All Forum Posts by: Stephen Witkowski

Im just starting out I’ve received a lot of advice to the effect of “look at as many properties as you can”.

While there are some open houses in the area, I wanted to know what common etiquette would be surrounding a private tour of a home? Should I request a tour, even if I am only using that time to analyze a deal? Is there an expectation that I should submit an offer after touring a home? Is there anything else I should know before scheduling a tour through a popular MLS site like realtor.com or LoopNet.com?

Hi @Ahamed Nafeez! 

Welcome to BP! 

If you're local or you would be willing to travel, there are some wonderful meetups organized by some really smart individuals in this area who aren't all on BiggerPockets:

• W2-RE Investing Austin Meetup
• Real Estate: Investment-Education-Training-and-Networking
• Austin Private Lender and Borrower Networking

You'll be able to get some great information here and meet some people who have 40+ years of experience in the Austin Real Estate market.

Let me know if you end up attending - I'd love to meet in person!

@Matt Hurley. The most in depth comp research I did was use Zillow. What else could I use to get more information?

I don’t have the rent per square foot, but I based my rental estimates on what I found listed for rent right now for units with a similar number of bedrooms (since that’s all the information that was in the listing). I went cut $50 below comparable rent I could find.

View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

This deal looks like it cash flows well to me. If I don't put any money into repairs (I've never seen the inside so I have no idea what condition it's in - this is just an exercise), I'm seeing around 15% cash on cash return.

When estimating the rents, I went under what the seller had reported. You can see in the description that the seller is reporting total rent from all 10 units being $5,275. I assumed that that was high, can tried to price it a little better. 

By my math, a 10 unit apartment can have 2 3-bedroom units,  4 2-bedroom units, and 4 1-bedroom units

I assumed that the 3 bedroom units would yield $600, 2 bedroom units $500, and 1 bedroom units $400. This is a little conservative in Killeen, but not knowing the condition I wanted to plan for poorly maintained units. This adds up to $4,300 per month in rental income. 

I'd pay for water and sewage, which I estimated at $40 per unit per month - any advice to get a better gauge on what I could expect for that bill(s)?

I found a garbage rate which is about $18 per unit per month.

This is my first analysis I'm posting, so any kind of feedback is helpful!

I'm probably thinking about this the wrong way, but I feel if I attend an open house with no intentions of buying, but rather in hopes of just absorbing all the information I can get, the agent would feel that I'm wasting their time. Am I mistaken?

Any advice on getting the most out of an open house? Do you advise asking the agent or individual selling outright about what was repaired, how much they put into appliances, etc.?

@Sarah Preston Welcome to BP!

I'm in Austin, Texas and I'm looking to purchase my first rental in the next year or two, so I'm a little familiar with the area. Although I'm so new I don't have any industry specific advice. 

However, I think bets thing you could do now is assess what your long-term investment goals are. 

Not knowing what your finances look like, I think If you want to be able to retire from your current job in the next ten years, you'll need to get involved in some big projects soon. There's a lot of opportunity to get involved with large multi family units,  but if you can find enough investors you could do it with less of your own money.

If you're looking at retiring in 15 or 20 years, you could start with some smaller duplex style units and build up from there, or just hold a few and pay them off. There is a BP podcast where Brad Dantonio talks about his financial independence while owning only 5 units!

From what I can gather, the best way to motivate new investors like you and me is to get clear on the why.

I hope this non-answer helps!

Wow! So many great responses.

Thanks everyone who replied - this really helps clear things up. To my understanding now, an agent acts as a liaison and a resource to an investor. A real estate agent is very familiar with the process and other individuals in the industry. They can help newer investors (like myself) or seasoned investors navigate through different deals, or even manage most of the acquisition process.

They'll also help you secure a lower price and get more information on the property and why the owner is looking to sell.

Thanks for all the patience and help everyone!

Hi everyone!

I’m a new real estate investor. I’ve started to learn more, browse the forums, listen to podcasts, and attend meetups. I keep seeing people seek out and utilize real estate agents, but I’m not sure why.

Simply put, why do I need a real estate agent?

Sorry for the ignorant question, and I don’t mean to offend any agents out there, but I don’t fully understand the role of a real estate agent.

Why should I find a real estate agent when looking to buy an investment property? When should I involve an agent? Do you generally have one agent you work with, or does each property have its own agent?

Thanks for the help!

Wonderful episode. @Steven Pesavento showed what it meant to have your back against the wall, an go all in.

I was really interested in hearing about his marketing strategy. I always thought I could get away with spending a couple hundred dollars on Adwords, but after he mentioned he spent upwards of 30k, it put my strategy in perspective.

If you haven't seen it yet, check out his website http://www.modelingmastery.com/modeling-mastery.

Steven, thanks for sharing your story!

@Kristopher Kyzar I’m analyzing my first couple deals, so forgive me if I’m missing the mark on these questions.

1.You’re doing an owner-occupied loan, so I expect you’ll be living there. Does that mean that you’re renting the other unit in the duplex for $1,550? Or is that the rent from both units?

2. You calculated for a 5% vacant rate, which seems a little lower than I would have expected. Since you’re rehabbing it, I expect it doesn’t have tenants now, and won’t for a few months. In 60 months, a 5% vacancy rate assumes that you’ll only be vacant for three months. I would raise that a little bit; if the numbers work with a 15% or 20% vacancy rate, then you’ll do stellar if you make 5%.