Rental Investing & Management

One of the most important things every investor needs to do before purchasing a property is a profitability analysis. At first glance, many deals seem great, but upon further review turn out to be anything but ideal. You just can't tell for sure until you do the numbers. That's where this spreadsheet might come in handy. If you have Microsoft Excel (or OpenOffice), this financial spreadsheet is a good...

Filling vacancies in your apartment units quickly can be the difference between success and failure with real estate investments. Looking for tenants anywhere you can find them increases your odds of success, but never forget that not all situations are equal. One area to be especially careful of is when working with renting to family members. I am not talking about renting a unit to a member of your own...

It's 5:30pm and you just got home from work.  Your iPhone alerts you to an email you just received from a perspective tenant. It just wait until the morning can't it? Not if you want to rent your unit to a good tenant ASAP....

Last night at 2am I got a surprising wake-up call: the alarm was going off at my rehab project in Tower Grove South. The police were already there and requesting a key-holder to come over. Upon arriving on the scene I witnessed the sobering site of a backdoor kicked in....

Dealing primarily with the foreclosure market in the past two years, lately I have been involved in many Fannie Mae transactions as both a buyer's agent and a buyer. Unfortunately, although they are often some of the best deals on the market, that fact might be changing. If you are a real estate investor, Fannie has now stacked the deck against you....

Frequently visiting vacant, sometimes unsecured buildings, I must admit that at times I have been quite uneasy when entering a property. Especially by myself. That's why I bought a mace gun....

So you've approved an application and the tenant wants to sign a lease in a week. Your search for a tenant is over, right? Maybe not. When it comes to renting apartments, until you actually have money in hand its never a sure thing....

One person's flower is another's weed. There is no plant more perfectly matched for this scenario than bamboo. Attractive when used properly, and growing in popularity with the Green movement and the increased use of bamboo flooring, this plant will grow out of control if left unchecked....

One thing I have always taken for granted in real estate investing is the apartment lease. Just after getting into the business I got a hold of a great lease and I guess I have been a little spoiled....

Adding a second bathroom or garage to a house can really add to the value of the property. In general, anything that adds to the functionality and convenience of the property will have a positive affect on the value for sale or for rent. Of course, there are times when these investments don't work out so well....

Whether you own rental properties, own a home or just rent an apartment, you need to prepare for the increasing colder temperatures coming this winter. If the property will be vacant for an extended periods of time you should be especially careful. Water left in pipes that hit the freezing point could cause the pipe to burst and create a horrendous situation....

Nothing is worse than an inspection gone afoul. Much less a sewer inspection since replacement costs are so high. But that's just what I faced last month during the inspection of my recently closed rehab in Tower Grove South. Turns out there were some issues with the sewer lateral we didn't know about and the buyers would not go ahead with the sale unless they were fixed. The initial estimates for the pipe...

Whether you utilize a professional inspector when buying properties or simply rely on your own walkthrough, you can’t possibly know everything about the building at first glance. Unless you are from the Planet Krypton, you can’t discern the condition of the sewer lateral without taking additional steps....

I saw this painted on the front of a building on the 37XX block of Pennsylvania this morning and thought it really summed up the current copper theft situation. On one hand the message is funny, while on the other its just sad. I'm never one to advocate for the government to get involved in peoples lives, but this theft has to stop. This is beyond a local issue. We need to get scrap yards in both Missouri...

In March, I posted a story about duplexes suddenly becoming a viable, cash flowing, option for prospective investment real estate buyers. Four months later, I'm here to highlight the topic again. But this time, I'm not talking about two families. They are still an increasingly attractive buy, but the real surprise in the past few months has been how lucrative buying up single families has suddenly become...