We're in Portland, Oregon and very few cases can you hit the 1% "rule", and if you do you have to be creative.I wanted to share a win today that has been in the making for the past 10 months because I think it is a good example of what a low cap environment looks like and what a solid base hit looks like for those that want to invest in small multifamily deals.Here are the details on the property:9-units in an up-and-coming neighborhood Purchase price: $1,550,000Cap rate: 4.5%Average rent was ~$995 and Owner was paying for garbage and water/sewerWhen we took over we immediately had a couple units turn over, which was great because we wanted to get in there to do some upgrades (we do a lot on the sustainability side that include reducing hazardous building materials, energy efficiency upgrades, bike storage, decreasing utility consumption, etc).

I am just starting out, and wanted to know if it would be reasonable to negotiate a decrease in sales price given the inspection findings, without having a specific roofer, electrician and plumber come out and give actual quotes for the work that needs to be done. 

So unless you can increase rents significantly or decrease the purchase price/interest rate significantly, this does not seem like a good deal to pursue.

Single-family home sales rose 5.3 percent year-over-year, with 5,260 units sold;Days on Market (DOM) for single-family homes decreased slightly from 67 days in February 2017 to 65 days this February;Total property sales increased 3.1 percent with 6,375 units sold;Total dollar volume climbed 4.5 percent to $1.7 billion;The single-family home median price rose 1.4 percent to $226,200, which represents a February high;The single-family home average price edged up 0.4 percent to a February high of $281,945;Single-family homes months of inventory shrank year-over-year from a 3.4-months supply to 3.2 months;Townhome/condominium sales fell 5.1 percent, with the average price up 2.0 percent to $210,887 and the median price up 4.6 percent to $170,000;Leases of single-family homes fell 11.5 percent with the average rent up 4.1 percent to $1,720;Volume of townhome/condominium leases dropped 11.5 percent with average rent up 2.2 percent to $1,515.https://www.har.com/content/mls/?

One strategy that I think is cool is purchasing a lower cap rate property and using your business acumen to increase the cap rate by either increasing income or decreasing expenses. 

If they keep the property then it would decrease the amount of benefits they receive.

Here are three issues that affect you the most.Reason #1Every state has different regulations on credit ratings but most often realtors talk about 80 to 100 point decrease in credit score due to a short sale.

The decreased bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans.The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment extensions and having invested in the securities are faced with writing off her debt and losing over 80% on her bonds.Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 50 workers.The bank and brokerage houses are saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock negotiations by leaders from both political parties.

I own an multi-family unit in an undesirable location and one of the things you need to realize is that your potential renters will be significantly decreased to those that don't mind living in an area that is not so desirable.

. #1 to increase income (duh)#2 to decrease expense (duh 2 - i know not rocket science)SO... your future NOI maybe a lot higher because you took care of things right now...Plus... inflation is going to go up... if you know that... fix stuff now... at a lower cost... then when materials sky rocket...