All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Hey Kodi,

I'm in Lynchburg and can give you quite a few contacts in regards to contractors. I had trouble spotting deals at first as well so it's best to study/know the area you're planning on buying in before you pull the trigger. You can use a realtor just make sure you have a good one that understands what you're trying to do, otherwise they'll sell you anything. 

Once you know the area, you'll know based on the amount of repairs, whether or not it's a good deal. You have to learn how to analyze deals either through your own spreadsheet or the BP analyzing tool. 

-Are you handy with tools? 

-Do you have a wife/GF/friends willing to get her hands dirty? 

-What type of properties do you want to invest in, SF, multi-family?

Another thing... ppl will always tell you to wait or you can't do something when you want to do it, but where there is a will there is a way. You just want to be prepared before you do anything.

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll help you out as much as I can or point you in the direction of someone that's know more than me.

Take care,

on second reading the sound pretty reckless, but if you start charging them you run the risk of them not telling you anything which will end up costing you even more money. I would institute the inspections and not renew their lease when it's up. If it continues to the point of them eating into your profit, I would move to evict.

Another option would be instituting a quarterly inspection clause in your lease. This will not only allow you to check for any issues but also catch some before they occur. 

You can also make sure they aren't causing issues by living like slobs. Make note of what you see and any infractions you issue them so that if its not corrected and causes an issues you have proof you warned them. 

I'm a property manager in a college town and I can tell you that finances are probably the main reason most people live in apartments. 

Some however have lived in homes before and no longer want the responsibility of taking care of all the maintenance issue, some people are just getting older. Some people get job transfers, some people have lost their homes do to various situations i.e. divorce, fires, bankruptcy, etc. So I completely agree with you that apartments or any other type of low maintenance multi-families are the future. 

The issue for people that realize that apartments are better than other types of RE investments (in some areas) is they may not have the finances, knowledge, or support to secure said communities. Something I learned about life is that most things are cyclical so if the deal is ready and you aren't, prepare for when it comes back around. 

Thats what I'm doing now...

@Gita Faust Thank you, the IRS list is shorter than the amount of things @Jeff Kehl listed but I'm assuming the IRS classifies a lot of that stuff in the same category ie; Roofing, Plumbing, Ground Maintenance = Repairs to the IRS.

I'm really trying to get a grasp on the monthly numbers to see if this particular property I'm looking at is worth my while, but all this definitely helps.

Also does quickbooks online or the regular version have a property management software integrated, I currently use Appfolio at my PM job.

@Chris Simmons I was asking about evaluating deals but do you have any suggestion as far as tracking expenses go?

@Account Closed I've heard of this but I've never tried it. I hear the online Quickbooks isn't as fully loaded as the one you buy for your computer. Do you know if that's true?

@Jeff Kehl Thank you

Does anyone happen to have an expense spreadsheet they don't mind sharing. 

I've been pulling some from the web but I'm just trying to make sure that I'm thinking of everything. Obviously SF expenses differ from apartment communities so if you have one thats geared more toward a small apartment community that would be great. 

Your input is also welcome, thank you in advance.

@Wayne Brooks  I should've added this but we don't have the down payment for this property so the lender was trying to see if there was enough equity to build the down payment into the purchase price...