All Forum Posts by: Ahmad H.

I think the market is starting to turn around here so I do not think its the best time to sell, its not a bad time to buy. If you are getting good cash-flow why not hang on to it for a couple more years? Where in Colonie is it, north or south?

I attended one of the meetings of the AIN group: http://actioninvestorsnetwork.wildapricot.org/ and it seems to be a good way to connect with local investors. Take a look at the site and meetup link and see if you wanna pass by, they hold meetings once a month.

Here is the meetup link: http://www.meetup.com/nyreia/events/175512422/

Welcome Armando! Good to see another fellow investor from the Capital Region. I am a new investor as well and can't get enough of the BP forum. A lot of helpful people and info. Enjoy the ride.

@Larry Flanagan Has potential but could be messy. First questions that come to mind is why can't they lease it from the tax buyer since he got it at such a low cost. Second question is that if proper notice is the issue here, isn't there some legal contracts you could sign with the tenants to give them notice and fully lay out all the scenarios if you take ownership for 45k. Personally, I would only attempt such a deal if I have reserves 2x the money I am putting into it. It all depends on risk tolerance, reserves, and experience.

@Kris TaylorAll the properties I have and will be buying are local so I would still be the one screening and selecting tenants. I would also be involved in deciding on repair items >$150 as I can swing by and see what is going on.I am willing to do 10% of gross rents, the average rent per door is $900+. and there are 5 doors total. I guess the services that I want taken care off are collecting rents, landscaping, making sure trash and snow removal is taken care off, and someone to be interfacing with the tenants for minor issues like a clogged sink or burnt light bulb. Are my expectations reasonable?

Any input about when to start looking, am I too small now to reach out for a property manager?

@Jonathan K.

I will look into electronic payments to make rent collection easier but I am not sure about having one of the tenants become a property manager. Do you have a tenant/property manager for each property or one for all and what is their compensation?

@Lynn M.

There is a lot of great info about screening property management companies and I will definitely be leveraging that in my search.

I have two multi-family rental properties and will soon have three. My goal is to buy one every six month. With each property the burden to manage and collect rents is growing and with a full time job I can see it getting stressful. I want to plan ahead on transferring this burden to a good property manager that will not cause me more stress with false repairs/bad tenants and whatever else that can happen. I would like some advice from those who have found a property manager and do not regret it. When should I start looking? Is it better to give them one property to test a manager or wait until I have 10 properties so I have more leverage? What questions to ask and what due diligence should I do when looking for a property manager? Thank you all for the great BP community!

With the numbers you provided, a quick test with the 2% and 50% rule show that it will not cash flow. Those are estimates though, you should get the exact numbers for taxes, insurance, occupancy rates, utilities you will be responsible for, the interest rate you'll qualify for, etc.. and do you a specific calculation for this property.

Thank you all for the prompt feedback. I will get quotes from two contractors for fixing and removing the garage then go back to the seller. If the seller won't budge I think I will have to drop this one and move on. The market value of this property in good condition is around 180k , I got it for 158k.

The tenants are not allowed to use the driveway or the garage. There is plenty of street parking.

Hello,

I have a 3-Family house in Albany NY under contract with a 2-car detached garage that cannot be used (roof is collapsing, structural issues). Removal according to the inspector would cost around 10k and repair about 20-25k. The seller has the garage "as is" in the sale. I am trying to get insurance for this property before closing and so far has gotten rejected by the under writers of Amica and Nationwide (company that the property is currently insured under). The under writers are willing to give me 30 days to fix the garage or they will revoke the policy. I have the money to fix the garage but I do not see any return or value in doing so. Any suggestions about how to approach this?

Ideally I would like to get the property insured without any repairs even for a slightly higher premium.

Also, I am curious if I am not able to get insurance for this property will this fall under the mortgage contingency in the contract since the bank requires insurance to issue the mortgage?