert.

Thanks for the clarification everybody.  It sounds like the key is to verify they're actually a legit service dog and that somebody didn't buy some certificate off the internet.

My larger question is around pitbulls as service dogs.  I have been dropped from an insurance policy because a tenant snuck pitbulls into his apartment without me knowing.  I've spoken with multiple insurance companies and they won't cover pitbulls even if they are a service dog.  So if a pitball can indeed be a legit service dog, I just need to accept that my insurance will drop me and I'll need to pay more for some high-premium insurance policy?

Hi,

In case you are following the thread, I wanted to let you know I spoke with an attorney about this.

In his opinion, there's no way a pitbull/bulldog would be registered as a service dog.  They are an aggressive breed, and aggressive breeds are not generally allowed to be service dogs.

If you are trying to verify whether a service dog is legitimate, the key is to ask for the prescription for the dog.  If the prescription is written by an MD or equivalent, it's legit.  Otherwise it's classified more as an support dog, which is not a protected class.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out!

Thanks,

Robert.

Thanks Justin.  My gut is telling me this person is trying to get her pitbull (disguised as a 'bulldog') into the apartment.  I have no interest in violating fair housing law, but the last thing I'm interested in is getting dropped from my insurance for a pitbull claiming to be a service dog.  As far as I know I'm not allowed to ask for certification paperwork but only if they've been trained as a service dog.

If anybody can lend some clarification on this topic, I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks!
Robert.

Hello Biggerpockets,

A prospective tenant reached out to me for an apartment in my FL building.  They have a service dog (Bulldog) and asked if that would be an issue.  We do not allow dogs at this property, thus my question here.

Assuming the service dog has papers and they otherwise qualify for the unit, do I need to allow the service dog?  We've had problems with dogs in the past and I'd like to better understand my responsibility with regard to a service dog.

Thanks!
Robert.