All Forum Posts by: Michael Healy

@John Hickey wow!  That looks great!  Did you uncover the brick?  What material is the counter top? I do get a real pleasure out of seeing spaces transformed. 

Thanks, everyone. I also have a weird standard...I wouldn't live in an apartment with w2w carpeting, so why should I offer one as a landlord. Possibly a strange standard to uphold, but it makes sense to me.  Not that I'm going to renovate every unit... I have another carpeted unit coming available and I'm just planning to touch up paint, clean, and re-rent. 

Thanks, @Thomas S. In this instance I'm also thinking about the wisdom of going with the cheapest flooring option in a bathroom, as evidenced by the completely rotted out subfloors. Maybe that proves it worked out well for the previous owners, although in both cases I got the properties for substantially below  asking 

Anyone else in the same boat?  I've been wanting to renovate my home kitchen and bath since I purchased my coop three years ago, but I acquired two multi-families in the fall and have been addicted to making improvements to command higher rents. I'm still investigating the wisdom of that strategy with my first round of improved units about to go on the market.  

Among the changes I'm making:

• Pulling up old grey w2w carpeting and refinishing the wood floors underneath
• Pulling up vinyl flooring in kitchens and bath, replacing the completely rotted out sub-flooring underneath, and replacing with tile
• New Wolf base-level (but solid wood) kitchen cabinetry, sink/fixtures, and quartz countertops
• Many miscellaneous repairs to moldy/rotted walls in the baths.

My hope is to realize an incremental annual premium equal to 15-20% return on my invested capital.

Am I on a fool's errand?  I know it's highly dependent on location. The properties are in an A neighborhood, but the overall demographics of the county are flat, and most renters work in the second home service or non-profit economy. 

And for me there's something about feeling a sense of pride in what I'm offering.

I also don't plan to live on cash flow for at least 5-7 years as I have a good paying full time job. 

Any experiences or perspectives welcomed.

MH

I did this in the fall on an 8- unit building with 15% equity down and 15% seller financing 20 year amortization 6% interest and 5 year balloon. Local commercial bank lender was fine with the transaction.

@Ann Bellamy

Why?  I wouldn't be collecting any money...

My understanding is that www.mysmartmove.com enables you to have the tenant pay to release their credit and background to you. Therefore no money changes hands and only serious, non-lying candidates are likely to follow through. I haven't tried it yet but this is how I'm planning to handle things as a new MA landlord.

She is now de facto in a tenancy at will and I can raise the rent anytime with 30 days notice.  

I inherited tenants in a multifamily property this past fall. One of my tenants has been ignoring my lease renewal (but paying the new rent) for nearly two months. I do everything on Adobe Sign and most of my tenants are happy to comply. I do want to get everyone on my document since it has provisions I specify, and since the previous landlord has provisions that are illegal in Mass.

Other than being pissed off because this person is ignoring my calls, e-mails, and reminders--is there anything I can do to compel her to reply?  I'd rather not evict and have the vacancy. Maybe raise the rent every 3 months as a reminder of why leases are a good thing?

MH

From a legal liability standpoint, should I be concerned about rent parity among tenants in the same property? I have 14 units with inherited tenants. The previous landlord was wildly inconsistent in terms of raising rents. One tenant has been there two years at rent x, and another has been at x for five years without an increase, another has been there at x-$25 for 8 years. It's all over the place.  His father in law has been there at x-$50 for 8 years. etc. etc. 

Do I need to be concerned about parity when I'm starting with rents that are all over the place in terms of amount and time since last increase?