All Forum Posts by: Shai Neubauer

 Hey Jon,

Ive been a member here for just a couple of months and I have been experiencing the same exact issues.  Any time something about turnkeys gets posted its always the marketers answering the questions and never the actual investors.  This might have something to do with these investors not really being hands on and involved as much but I wouldn't buy that.  I have a full-time job that I am consumed with and this is just an investment for me but I am still able to spend a few minutes a day checking out BP.

I may not have what you are looking for but I can definitely start the process here and hopefully keep this up to date as time goes on.  I started looking at TK about 8 months ago and I bought my first property 2 months ago using HomeUnion.  I now have a 2nd fixer upper property I bought independently with a friend out of state.  I will hopefully update that one as it finishes getting fixed and I find a PM to manage it.  I will answer the questions so far regarding the first TK property:

1. How many out of state turnkeys have you purchased? 1

2. Do you still own these properties or were any sold? Yes still own.

3. How involved are you with the management of the property? Not at all.  HU took care of a few issues that came up first month.

4. What kind of cap rate, COC, ROI are you getting? Been paid 1 month so far and so far as expected.

5. Was the estimated rent, cap rate, ROI that was advertised close to what you are actually getting? Yes so far but only 1 month in so far.

6. Overall, are you happy with the investment? Yes

7. Which turnkey companies would you recommend or warn against? Would recommend HomeUnion but im sure this goes for any TK you choose you really have to do your homework.  Check the area, check comps, talk to local people and make sure you know what your getting into.

8. If tenants were already in place, how long did they last and what caliber tenant were they? I bought mine on contingency that tenant be in place because I wanted to start off on the right track.  So far so good.

9. Were you satisfied with the PM that came with the deal? Homeunion is now doing there own PM and so far so good.  

10. Do you have any advice for others looking to venture into out of state turnkeys? Sane as #7.

Would be great if there were others who could contribute here.  I have my keyword reminders set to turnkey and to Homeunion so I can easily track when something new gets posted.

 In HomeUnions case they are offering a lot more properties not just from turnkey so they are not always getting paid from the TK providers.

For Norada, Marco can reply to this as im sure he is getting compensated through the TK providers.

Apologies Marco on the misrepresentation.  I have not done a deal with you guys as of yet but yes I think I do recall you mentioning ongoing consulting "after the sale".  I did not mean to suggest that this was not the case, from my experience you set me up with a turnkey provider and they really took care of the rest and I didn't really have any further questions for you.  Maybe this is because I didn't do a deal as im sure if I had you would have been there with support.

Regarding HomeUnion, I don't think its fair to categorize that 1% fee as something that is extra or out of the ordinary.  I hope you understand that HU will take over the PM and there will be no additional PM fees on top of the 1%.  Obviously with your turnkey providers there is a similar "property management" fee attached to the deal and so is the case with every turnkey property.  HU is actually providing more for this 1% fee on top of just the property management:

• Ongoing property management
• Payment of all expenses
• Ongoing market intelligence
• Bi-annual property inspections (i.e. every 6 months)
• Investment portfolio reviews
• Insurance monitoring
• Performance reports
• Etc.

They have done for me nearly all of the above besides for inspections ($450 fee alone) because I own the property for just 2 months so far.

As far as the 3.5% acquisition fee I would tend to agree with you.  This seems to be like a new thing that was not in place for my first deal and they only told me about this a week ago.  Built-in-equity is a huge part of my criteria for these properties and like you said to add in 3.5% to each deal would be eating away at my profits.  I hope they change this, they seem to be in transition and I hope they can find something that sticks long term.

Hey Joe,

I have been investing in out of state RE for over 6 months now and I own 2 properties.  I have spoken to both Marco and to HomeUnion extensively.  To me the difference is that HomeUnion is much more hands on.  I have done one deal with them so far and I am happy with the results.  They keep on changing there structure and now they do charge that 1% fee which includes property management and all of the other things Scott mentioned.  Its a heck of a deal if you ask me and so far they have done well by me.  They now also charge a 3.5% acquisition fee which was not there when I did my first deal.  They also work with a lot more properties now and some that need work.  My first deal was turnkey so I had no acquisition fee and no fixing up costs so I was happy with the built in equity I got on that.  Now I have to see if I can still find something similar with there new setup.

Marco is more of a connector like Gil said.  He will help you find what you are looking for based on your criteria and then set you up with one of the turnkey providers he is connected with.  His job really ends there from what I know and then you deal with the turnkey providers, property managers after that.

 Yes exactly.  We need a company to come up with algorithm to rate these neighborhoods without a biased point of view.  It would be based purely on analytics but would be a good starting point.

Right, but when making that attempt comparing apples to apples what exactly makes the difference between that A neighborhood and the C neighborhood.  I can just see someone out of state like myself being somewhat fooled by an advertiser claiming an A neighborhood.  I can have all the tools I mentioned but by not being there can never really know.  I was just wondering how they come up with this exact grading.

 Thanks so much I didnt realize how valuable that site was when you type in an exact address.  I appreciate that.  Regarding the A-F grading, this seems to be an objective grade by each investor based on these tools?

Great discussion here.  I have been investing for 6 months now through TK and I just closed my second property.  I spend a lot of time researching different markets.  I keep on hearing about these grades for each community A,B,CD,F.  This all sounds wonderful on paper but when you are actually looking at a property in a certain location how do you come up with this grade?  I am sure its not a perfect science and most of you will tell me to look at many different things.  I am currently using NeighborhoodScout, PropertyShark, CrimeReports.com, City-data.com, Zillow and any other tool I can find.

Is there something I am missing that can give me this exact Grade you are all talking about?

Great thread.

Chris, can you link to the new thread whenever you post it.

Thanks.

Would love to read this.  How can I know when this is available?