All Forum Posts by: Sean N.

Interesting discussion. A friend of mine owns a 4 plex near Temple and has been struggling a bit with it. He's only owned it since July, and has 50% occupancy. It's a new building and has a tax abatement for several more years, which is a plus. He could just be suffering from low occupancy for coming into the market late for this school year.

I can tell you that in the short time he's lived there that cleaning up after the last year's tenants (first year of occupancy for the building) was a total mess. Nobody was getting security deposits back and there was still out of pocket to get them back rentable. On top of that he's had to do cash for keys already for previous renters, took a hit on a month's rent for one unit and is chasing rent checks in one of his two rented units, so it's no cake walk getting paid or turning these things over either, from what I've heard.

Last, because of all this frustration he wants to turn the property over to a management company. Several companies in the area said they wouldn't take any more clients (probably meaning they can't rent out what they've already got).

I'm sure there are good deals out there, but you've got to wonder "if this is such a home-run deal, why is this guy so keen on unloading it?"

Similar to what the OP was asking his realtor friend who owns 11 properties and never has a missed months rent. If this is such a great deal, why didn't he buy it already? Because it's more profitable for him to unload it on you. I'm concerned that Temple area has become a hotbed of unloading not-so-great deals that are painted up to look better than they are. Any truth to this?

Thank you for the info Jamal but I have heard that the numbers at UPenn & Drexel are even worse. Is this not the case? I have heard prices are higher relative to rents and the competition is even more fierce. What are the numbers like around La Salle?

There's no way anyone could have positive cash flow near Penn or Drexel if buying these days. Just not possible. You can drift farther away and be on the outskirts of the C/D neighborhoods but then you'd be in the same scenario at Temple.

So did you end up making the purchase. Curious on update.

Hi Kyle, if you don't know the area well, I'd be happy to give you some advice. I specialize in the off campus housing market at Temple and know the neighborhood very well. What are the cross streets of your row house?