All Forum Posts by: Ryan Parnow

Iowa City is expensive when compared to Cedar Rapids which is 30 minutes North.  The student rental market is really screwed up right now with enrollment down, students taking classes online, etc.  I think it would be tough to be in student housing right now.

Linn county says they issue about 15 tax deeds a year.  This means of the 2000 liens they issue, only 15 get the property after 2 years, so your chances of getting the property are pretty slim.  

@Doug Karkow I use Hills Bank. They are commercial loans but they will lend based on after repaired value. I typically provide a list of repairs and how much I estimate it to cost which gets passed on to the appraiser. I am then allowed to borrow 80% of that number.

Earlier this week, I was approached about buying a property management company in the area I live in.  I have considered going full time managing my own properties, but the management fee I am paying currently doesnt replace my w-2 income at this point.  Buying the PM would more than replace my full time job income even with financing the purchase.  Once the loan is paid off, it would be a rather large increase in income.  Would you buy a property management company?  What things would I need to consider with the purchase price?  What downfalls could I be missing?

To answer your question, no there are no repercussions of them not paying.  It may show up on their credit report and if they buy a house it attaches as a lien, but that's it. 

To find out where they live, send them a letter at the address they lived at at put "Return Service Requested" above the address.  This will give you the letter back at your return address with the yellow sticker on it that provides their forwarding address (assuming they changed their address with the Post Office).    

Do you know where they work? If so, you can garnish wages.   Did they ever pay by check?  If so, you can go after that bank account and any other account at that bank.  If its enough money to make it worth it, you can do whats called a Debtors Exam where the court orders them to show up and you can ask them questions about their finances to learn where they work, where they bank, and what money they have.  

Do you have a mailing list, facebook group, or website so we can keep up with the meetings in the future? 

@Bjorn Ahlblad I ended up closing on this for $290k. It is 4 two bedrooms and 4 one bedrooms. There is definitely some deferred maintenance but it seems like it’s going to be a good one.

@Bjorn Ahlblad

I have a number of properties in Cedar Rapids but I wouldn’t buy a house in Wellington Heights. The price to rent ratio is great but it’s a very rough neighborhood. You can expect issues with drugs, violence, and high turnover. If your tenants aren’t a problem, the neighbors will be. It’s not a desirable place to live and good tenants will get out when they can afford to. The HyVee in that area is referred to as GhettoVee and has a uniformed police officer there as a security guard.

You can get some inexpensive deals there though. The houses sell cheap so newbies buy to fix and flip like they see on TV and over improve (which isn’t hard to do) and then can’t sell for enough to get their money out.   Most of the houses were built in the early 1900’s which presents its own problems.  

As far as bulldozing and rebuilding, you would be building among houses that have a hard time selling for $50k.  

I am looking to buy a small multi family in my area. I had this property sent to me by an agent that I am working with. He has all of the income and expenses but they haven’t determined a price yet. What would you pay for this property?

Annual income and expenses

Rent Income $50280

Laundry income $906

Vacancy $2514

Taxes $9008

Insurance $1430

Management $3017

Repairs $5028

Gas $572

Water $2391

Electric $562

Garbage $565

Lawn and snow $1980

Misc $325

Net $23,794

Thoughts?