This book by Dave Lindahl is about repositioning Apartment buildings. This is truly one of the better books on real estate investing that I have read. While its primary focus in multi-family buildings, it has tremendous value for single family home investors also. Dave Lindahl got his start renovating single family properties and doing small 3 unit multi-family properties.

What is Repositioning

For those unfamiliar with the commercial property business a repositioning would be the equivalent of rehabbing a single family home. Rehabbing a single family home is usually done on a vacant property.  When the property is complete it is sold to a homeowner or landlord. Repositioning is generally a more complex process. It can often be done with tenants in place. Usually some renovation is required but it is more than just renovation It is often also about upgrading the tenants, management and the Position of the property in the marketplace. (By the way one of the best books on Marketing is called Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind Repositioning apartment buildings is in part applying it’s concepts)

Multi-Family Millions is Full of Tips

This book is full of tips. My copy is full of yellow highlighted pages. Many of these tips apply to rental properties of any size. One example would be his suggestion to offer tenants to paint an accent wall for an extra $20 a month. Or how about this tip

Replace faucets. Do not be cheap here! Inexpensive faucets are a maintenance headache, and end up costing you more overall. Get ones that are distinctive and elegant. Here’s my rule: If the tenant has to touch it regularly, make it special.

The book has advice on finding deals, working with contractors, smart renovation tips, financing your deals, negotiating and much more.

Who is Dave Lindahl

Dave invests in apartment buildings around the country. He started small. His first rental was a  3 unit building in a depressed  area. He now has over 5,000 units, so he know what he is talking about.

Who Should Buy this Book

Anyone who wants to invest in apartment buildings would find this to be a wonderful book. Yet there is value to single family home landlords, and rehabbers. As I said above this is one of the better books I have read on real estate investing. In addition to really solid information it is well written, easy to read and easy to understand. Just as importantly it is not full of irrelevant fluff like so many investing books. I recommend this book highly. You can buy it from Amazon at a great price here. Multi-Family Millions: How Anyone Can Reposition Apartments for Big Profits

Happy reading,

Ned

I am a big fan of Warren Buffett.  In fact I wrote about some of Warren Buffett’s quotes earlier. While reading another blog about investing, Invesmint.com, I saw the following video about Warren Buffet buying stocks.

A key quote from the video is:

Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value.

Yes if you are smart you have cash on the sidelines. However if you are really smart you have no intention of keeping it there. You should be shopping for value. Whether that value is in the stock market like Mr. Buffett or in real estate.

Another famous quote of Warren’s is also in the video:

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful

Many have cash on the sidelines because they are fearful. However this is the time to get aggressive with your finances. This is the time to “Be Greedy” and take advantage of the low prices.  Of course “Being greedy” does not mean being stupid. You need to know how to find value, and how to assess it.  If you don’t know how to do that you need to get an education and/or work with a professional you can trust.

Contact me and I will help

As a reader of this blog, contact me and I’ll be glad to help and point you in the right direction. No one, not even Warren Buffett, can predict prices short run, but real estate is currently priced very well for long run. If you have money on the sidelines and want to get into real estate, send me a message via the contact us page and I’ll give you some ideas as  to how to go about it.

Happy investing,

Ned

I just had a court case for an eviction. It was the easiest court date I have had. I didn’t go downtown, I didn’t go to my attorney, in fact I didn’t leave my office. I used RentNotices.com. They handled the filing, they went to court, they will file the eviction notice, they will also comply with the new Baltimore city tenant eviction notification law.

Rent court is something that is easy to do yourself. In fact sitting in court and hearing some of the crazy excuses by both tenants and landlords can be kind of fun.  But is that a good use of your time? I have been very much a “do it myself” kind of guy. Fortunately I am learning to delegate. It is well worth the money to pay a pro to do something if it frees up my time to be more productive at what I am best at.

Rent Notices service was easy to use. I created a free account. I simply ordered the services I needed. They sent me an email to notify me of the court date. Afterwards they e-mailed me the results and told me the next step.  The eviction hasn’t happened yet, it’s a long process but it will be easier for me because of RentNotices.com. My experiences have been good so far and I recommend them.

I know I have many readers from out of the area. Unfortunately they only work in the Baltimore region. Right now RentNotices.com can handle Carroll, Howard and Baltimore Counties as well as in Baltimore City.

Happy land lording,

Ned

I often tell people I am a full time real estate investor. The reality is that is a lie. There is no such thing as a full time real estate investor. You see, “full time” implies you are doing work. Investing implies your money is working for you. Working is not investing.

Since this is my only job, I guess I have to call it full time. Flipping houses, rehabbing, wholesaling are all work. If you ever managed a rehab and tried to keep your contractor on schedule you know what I mean. But how many people, who want to invest in real estate, watch “Flip This House” on TV and decide to rehab houses? That is not investing, it’s a job. It may be a very well paying job. You may make more on evenings and weekends than you make in your 9 to 5, but it’s still a job. I am not saying that is a bad thing. Making big bucks doing a rehab is a good thing. Investing is what you should do with you big checks when you get them.

I guess I am as guilty as anyone about calling the entire real estate field “investing.” Many people think they are investing when they really have a part time job. Take rentals for example, that is investing. Oh, unless of course you manage them yourself. Now we are back to it being a job. Many people manage their rentals themselves because there would be no money left over if they paid a management firm. What that means is their cash investment in their rental provides NO CASH FLOW. The only reason they have cash flow is they are doing the work of managing the property themselves. Heck, they could manage rentals for other people. They wouldn’t have to buy the property and take the risk of owning real estate.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with managing your own rentals. Just recognize that the money you invest in the property should have a return AND the time you spend managing should also have a return. If the only return comes from managing the property, that means your cash investment is giving you no return.

My ultimate goal is to have enough passive income so I can sit on the beach drinking Pina coladas while waiting for the checks to roll in. That is why I am moving in the direction of Commercial real estate – this is truly passive income. Single family rentals can be passive too if you have good management in place. But if you manage them yourself, don’t fool yourself, you have an extra part time job.

See you at the beach, I’ll be the one under the umbrella with a drink in my hand.

Ned

beach image© Mark Rasmussen | Dreamstime.com

Tenant screening is one of the keys to being a successful landlord.  Sadly many landlords do a poor job of this. Sometimes it’s lazyness, sometimes ignorance, sometimes simply desperation to get someone tenant back in the property to help make mortgage payments. Trust me on this one, it is time well spent. You simply can’t make up the time and expense of a bad tenant by filling your rental a few days or even weeks faster.

So how do you screen a tenant. Here’s a great checklist. Tenant Screening

This is from Josh Dorkin’s Bigger Pockets blog

Happy landlording,

Ned

Surfing the web lead me to Scott Ficek’s Minnesota Investment Real Estate Blog. He has a number of tips about landlording. He had an interesting post about a tenant that claimed that the rent was no longer due on the first because the landlord regularly accepted rent later. He includes a link to the court case.

Here’s the link
Cant evict if always late on rent

He’s got several other good posts on landlording and investing. It’s worth checking out.

 Ned