Question for all you landlorders - Posted by Sue M - CT

Real Estate Investing
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Posted by Mitchell on February 15, 2002 at 02:24:40:

Sue,

The income does not come close to what I need for that kind of price.

I suspect you need to go out and see a lot of properties, some say 100, so that you would know the answer yourself. Would you like it if your roommate had to walk through your bedroom in order to ger to her (or his) bedroom? What are other apartments going for that have that setup?

What expenses did you figure in to decide that this was a property that you should spend time considering? What was your NOO?

Good luck,
Mitchell

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Question for all you landlorders - Posted by Sue M - CT

Posted by Sue M - CT on February 14, 2002 at 21:36:26:

Hi, I am looking into purchasing a 2 family. Is it important to buy a specific house EX. each unit containing at least 2 bedrooms or does it just depend on if the #'s work. This house I’m looking at is a nice 2 fam the 1st floor has a nice living room, dining room large kitchen with washer/ dryer, and 2 bedrooms BUT you have to walk through the 1st bedroom to get to the 2nd. The 2nd floor has a large kitchen/dining rm area decent living room and average 1 bedroom. It also has a large walk up attic looks like it could be finished pretty easily into another room. They’re asking 169000 but it’s been on the market for 92days so I could probably get it for 140-150. Rents in the area are maybe 800-900 for a 1-2 bedroom. It’s a decent street in a nice town. (Stratford, CT) What do you think? I was just worried that maybe 1 bedrooms are harder to rent - this would be my 1st investment property so I wonder if I shouldn’t try to find the most optimum type of property to increase my chances of always having it rented. Any suggestions much appreciated SueM-CT

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Re: Question for all you landlorders - Posted by Ed D - NH

Posted by Ed D - NH on February 15, 2002 at 21:26:19:

I think 1 bdr’s are ok. An old guy I used to live next to had only had 1 bdr’s and had older long term tenants

I like 2’s. Couple/single and 1 child, 2 roomates, 1 person and office, Divorced parent that needs a sleepover bedroom etc.

3’s bring more $ but also bring lot’s of kids (wear & tear,noise).

If you bought for 140 you would need at least 1500 a month income.

I took that “railroad” room I have and punched a hole and added a doorway to hall. now it has a seperate entrance.

You got to look at your market prices and don’t be afraid to ask the higher price. If you have a nice apartment you will have more cream of the crop type tenants. You have w/d hookups etc. those are pluses.
Just check the paper this Sunday for other ads.

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Thanks - Posted by Sue M - CT

Posted by Sue M - CT on February 15, 2002 at 15:56:00:

Thanks for all of your informative answers. I really appreciate having people to ask these ?'s. I will keep looking! Sincerely, Sue M-CT

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Re: Question for all you landlorders - Posted by milone

Posted by milone on February 15, 2002 at 08:28:54:

Sue,
You are correct in your assumption one bedrooms are harder to rent. Seems quality people want that second bed for at least the in home office. Your numbers on the building seem high. Are you gettin any creative financing on this deal?

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Re: Question for all you landlorders - Posted by Frank Chin

Posted by Frank Chin on February 15, 2002 at 06:56:03:

Hi SueM:

Landlording is like any other business. You got to have a product that sells quickly and everyone would one to pay good money for.

With that in mind:

1- One BR, and 2BR’s are OK. There’s more turnover in one BR’s, if you rent them to the young single crowd.

I now rent 1BR’s to folks over forty. The last guy of 53 was there for 7 years till he retired, and an older women of 50 stayed for 5 years, also till she retired. Prior to that, I had a young lady of 23 staying 4 months. Live and learn.

2- In my area, there’s a great demand for 2BR’s. Reason is many more different types of people want them. They range from older single divorced people with money who can’t stand to live in a studio or 1BR, to 2 or 3 singles sharing, to a family of four (or more) who can no longer afford renting a SFH.

3- Here in NYC, they call walking through one room to another a railroad layout, and they’re a lot harder to rent. I usually see low income immigrants not able to speak English renting these.

If you can get the property and a GOOD price, I would try to convert it to a HUGE one BR, with a dressing room. In my experience, HUGE rooms, and HUGE closets sell. Its making lemonade out of lemons.

Try to build a hallway between going across the first bedroom to the second. If the remaining space in the first BR is small, call it a closet. If its large, call it a BR.

4- Then, you can keep looking. Why put so much work in if there’s plently of others with no work. That is ,unless you get it for a good price.

5- Sometimes, you can convert functionally obsolete layouts to modern ones for a modest cost. Many years ago, I looked at 3 families (with 2BR each) when they were going for 200K to 225K. I found some built in the late 1930’s going for 180 to 190K with no dining room. Finally ran across one asking 160K (got it for a little over 150K)

Modern layouts have a separate dining area. The old layouts have an eat in kitchen. So all I did was take down the wall between the eat-in kitchen area, and the living room, and voila, I have a dining room. It cost me less than 5K to convert each of 2 apartments. The big expense was moving a steam pipe, radiators and re-routing electrical cable.

For about 10K, I have a layout similar to the 200K properties. This was 20 years ago and these properties now sell for 450K to 500K here.

Frank Chin

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Re: Question for all you landlorders - Posted by Brent_IL

Posted by Brent_IL on February 15, 2002 at 03:10:10:

I’ll have to agree with Mitchell. Doesn’t seem like much of a deal. I’d keep looking.

The walk-through floorplan is very old, and doesn’t work for most people living now. It might make the apartment take a while to lease.