All Forum Posts by: Sam Duehr

I agree with Liran. Two homes I've bought in Milwaukee have had foundation issues (cracking, effervescence, bowing). It's common and can be fixed with the right contractors. Make sure you ask during any inspection and if there are issues, and if so, get a foundation specialist out before the inspection period is over. Depending on the extent of the damage, the cost of the fix can vary drastically.  Both of mine we dealt with the cost with negotiations with the seller - I've found they were happy enough to not deal with it themselves but would still pay for it.

Josiah - did you end up refinishing your floors? We just closed on a duplex and would like to refinish one of the units while it's vacant.

Thanks

@Patrick M Nichols @Jason Lee @Peter B.@Rebecca Knox

Thank you all for the input - seems that there is some mix in practice across the country but it gives me insight into what to potentially expect. My wife and I just put in our first offer on an investment property! Hoping it goes well, and all the info from the forums has been a major help.

Hi all,

I'm looking to put in an offer on a multi-family property soon.  When running numbers on properties which seem to meet the metrics I'm looking for, I usually try to refine the numbers by getting the actual prior year tax assessment from the local assessor website.  

I'm curious if after a purchase, the assessment usually changes to normalize to the sale price of the property. I seem to see a lot of tax assessments which are lower than the sales price (I don't think the sales price is inaccurate, as it's similar to other comparable homes sold in the area). Is the tax assessment usually lower than the property sales price (I'd expect the assessment doesn't include appliances, however in a duplex I'd only expect this to equate to maybe 10K), or am I thinking about it wrong overall.  

Should I update my analysis to be the average property tax rate times the purchase price (this is what I'd do to be conservative, but obviously makes the numbers harder to work in this instance).

Thanks for the help

-Sam

Marcus Auerbach thank you for the insight! The prospect of a more passive investment is intriguing, especially while we're still living in chicago. BRRRR is interesting to me too but for our first we want to tackle one step at a time(finding a property, closing at the right price, and getting a good tenant(s).

Sam

Hi all,

My wife and I are looking to break into the buy and hold investment market. Although we live in Chicago, our target market is Milwaukee / Southeastern WI. We've been looking into SFH / multi-units, and have been reading lots of books/attending webcasts and listening to podcasts.

Wondering peoples opinions on the difference between the two. Ive seen a lot about sfh having potentially longer-lasting tenants and lower maintenance, but a lot of the properties we've seen also appear to have lower cash on cash returns.

Any thoughts are helpful. We are just getting started and would love to connect with some realtors/attorneys as well if anyone has any good Milwaukee suggestions or suggestions on the best way to find those contacts.

Thanks!

Sam