All Forum Posts by: Vlad B.

If your PM recommends selling, then that's sound advice. They don't want to deal with all the problems and you shouldn't, either.

Is the same PM handling your other properties? Were the tenants inherited or did that PM select them? Low inventory should indicate higher rent, quicker turnaround, all else being equal. I would still look hard at security, as that is #1 for Good tenants in any neighborhood.

Aloha,

Does the PM company also handle Sales? If so, are they well compartmentalized, or is the person managing your property the one that recommends to sell it? I ask simply because it really just sounds like the screening and management of the tenants may be the bigger issue. Increase your site security through fencing/driveway gates, exterior lighting, remote access surveillance system, high security key/fob access control. How is your curb appeal? Common area appearances? Laundry area? What are the individual units like? Clean, fully functional, attractive elements, secure? You can still get lower income people in bad areas, but you need to attract the very best to YOUR units. If you offer the same as the competition, with ceilings, walls, and trim all one color; missing or torn screens and cracked or broken windows; non-functioning doors, windows, drawers, and other elements; very insecure; roach infested and just looking run down, you will get the same kind of tenants.

Everything in your Cons tells you to sell.  Funny, everything in your Pros does too.

Pros
- That's over $1200/year in savings (if you get your rent).  Keep this in mind when you read the following...
- Whenever you use a word like "if" in your argument to keep a property, you are actually making a statement to sell it.
- 60-90% appreciation is your property losing money by the bucket(s). Appreciation is a great thing. It's one of the goals of REI. However, the role of equity is to buy the property. In other words, the cost of your property is what you have in equity, and the value of the property is the actual property value.

Do the math.  Compare these to options (the ones you have presented here), with these money results for both:

1 - If you keep the property, and gain $1200/year from months savings
- Equity
- Property Value
- Cash Flow/year

2 - If you sold the property, and gain and took the now liquid equity and use it as a DP (20%) on another property,...or properties
- Total Equity
- Total Property Value
- Total Cash Flow/year

...and your final answer is?

Hello. I'd like to hear from my out-of-state investors that they successfully invested in a state they had never lived in or worked in that state for a long time. How did you develop relationships with the realtors, mortgage lenders, property managers etc. Were you taken advantage of at any time because you were out of state and trusted what you were told? I'm considering out-of-state MTR because NY is not a landlord-friendly state. 

Hey all, I've been buying investment properties in KC metro for about the past year and so far I've picked up some duplexes and a SFR. I live in CA (San Francisco Bay Area) and have visited KC and connected with an agent that I work well with. I watch the threads here and see there are active members taking action in the market... thinking there is an opportunity to :

* Meet other investors, swap information on what people are up to/working on.

* Get "boots on the ground insight" from other investors.

* Meet other investors that may have similar interest and may be open to taking down deals/properties as partners.

If nothing else it will be a value add to connect with other investors and share learnings and insight. I'm finding that with properties staying on the market longer, I'm putting in aggressive offers and getting traction... partnering with others to take down properties while there is more buyer leverage would be amazing given the landscape.

Please respond here or message me if you're interested, I'd really like to get something on the books. Looking forward to connecting.

Hi! BB we are looking to invest in: St Joseph, MO 64503 does anyone have experience in this zip code or the best property management. Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond! 

Apparently this is a new podcast title, and I don't think it's a good one. BP needs to stop setting unrealistic expectations. I get the fact that it is great click bait, everyone wants to dream, just a few years of "being an investor" and you never have to work again, travel the world. "From homeless to 200 units" and other inspirational stories. - Literally "GET RICH QUICK"!

I have seen portfolios of celebrated over-night-success investors and when you look under the hood it's not pretty. On paper they look very leveraged, but in reality it is worse: they carry a huge liability of deferred capex that is somehow being ignored, even by the lenders. If you have 200 doors and each one needs about $20,000 worth of roof/basement-repairs/kitchen/bathrooms/plumbing/driveway, I don't understand how you travel the world on 40k of cash flow with a $4 million dollar liability looming! What's the plan to recover?

I sincerely hope it works out for those investors, but I have two concerns.

If you have followed the topic over the last 10 years you have noticed that we are facing an increasing anti-landlord sentiment calling for more legislation. And when  you look what is behind the outrage, it's usually properties in dilapidated conditions and a completely overwhelmed PM, leading to city code violations, tenant complaints and local evening news. The term slum lord comes to mind.

The second concern is that we are raising totally unrealistic expectations with young investors. It has gotten tough in this market to pick up deals, let alone equity. IMO a responsible investor needs to aim to get leverage below 75% as quickly as possible, while getting property condition to a point where you would not have a home inspector ring the alarm bell over stuff failing left and right and major components being past their normal life expectation. 

And then finally the portfolio stress test: Can you sustain 30% vacancy, maybe combined with some move in incentives and still be able to replace a furnace when you have to?

I spend a lot of time helping new investors and one of the first things I try to instill in them is to think in decades, not months. When you buy a deal, think about owing it for at least 10 years, if not 30. Evaluate it from that perspective. REI is not a get rich quick thing!!