All Forum Posts by: Ryan Prun

In light of the current Covid-19 federal, state, and county recommendations, Top Properties has enacted several policies for the coming weeks. We are working diligently with our lawyers to stay in compliance with all the fast-moving changes. Mitigating risk is going to be of the highest priorities in this time, and old fashion negotiation may facilitate some of the best outcomes.

Staying up to date and ahead of the information is difficult, but important right now. Putting together processes for rent collection in April has been of the utmost importance at Top Properties. We manage 350 properties around the Denver area, and getting ahead of delinquent rent has been our primary focus.

Documentation for non-rent payments and making sure to have information that the COVID-19 pandemic has directly caused tenants ability to pay will be hard, but extremely important. There may be a lot of tenants that try to game the system and not pay, just because they believe they can. Just look at the #rentstrike movement.

Getting property owners prepared for the potential lack of payment will be important as well.

Check out some of the information we are putting out on the links below:

What if my tenants can not pay rent?

If my tenants can not pay rent, what happens if I cannot pay my mortgage?

How will maintenance be performed during social distancing?

If the lease on your home is up for renewal soon, should you consider offering a short term lease?

Hi Anthony,

Regardless of where you invest, I would say, make sure the property is in good physical condition as you will be an out of state owner and don't want your life consumed with lots of little bills for items out of your control. We help clients build portfolios of rental homes and "bomb proof" is a good way to start. As far as nationwide from what we have seen (we are Denver only) it seems to be a trade-off between appreciation and return. The areas where the monthly return is good is where the long term appreciation potential is worst. We find Zillow to be the best place to look at comparable rentals as Craigslist has fallen out of fashion for rental postings as of the past five years or so. When looking at rentals for pricing of a comparable home, make sure to check how long the posting has been active for. If it has been up for 30 days or more (at least in our market) there is likely some other issue there, close to 60 days active and over, there is likely an overpricing issue (could be several other factors as well though).

Ryan Prun 

A lot of good info posted so far. I would say it all depends on three factors if it would make sense to go straight to MF vs SFH. How much you can leverage? How much you are comfortable leveraging? Do the returns make sense?

For some investors at a younger age with a more risk on and long term approach to investing, it may make sense to leverage as much as possible as long as the returns are there.  Giving yourself multiple properties at the same time to collect revenue on can make a lot of sense, if one goes vacant you still collect on the other properties, potentially less risky.  Or one of my favorite tricks, if you are willing to, is to buy an MF right away and live in one of the units for at least 2 years.  Depending on your loan provider, you can find better financing options and maximize your return long term.  

Are the returns there? Make sure to do the math ahead of time. Not all MF return better that an appropriately priced SFH. In Denver, the MF side has gone crazy and return numbers often times do not exceed SFH and we find in many situations the appreciation potential of SFH can exceed that of MF (depending on area).

We have seen more investors go into SFH based on their financing availability and downpayment requirements. That can vary on the area and market conditions of course. Do the math, numbers don't lie and you only have the choice to get into the right investment property before you buy it, once you buy it... it's yours...good or bad.

Ryan Prun

Managing Broker

Top Properties Real Estate and Property Management Denver