All Forum Posts by: Stephen Chaney

Welcome to BP! I'm still fairly new here myself. I do a ton of lurking on the forums and a small amount of posting. I probably spent 5 years preparing and watched and listened to hundreds of videos and podcasts before I made a move. I waited too long, now that I look back. An unfortunate event in my life lead me to take action. I needed something to take my mind off of things and I dedicated a large portion of my energy into investing with my wife. My wife and I were always looking but too scared to move on anything. One day we just did, and 9 months later we are 15 units deep, and in the midst of a construction project!

I'm always happy to chat about investing but I may not be on enough to hold a consistent conversation. If you are looking for a mentor, it may be worth looking for someone closer to your geographic location! States vary so much it would be a good move to find someone much more knowledgeable in those areas. Good luck! Happy hunting!

I have yet to start dealing in single family homes yet, however this was a very interesting read and peaked my interest. I'm not sure what your plans are. I don't know if you fix and flip or buy and hold? I'll touch on #1, I'd figure out what I plan to do with the property. I'd take a look at surrounding property values and see where about local homes are selling for. Using that information I'd take a quick guess at how much I'd spend on reno (Because I haven't seen the interior and I just don't know). We would want to make the most money possible so I'd try and figure out how much I could stand to make at different purchase prices. I'd set a maximum and stick to it (while offering less).

I don't know if this helps at all. It got me thinking though and I appreciate your post! Good luck!

Congratulations on starting your business!

I currently rent to a good friend of mine, he also happens to be an employee. He plays the role of caretaker to the property and handles emergency maintenance, snow removal, etc. I'm still very cautious and he's treated just like any other tenant. It's all situational.

Very nice work Jonathon! My wife and I are in nearly the same boat as you, and we are geographically close!  We are up to 13 units in our first six months using commercial loans. I've sent you a colleague request with an introduction. Most banks have a maximum amount of loans they will issue to any single borrower. I would ask your bank what that would be for you! Our next step will be to start partnering up with folks on your side of the river to expand our business.

I'd love to help analyze this deal with you. I've never crunched the numbers on such a big investment. Maybe you are missing something. A second set of eyes may help. Are all the units up to market value? I tried getting my bank to run 30 amort also. Didn't happen.

Welcome to BP, I’m about two hours south west or I would! 

In regards to your email reply back, I feel things are too personal. I was afraid this would happen to me when I inherited my tenants. I sent them all multiple letters on how to go about asking for maintenance, and emergency maintenance via a company email and I file all of them.

I actually created email templates that I just fill in the blank and send it. I wanted my tenants to assume that when they ask for maintenance a machine responds. It keeps things from getting too personal. Also (following the laws of my state) in my typical template there is a notice that states:

"When requesting maintenance you are giving property management and maintenance permission to enter the premises during normal working hours. During maintenance management will also inspect for other preventative maintenance issues. Please have all valuables in a secure place as "My company" will not be help responsible for lost or stolen items"

So they don't have the ability after requesting maintenance to tell us no you can't come in here. It also keeps them from calling me.

Do some research and find out what kind of vacancy rates other property owners are working with in that area. If it's a low vacancy rate, it won't be an issue finding new tenants that will happily pay the going rate for similar units. You could approach your inherited tenants a different way too, tell them the going rates for similar units in the area. Inform them that because of the demand, and current market you have to raise the rent but still offer them a deal. If the going rate is 750, tell them since they have been such dedicated tenants you will only raise it to 675. If you know that it will make money, it will make money. Just depends on how patient you are.

@Ryan Murdock thanks for the info. I’ll be headed to city hall tomorrow! It’s priced too well for me not to make it work. I hope they have good news for me.