Okay, I’m looking a few opportunities for my first property. I’ve got a couple decent choices that seem to work okay which are at least worth the time of investigating further.
A couple are in a complex of apartments where each fourplex is individually owned by different investors. (Probably 12 fourplex’s all together). However, it’s similiar to condos in that their is an association fee per property which covers all exterior maintenance. Snow Plow, Garbage, along with any outside repairs. Siding, parking lot, siding, roof, etc.
I’ve been told it’s safe to assume that half your rent will go to expenses.
Say $20,000 a year in rent, assume $10,000 will go to expense. What ratio of that $10,000 of expenses should be considered for interior expenses (appliances, repairs, etc) versus outside expenses?
expenses includ prop mgmt, insurance, taxes, utilties, yard care, etc, etc . So repairs make of just one piece of that. Regulat routine repairs tended to be inside; big ticket items like painting, roofs, etc come less frequently and with higher cost.
There is no way to know what percentage of expenses will be inside vs. outside for any particular year or property. Generally, I’d say that most of the maintenance with rentals is inside. In my business, I don’t find myself making a lot of outside repairs, in fact practically none. Big ticket items like replacing a roof and new siding are capital expenses, not maintenance expenses (although it’s really just semantics).
This is exactly why we use the 50% number for expenses, it is impossible to tell exactly which expenses will occur to which buildings and when. I don’t even try to break down the expenses when I’m evaluating a property.
HOA FEES! They’ve killed many a deal. When the HOA fee has been applied to my calculations for 4plexes. They are usually waaaay out of whack for a serious investor.
I don’t find I spend a lot of money outside. My last purchase was a house that needed lots of new siding and paint. I spent $1200 on siding materials and $700 on labor. The paint was $1000. It cost less than the flooring for the inside of the house.