Being a featured writer on the BiggerPockets Blog certainly has its perks, the biggest one of which is that I can ask a question whenever I want and receive lots of different opinions. This is indeed a pretty cool thing and today I’m going to exercise my option to ask a question.
But first, allow me to set the stage:
The Past 7 Months
The past 7 months, or so, have been quite tough for me and my portfolio – I’ve literally turned over half of my units. This is a very worthy topic for an article in and of itself, however now is not the time. Let me just say that two-thirds of the vacancies were associated with the building I had bought in February which is a re-positioning project – I’ll tell you all about it some time. All the rest of the turnovers were expected and inline with about a 3% annualized vacancy factor. Read between the lines:
Turn around projects are easy, fast, and cheap
Anyway, I went to see my commercial lender last week. The company account into which I deposit my rents happens to be in his bank, which by the way is not an accident. This is a bit off topic, but pay attention:
Finance is a relationship business – it doesn’t hurt to have a few bucks on deposit with the bank if you’re gonna ask them for money; just sayin…
The banker’s office is down the hallway from the tellers in such a way that he can see who is coming and going through the glass door. Well, when I came in I was smiling; I know I was – I remember the feeling. …read more