All Forum Posts by: William Carroll

Hilltop - varies street to street. South of Mound, West of Hague, IMO is your best bet on the west side of Columbus. Good price to rent value here IMO, but property tends to be on a case-by-case basis. 

University District - Prices are high, and Ohio State, in their infinite money grab, has just banned sophomore students from living outside University housing, which will impact landlords. The highly desirable Short North rental crowd, driven out by high rents, is spilling into the University District, so there may be some opportunity there. But if you're looking at large multi-fam, you may not be able to capture that crowd who would likely prefer singles, doubles, and town homes. I'd tread with caution regarding university property. Ohio State may someday in the near future decide that if you go to school full time and are under the age of 22-24, you must live on university property. Sounds crazy, but after their latest ruling regarding sophomores,  I wouldn't put anything past their insatiable greed. 

German Village - expensive.  Merian and Hungarian Villages may be better, but don't stray too far south. Not sure how much 5+ unit multi-fam you will find in this area. 

Near East Columbus - Olde Towne East and Franklin Park area has gotten pretty expensive of late, and the rest of the East side is on a block-by-block basis IMO. There's probably good opportunity here, but you need to know your streets.  

Good Luck!

In Columbus, R&L or Panzera... Both are good companies. They have somewhat different management fee structures, so you have couple of differing options. 

I have done business with both companies, and they are both reputable and good people to work with. One is my acting PM. 

R&L and Panzera are both well known here and would probably be a couple of companies worth talking to. They have somewhat different fee structures, so you'll have a couple of diverse setups to consider. 

My attorney advises using the 'advertised date' for date placed in service... if you've advertised it's availability, it's theoretically in service and you can prove to the IRS that it was placed. 

That said, I use a professional PM, so instead of advert date, I use our property management contract date for my in-service date, with the contract as proof should I ever face an audit. 

See if Guardian can sub-meter the property.  Review your leases to see if it's defined who pays water. If the lease says landlord pays, get the property sub-metered, you can start moving tenets to pay their own water when the leases turn over.  

First, I'd forget about what the previous owner paid 4 months ago, that is irrelevant to you. His deal is his deal and has absolutely nothing to do with your deal. The only thing that is relevant is what other properties you can find on or off the market, now or in the future.  

As an investor, I'd probably pass (rents don't meet acquisition cost ratio for my investing criteria). But you're not buying this strictly as an investor, you are buying it as home to live in, subsidized by other occupying tenants which changes the analysis significantly. IMO, if you are constrained by a few areas, you should look at (in person and internet search) everything in those areas that is available, pending sales, and properties that have sold in the last 6 months.  That will give you a good idea of whether it's a great deal, a good deal, an average deal, or a bad deal, or a terrible deal. Sounds to me like (without knowing all the details) for this neighborhood, you have found an average deal.  Is an average deal acceptable to you? For me, in the absence of better deals, I have learned that I can live with NO WORSE THAN average deals, because landing a 'no worse than average' deal is better than inactivity.  And I'm often pleasantly surprised because sometimes 'no worse than average' deals actually turn out to be good deals, in retrospect. But the key for me is that 'average' absolutely MUST be the floor.  

Re: the renovations... Most doubles unless recently renovated have some warts. $20k in repairs ($10k per unit) does not seem like a lot to me.. I just put $15k into a single 750 sqft unit that hadn't been updated in 10 years. You can delay renovation on your unit, but if you're going to jack a tenet up $250-$300 in November, you have a good chance of losing that tenant, so I'd focus what it takes to fix that unit first, because you will likely incur that in December. If not (because the tenet decides to stay), you can redeploy those funds to your unit. 

Good luck!!!

Many PMs put a minimum cap on what they will charge on a per month basis. If you're in low-priced rentals, that's the figure you probably need to pay most attention to, as it is a direct percentage against your gross rents.

"what characteristics make an investment agent appealing to work with?"

I am a part-time investor, with a fairly time-consuming day job, so this is just my perspective (take it with a grain of salt)..... I am NOT in the market for an agent at this time, but if I were, here's what I'd want: 

Operationally - fast response when I reach out. Even if you can't talk or help immediately, simple acknowledgment that you got a message is helpful, but don't leave me hanging for 5 hours. Figure out whether your client prefers email or phone and use what the client prefers unless the situation dictates otherwise. A quick and to-the-point demeanor (time is money), is critical. Good deals go quick, so as investor, keep in mind that I want to beat others to the table. Also, use Docusign or equivalent - I'm busy and don't have time to dilly dally around meeting up in person to sign every single form and disclaimer that pops up. 'Fast' benefits not just me, but you too... don't let time-waster clients slow you down. Qualify in, qualify out.

In terms of being a client on an ongoing basis, here's what I find valuable - You should reach out to me with properties you believe are actually good deals, not automated lists from your MLS account. Some people may find that stuff valuable, but I get plenty of those from other agents I've met over the years, and honestly don't have time to grind through it all, plus I can data dump and auto alert most of what I'm interested in from Realtor.com anyhow. There are a million properties out there and automated lists are just not all that helpful in distilling the signal from the noise.... save me time by telling me what you think I should be looking at.

And make sure properties you reach out to me about are properties that YOU would invest in if your money was at risk.  Don't tell me a $400,000k property that has a max upside rent potential of $2,200/mo. is a great deal. There are certainly market participants in today's environment that have more money than brains, but I'm not one of them. If chasing overpaying suckers is your business model then feel free to focus on that, but understand that I'm not interested. Again, qualify in, qualify out. 

Another thing that is valuable is when an agent knows a few specific areas and knows where the deals in that area are. Or understand the city's macro environment and help me target good investment areas I may not have considered previously. And having access to off market or pre-market deals is valuable.  Information is king... prove your value by telling me something I don't already know!!

I hope you found that lengthy opinion valuable. Good luck and happy hunting!!

Rates are going up and the hawks at the fed are starting to beat back the doves after about 6 years of post-crash loosening monetary policy. You can still find banks to work with, but it's going to get harder from here on, IMO. I believe this trend is going to continue for a bit, especially if variable rates are involved in your deals. Be careful out there!...