All Forum Posts by: Mark Whittlesey

For buy and hold management is absolutely key.

And even more so for multis. Even small multis like 4-plex.

The vast majority of "professional" managers I have run into are bad. REALLY bad.

The one thing you cannot do is maintain status quo. You either need to find really good managers and then manager the managers. Or you need to sell.

That is really a lifestyle/personal decision, not an investment decision.

It sounds like management is the vast majority of the problem. If it were me, I would fix that problem.

The other thing to keep in mind is that even with small multis, cash flow does matter in terms of valuation. So with all your management problems, you may not get top dollar if you sell without fixing that.

It depends how long the tenant was there.

What you describe is NOT normal wear and tear.

And it not always normal wear and tear to repaint between tenants.

You can use your best judgment as to whether a repaint would have been necesarry anyway.

Yes, Serge did. But it's not replicable (different time, different situation).

The main thing I took from Serge's podcast was: 10 offers a day.

If you aren't making offers, you aren't buying properties.

Yea.. what John Miller said..

The rent roll pretty much is what it is.. If you think rents are FMV then just add in a reasonable vacancy factor and you are there.

Expenses is where the current owner will put the funny stuff.

Are there "missing" expenses on their cash flow statement? (I have seen reports for smaller multis that included zero for annual maintenance. Literally zero. This also often happens for management expense.)

Get copies of all utility bills for the last few years (3-5).

Ideally, you want to see tax returns because the current owner is going to minimize the expenses he tells you but maximize the ones he tells the IRS.

Wholesale/flip until you have enough cash to pay all cash for a larger (typically100U+ depending on area) multi.

"I see some of the returns that members in Milwaukee, Chicago and Indiana get and its tempting. But then I see the property taxes, snow, boilers, insurance costs and I'm right back to Arizona!"

Exactly... "winter" causes a lot of problems. Frozen pipes etc.

Also, AZ's tenant/landlord laws are VERY favorable. IL's for example is NOT.

Additionally, if the investor is in CA, it is VERY convenient to get to Phoenix from any major metro area. Basically, 1 hour on Southwest. Much different if you ever need to get to the property and it's in the Midwest.

That is what earnest money is for. Seller puts up no EMD.

Can you tell me how your HML worked?

Did you fund part of the purchase and the rehab out of pocket with the HML picking up the rest?

No. Actually, I invest mostly in the Phoenix area. Been there for many years.

I do also have a condo in Garden Grove that I rent out.

How did you get started in Sacramento and DFW?