All Forum Posts by: Steve Potash

Hi... I know zero about NY student rentals, but I know a bit or two about student rentals (24 years worth).  In my opinion, you can compete with new dorms and apt complexes, but you need to really understand the market and the student's needs.  If your property is a lot closer to campus vs the new building... and the rent is a lot cheaper and it also has some feature/upgrade/etc that the new building doesn't have, then you should be able to rent your property to decent quality student renters.  But if you have none of these advantages, I wouldn't invest, because you won't be able to compete, since everyone loves new.....Just my 2 cents....

Hi Moses,

It would be good if one of your investors has invested in student housing before and it would be great if they've invested at the university that you're targeting.  I've been investing in student housing for 24 years and throughout the years the student's top needs/requirements continue to change so you always need to be ahead of the game to keep your properties in demand.   I've mentored investors in student housing... these were seasoned investors, but didn't understand the rental process, leases, etc and they would have been 0% occupied because they were applying "normal" rental processes instead of targeting students... that's why it's important to have someone that's been investing in student rentals on your team.  Each university is different, some have 12 month leases, some 9 months.  Most have the parents sign a guarantor agreement.  Some have individual leases for each tenant, some have 1 lease for all tenants.  In larger universities, you tend to see more amenities because the larger institutions invest there and some are building apts that look like 4-5 star hotels.  At these locations, some students don't mind to drive if they're getting all these amenities.  In smaller universities, you won't see the big players, so there aren't as many amenities, so location is real important.  Where I invest.. rents can vary from 1 block from campus vs 5 blocks to campus.   We're almost finished building a 28 unit apt building directly across the street from campus.  We finish them out with stainless steel appliances, granite, vinyl plank floors, etc.  Feel free to ask any questions...

Hi Everyone, I'm Steve and I'm new to BP, but have been investing in multi-family for 24 years. I'm looking for other seasoned multi-family investors to brainstorm on how they generate additional income streams.  As everyone knows, if we can create value added products (for ex: laundry, vending machines, etc are the basic ones) that saves the tenant money and also generates additional income for us, that revenue stream can be huge when we multiply it by the number of tenants..plus it gives us an advantage over our competition.  I'm very creative and have several, but thought it would be great if several of us can provide examples of what they're doing, because if all of us come away with one additional revenue stream idea, that's easy money for us... who's interested??? 

Alright... I'll start.... I originally upgraded some of my units to stainless steel appliances.  I charged $25 more per month.  It cost me $750 for a stove, refrig and range hood and I sold my old stove and refrig for $100, so the net cost was $650.  It will take 2 years and 2 months to re-coup my initial investment of $650 and then I generate $25 per month.  In addition, my turnover was less in these apts, so I saved on turnover costs.... plus my ad says Stainless Steel Appliances, so I'm beating my competition.  I now have purchased stainless steel appliances for all of my units.  It's been over 2 years since I did this, so I'm now generating a decent income stream and have re-paid the initial re-investment. 

If you're goal is to purchase and flip homes... focus on learning how to do that instead of learning how to wholesale.    If you're new, maybe partner up with someone that is doing flipping, if you're low on funds.  For example, for the first couple of deals... you go find the house and then assist them with the renovation/flip and you share in part of the profits. 

I just built a 28 unit apartment building.  You won't get anywhere close to $55/sq ft.  Plus everyone puts too much weight on the $/sf cost... because that doesn't include land development, paved parking lots, curbing, stormwater sewers, possible retention pond, civil engineer, architect, etc.  With multifamily, this could add $100 - $200k to your cost, easily.   Also, you can have 2 apts buildings with the same square footage and same materials, but one can cost a lot more than the other because of how they're designed/layed out, so you need someone who has actually built an apt building involved in the design phase.  Plus, remember that you'll have to pay atleast a year's worth of construction interest loan payments during the construction which is an additional expense... that's not factored into the $/sf.