All Forum Posts by: Saad D.

@V.G Jason Thanks for the recommendation. What do you mean by consolidation?

@V.G Jason Your point is well taken. But keeping leverage low is not something we can execute right away and in this market. We're at 65% LTV on avg, which is higher than we'd like but we're early (only 3 yrs into it). It's not that we have adjustable rates that are killing us but refinancing to lower LTV's in this market also doesn't make sense (like others said, it requires advanced 3-5 yr+ planning)

It's what others said. Risk is higher (eviction, no payment, unfair laws).

We've raised rents slightly $25-30/per door. Similar to what John Kunich said.

And we have used Baselane to organize our finances and manage our spend better, e.g we don't defer maintenance, we still spend the money as needed. With Baselane we just budget better with an actual reserve account.

We also use partners like Obie to get savings on Insurance. 

I'm looking into some companies to help appeal property taxes, but not sure that will be worth the effort. Has anyone used a service in PA or Philly for that?

@John Kunickundefined

Thanks Mike. For me personally, we have tired to keep rent increases to a minimum to reduce turnover and that led to having lower NOI unfortunately due to two things:
1. Higher PITI across the board (most of my investments are in Philly)

2. Higher maintenance and repair costs (even low to no skill workers demand 35-40% higher labor)

This has led us to diversify our strategy and convert some of our units into MTR's instead of LTRs to increase margin. That has worked so far but it's hard to say how long that will last. 

I target $400-500 per property but a lot of the value comes at purchase price and forced appreciation. We do full gut renovations and have improved our tenant screening process to find longer term and stable tenants that pay on time.

Right now we're being more cautious about underwriting because rents are adjusting down over the last two months especially. In fact we paused new deals to see how things settle down over next 1-2 months.

How's everyone tracking their property performance to know if you're actually on track and when to sell? I started using Baselane for tracking metrics and bookkeeping.

Hi, I am wondering how other landlords screen tenants? What tools/service do you use?

Do you use an application or just background, credit, criminal and eviction checks?

What information do you decide which tenant to select?

How do you verify Identity? How do you verify income?

I've used Smartmove and Zillow (Experian). 

Curious what others are doing. Thank you!

I currently live in NJ and invest 100% in Philly. I'm now looking to invest in Indiana. I would really appreciate it if folks can share some information about the areas they invest in Indiana.

My strategy is focused on BRRRR and 1-4 units. I am open to entering the student housing market if that's a good option in Indiana. I try to achieve a minimum of 1% rule.

Would love to chat with a local realtor or investor if you're up for a quick zoom call. Thank you!

@Dustin Payne Welcome to BP! I rented out my first home and it cash flows $1k a month. I would recommend the same. Rent current home, and get what financing you can to buy the next deal. Before you do all this, I recommend connecting with local lenders to get a real idea of what the financing options are. Best of luck!

@Jason Riddle have you tried deal check or deal crunch calculator? I used those in the past for more detailed analysis. For quick and dirty analysis I used Baselane's rental roi calculator.

@Lindsey Drumheller is this for banking or for lending or both? Definitely local credit unions are great for local financing, but not banking. There are plenty of business checking options. I use Chase business checking and only have one account at LLC level. I then use Baselane checking, which is free, for specific property accounts and envelopes. We use local Philadelphia credit union for cash out refi.

@Peter M. I use Baselane which is free. I tried Zillow for a while and that also works well.