All Forum Posts by: Steve Potash

It really depends on the university and town.  Some college towns are 12 month leases, others are 9 month leases.  If you're in a town, where all the off-campus housing only does 9 month leases, you're not going to get anyone to sign up for a 12 month lease, if all the students leave to go home for the summer.  So, it's best to figure out what the majority of off-campus housing rentals do, and plan on doing the same thing...and figure that in, when calculating your numbers.

We've been creating video tours also.  For years, I've been wanting to do them, because its hard showing apts while students are currently living in them.  Is anyone else using a software package that does e-lease signing, rent collections, resident portal for maintenace requests, etc, so there's even less face to face.

Thanks for letting me know.

I was comparing different software, and I can't find anywhere on Cozy's website that they have electronic leases and e-signing. Does it have this functionality. Most other software companies mention it as a feature.  Thanks

Where we are located, the city requires the water/sewer bill to be in the landlord's name, so the students pay the landlord the rent, water, sewer and trash and then the students pay the electric, gas and cable/internet directly to the utility company.  Some landlords tried including electric, gas, cable, internet with the rent to the students... students loved it, landlords got clobbered, because students were now leaving all the lights on, their windows open in the winter with the heat on, etc and the electric/gas bills skyrocketed which now the landlord was paying.   Then landlords tried putting a cap on the utility bills, for example: anything over $300 tenant pays, but students didn't like it because they thought everything was included and now they're getting a random bill which they didn't budget into their expenses.

Hi, Are your leases for 9 months or 12 months?  If you have 9 month leases, you can charge a summer storage fee if they're going to re-rent the next school year.  With your leases, you can charge a rental app/lease processing fee.  I started looking into this, but didn't have enough time to research it....vending machines.   We provide free parking for 1 vehicle, but charge a fee for a second parking sticker.  Some of our apts have washers and dryers inside the units, so we charge a more rent for these units.  I told them, I'd reduce the rent if they don't want the washer/dryer, but nobody has ever taken me up on that offer.  Same thing for our furnished units.   I started looking at providing wifi...  if you do it correctly, it looks like you might be able to make money off it, but then your tenants might be calling you at midnight asking you to fix their wifi, so it might not be worth it for the extra income.   I was thinking of creating a rewards card, where I go to different stores and get a discount for my tenants when they use my card.   I wouldn't make money off of this, but it creates value to the students and increases my brand loyalty.  These are just the ones I quickly thought of, but there are more.  

For being your first deal, renovating 4 units in 4 1/2 months is extremely quick, so you should be happy with that success.  Since you acquired the property with tenants, I'm assuming you gave your tenants an incentive to leave before starting renovations unless they were month to month... because it's extremely difficult to renovate a property if the tenants have a lease and won't leave.   The beach is hard to find numbers that work well, so congratulations on your first successful deal.  

It's great that you want to invest in multifamily, but it's best to start small.  Trying looking for a duplex, triplex or 4-plex and get your feet wet.  It doesn't make any difference how many books you read or podcasts you listen to, you'll still make mistakes... but it's better to make mistakes on a smaller project that you can learn from and then use those mistakes to be more successful on your next larger deal vs starting out with an apartment building where the mistakes could potentially bankrupt you. 

They should never have taken out a 10 year mortgage.  You normally take out either a 20 or 30 year amortizing mortgage depending on if it's a commercial or residential loan.  They should go back to the lender and ask to modify the loan, because that will lower their payments...otherwise, they will always have this problem, with the rents not covering all of the expenses.   

My biggest advantage is that I spend time talking with the students and asking them their needs/priorities.  Most landlords never talk to their tenants or students.  Once I know what their top needs are... I look for properties that meet/exceed those requirements.