All Forum Posts by: Ryan Oelmann

@Anthony Wick

I often wondered how Iowa's taxes compared because they do seem out of control. I see people in other states talk about 500k value properties with taxes that are half of a 250k value property here. 

@Salvatore Lentini Thank you, Yes I have all the current leases. The property management is a local real estate agent and not a large company. From what I have gathered he collects rents(with checks made to owner) and deals with the calls and finding tenants. He does not do any of the financial stuff so he has no papers to go along with this property other than his contract to do the management. I have asked for the last few years of leases as mentioned above and he said he would try to find what he had. Units are in tremendous shape, this is, for the area an A class building in my opinion. Very little repairs need to be made with apartments that I would personally live in without second guessing it. I'm hoping that he was just slow on raising rental rates but I have no way to prove that until I get the existing leases from years past. Thank you for your insight.

@Robert Herrera I have tried this route. Explained above. I'll keep on him and see if he can dig something up

@Ryan D. I have asked, I'm hoping they can come up with at least some so I can see that A: the rents were significantly lower then or B: It has more vacancies that I was expecting for the area

@Joel Owens He is seller financing a part of the down payment, the rest of the down payment is from me and financed with a local lender. I used conservative numbers for income and expenses when running my underwriting numbers so I was hoping to verify the income and it's vacancy history to be sure my numbers were in fact conservative enough.

I like your idea of a reserve credit, had not considered that and you're right, if he believes in the building he should have no problem giving a little reserve to prove it.

I agree that this is sometimes why owners are wanting to get out quick, its the skeptic in me that makes me want to see true numbers/leases from years past to verify the claims. Thanks a bunch.

@Michael Le  Currently the rent roll and leases I received show one vacant unit. It is a stabilized property, I had planned on using the current management company already in place. I have met with him a couple times and have been impressed with how he handles the tenants(during the walk through) and is local. My concern that maybe its not as stabilized as I had thought is that 6 of the units are currently being occupied on short term leases to a construction contractor in the area that has rented them out for his workers to stay in. The information I've found shows the town rentals at mid 90's occupancy. Rent is about 50 dollars higher than a close comp but these units come with washers, dryers, and garage where the other one does not.

@Kim Meredith Hampton Thank you for the suggestion. I'll see if that gets me somewhere

@Manik Zaman I am probably more conservative than I should be but that's who I am. I was hoping between the bank statements and tax returns I would have a clear picture of what was brought in for income but with 5 properties on the one statement its hard to figure it out. I just find it hard to understand why he wouldn't at least do books on each property individually for when he sells them. I cant be the only one that wants to know this stuff. If I can indeed keep occupancy around 95%  with current rents and my expenses figured I should have no problem making It work. Thanks

Good evening all,

After months of searching, I found a 24 unit complex that I really liked and all the numbers worked for me. It was off market, so I've been dealing directly with the seller and worked out some creative financing to help get me in the door without 25% down. Once I received the documents from him I found a hiccup, all of his tax returns and bank statements included 4 other doors, 2 single families and 1 duplex. When I originally got the documents to begin with I did not get the pages I found this on but the yearly income made it appear as though the 24 unit has been nearly fully occupied for the last 3 years but now I find out 4 other doors were also included in those figures. Has anyone run into a situation like this? He tells me he's never broken the income/expenses per individual property which will never allow me to know the true income or vacancies from previous years. Deal breaker when no way to verify income?

Thanks everyone!

@Paul Boudreaux I do exactly as Jeff says on this process also. Get the easy stuff that they should have and expect everyone to ask for in the initial conversation on the property and then do an analysis. I prefer not to waste their time or my own if its not something I look to get under contract, and even if it's not a property that I find interesting I always reply with a thank you and let them know what kind of properties I'm interested in because you just never know what they could have coming down the pipeline. I found it hardest to close the first deal in an area because the sellers broker and your broker don't know that you can close a deal, so it will get easier after you get one under your belt and have your broker to let others know you've closed on properties with him before.

Something to look for on a 10 year old property is that its just coming around to what could be some bigger cap ex items. Water heaters hopefully have been replaced if not they likely will need to be soon. HVAC units can also be close to end of their life span if the builders didn't use quality components. 

Best of luck to you! 

@Cheryl Monahan I sent you a colleague request with a direct message

@Cheryl Monahan

Good afternoon Cheri, Glad to hear you sold your 90 units. Hope the sale worked out well for you. I'm currently looking in your area to invest in building rentals or spec homes. I have a general contractor that I have spoken with and would use in the DSM metro area.

I would like to talk with you more and see if our goals align sometime.

If your interested, DM me and I'd be happy to talk with you more

Thanks,

Ryan

@Imoh Essien Welcome to B.P. I'm also fairly new to the site and have become addicted to reading peoples stories. Very wide variety investors with many different angles.

I like your idea of adding solar to a property, have you talked with anyone that has done it before? I'm looking at a 24 unit currently and looking for a way to value add and this could be a great idea. When you say that you will be the energy provider to the building, how are you planning on hooking your system into the grid and monitoring how much you supply to the tenants? I'd enjoy to hear what your thoughts are on all of that!

Ryan

@John Anderson Would you care to elaborate a little more? I would never buy a property with a HOA that I didn't control. I'm just not sure about taking this one because of the size and having a w2 job that keeps me plenty busy.

Good afternoon everyone. My business partner and I put an offer in on some vacant lots to build townhouses on. The sellers excepted the dollar per lot offer but said they could not remove the lots from the current HOA in the development. They instead have offered to sign over the current HOA to us as we will own the majority of the properties in the development with the land purchase. My question is how much time is involved with running a HOA? The total units when ours are built will be 32 so it's not large. The units are all built within the last 10 years so I'm not expecting a large deferred maintenance issue within the first few years but I will be going through the Financials and bylaws of the HOA with my attorney if we decide to pursue further. I'm not a full time investor and just not sure I'm going to have time to handle the HOA but I was hoping someone here had some experience running one and could put my mind at ease a little. Thanks greatly for any advice and insight available.