All Forum Posts by: Stephen McDonald

I'm here, nice to meet you!

 That is an excellent answer, thank you for saying that. I suggested a couple of objections that I would have if someone gave me a contract. What I would want is to go over the contract with someone so I understand my obligations and am assured that I am capable of doing them, as well as that there is no "Your soul will be relinquished to Giglamesh the Destroyer" on page 83 of the fine print.

Im half joking about the soul stuff, that's absurd, but it's about hidden obligations that the signer wouldn't know about know about until an issue arose.

I'm not a professional, but I've heard that making a personal connection can help, but that's probably the first thing you've tried. I do know that contracts are scary things. I like that meme, but it reminds me of cartoon satans trying to get people to sell their souls. If I were to be signing a contract, I'd be worried about a couple things. The first is the fine print. There could be anything in there, hidden among the pages of size 8 font. The other thing is that a contract is a promise, and there are repercussions for breaking that promise. I'd be thinking, is this a promise I can keep? If something gets in my way, I'll have to suffer those repercussions. 

That's an awesome breakdown of your experience with this property. And congratulations on getting a good deal.

Where is the dividing by 8 coming from?

Thank you very much for answering my question. Clearly you are one of the superstars and it means a lot. I hadn't touched my profile in months. That was a good analogy with the paper bag. Well I added a photo now and added more to my description. It's not nearly as awesome as yours is.

You mentioned that there is plenty I should be doing right now that won't cost a penny. I figure I should be finding deals through Loopnet and Realtor and contacting Agents, and then analyzing those to find out how much I could pay for them.

I'm tempted to buy pro so I can use the calculator. I have a calculator of my own in a Google Spreadsheet, which I like because I know how the numbers are interacting to form the results. I have a concern that the number isn't realistic.

I just found a 7 unit apartment building in Columbus on Loopnet. I put the numbers into my calculator. They ask $3,550,000. That's too much.

I watch the Bigger Pockets Webinars. Brandon Turner reccomends 12% return and $100 Cashflow per unit per month. The value that would get me to 12% cash-on-cash, according to this calculator, is approximately $1,250,000, and would make a Cashflow of $31,337. That sounds unrealistic because it's way more than $8,400, which is $700 x 12.

Are there more professional calculators out there that don't cost much, or is mine okay?

I almost bought it a couple months ago, but my brother talked me out of it because I couldn't articulate the value to him. Is it just access to the calculators and webinar replays?

Are there people here who don't have pro membership and are glad?

Thanks for responding.

 I know, I'm just trying to do a quick analysis. According to Michael Blank, 90% of deals don't even make it to further Due Diligence. I just need to know enough to make an initial offer. It'll probably be ignored, but if it doesn't, then I can move on to Due Diligence.

My question is does Property Management affect the NOI when making the initial offer? It's not required to run a property, but if you do use it, then it is an expense. I think I should count it against the NOI, but the seller would say no because they want the NOI to appear as high as possible.

This question isn't really related to the 50% rule.

The 50% rule covers expenses that are related to the property, not HOA, Property Management, or Debt expenses. Do those unrelated expenses get factored into the NOI?

@Remington Lyman

Thanks for the solid turnaround. I think I need to work on my turnaround skills.

So you feel pretty optimistic about all the areas. That's uplifting. If the population is rising that much, it would be an honor to help facilitate that.

@Lamont Marable

Thanks, that sounds like good advice. I looked for Facebook groups and it looks like COREE has one.