The area that I am ready to invest in is proposing a new city ordinance requiring landlords to have their properties inspected by a health inspector every time they get new tenants. My question is does anyone else have this ordinance in effect and if so, has it hurt your investing in any way. This proposal is because of a few landlords in my area who maintain their properties just enough to keep the city off their backs…My sister’s landlord is ready to get rid of her rentals due to her husband’s death this past summer. The advice part of this post that I need is which would be the best way to try to pick up all her properties? Should I lease option or contract for deed? I’ve never tried to buy more than 1 house at a time…and i usually end up re-reading the courses I have all to find out when I try to follow up that I am already too late. Any help would be greatly appreciated !! ??? Thanks
Cities are getting much worse at passing stupid regulations. Landlords are a big target, not only as a scapegoat for the shortcomings of the tenants, but also for new fees. Taxpayers are tired of their taxes continually going up and are largely unwilling to vote for new taxes. Therefore, cities have targeted “rich” landlords as a source of revenue. It is extremely important that every serious investor join their local REIA and fight the idiots at city hall! We have been doing that in our area and have had some success.
As for buying the apartment buildings, the very first thing you should do is determine whether thay can be bought at a large enough discount that they will properly cash flow. Buying properties is not a good goal by itself. If you are interested in opinions, the first thing you should do is post the numbers. At a minimum, we need the number of units, purchase price, and gross rents. The vast majority of new landlords fail because they didn’t buy at a big enough discount to ensure proper cash flow.
In answer to your question, there are a lot of ways to buy the buildings. You could pay cash, use conventional financing, owner financing, buy subject to the existing financing, lease-option, land contract, etc. The fact that you don’t know the answer to this question makes me wonder whether you are really ready to buy anything.
Good Luck,
Mike
Mike:
Thanks for your reply…she doesnt have any apartment buildings only houses…5 to be exact and they all stay rented with decent tenants. I havent spoken to her yet about buying any of them, and I realize that factors vary. I just thought before I talked to her that I could maybe get some input from others who have picked up properties from retiring investors when more than 1 property was involved.
Thanks for the advice on the idiots at city hall…good to hear that you have had some luck with that. I will post more once I talk to her.
Thanks again…Tammy