Category Archives: 4 Benefits of Real Estate Investing

Rental Property Makes Money Four Different Ways

So you have been researching rental property and you are drowning in numbers.  Cap rates?  Cash on cash?  Internal Rates of Return?  Good grief.  What you need to know is that rental property makes money four different ways.

  1. Cash Flow Before Taxes
  2. Principal Reduction
  3. Tax Savings
  4. Appreciation

These four ways of making money with investment property are all intricately related.  For instance, the more cash flow the cash real estate investor goes for the more likely he’ll have little to any appreciation as compared to surrounding areas.  Likewise, the more appreciation a long term buy and hold investor goes for the less cash flow he’s like to accumulate (without a significant down payment) because these properties are usually in the nicer areas around town.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule.  But what you need to decide as new investor (or experienced trying to re-start) is what the end goal is before beginning.

Give our team a call today to help you make a plan for a retirement worth having.

Real Estate Investing in Kansas City
Chris Lengquist
Keller Williams Realty
Diamond Partners, Inc
Olathe, KS
913-568-1579

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Actual Cash on Cash Returns of a Kansas City Real Estate Investor

Here at Kansas City Real Estate Investing we get asked all the time, and rightfully so, for real life examples.  Real numbers.

“What is my return going to be if I go with you?”

Well here are some actual cash on cash returns of an Kansas City real estate investor.  Below is an email I sent to an income property investor who is actively in the Kansas City market buying, rehabbing and then renting property on a consistent basis.  You’ll be able to figure out the average all in costs with a calculator and just a few minutes of your time.

Some background:  This investor now holds 47 rental properties that we have had the pleasure to sell them, then manage the rehab and then manage the properties with suitable, qualified tenants.  We ran these numbers for the houses that had closed before the end of October of 2011 and thus were inhabited by real life tenants by January 1.

Also, while these homes are not in Mission Hills style neighborhoods they are perfectly safe, have good school districts and now have lots of sweat-equity.  I won’t let my clients buy – rehab – rent a house that I don’t want to manage.  And if my grandma wouldn’t spend the night there* (God rest her soul) then we don’t buy it.

Enjoy…and hopefully you’ll pick a few nuggets out of the brief synopsis.

* Phrase stolen from BawldGuy.

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So to get to the bottom of the question as to how much these houses are/are not making what I did was go back to the homes that we purchased last summer/fall that we had time to get rehabbed and rented before Christmas.  I took the close date and then gave about 60-75days (or so) for rehab and lease out and to basically let all the rehab expenses fall off and just get to the expenses you would have if you had bought turn key. 
 
Attached is a .pdf of the raw data if you would like read.  But here is a breakdown that may be helpful.
 
There are 15 properties in question.  Of those, 4 turned out to have some post-inhabited major repairs…either things we should have done before occupancy or things we had no way of knowing.  (See more details in the raw, scribbled data.)  Also realize that on the raw sheets I put approx how many months the homes are being evaluated from.   No insurance or taxes are included.  But literally everything else is.
 
All 15 homes had an income of $109,083 with expenses at $40,887 which is 37.5% of income. 
 
If we lose the 4 homes with the more major repairs (new ac, new plumbing, etc.) we had 11 homes with income of $82,321 and expenses of $23,947 which is, of course, 29.1% of income. 
 
There are variables here that are hard to pinpoint.  We cannot know EXACTLY what the numbers are until all rehab expenses are pared off and I cannot know that without a forensic examination of each and every property.  So I tried to accomplish it by just taking the close date and adding a couple months as mentioned above.
 
So sometimes the lease out fees may not be totally included.  But in most cases it’s close. 
 
Adding in pro-rated insurance and taxes and I think we’re pretty close to (or possibly under) the 35% I like to shoot for…at least on the houses that didn’t have something major come up on.  With those extra four houses included we’re probably more like around 40%-41% range. 
 
I hope this helps.  I’m happy it showed pretty much what I promised/expected.  🙂  But positive or negative I’d love to hear your thoughts.  
 
If we want to take the scenario farther…and I do…let’s figure a pro-rated return of all 15 homes.  I’d say the average is about 9 months.
 
109,083 – 40887 = 68,196 / 9 months =7,577/mo x 12 = 90,928
 
If you take the CAPEX Column R from our KC Portfolio Master then you’ll see your all in price for those homes is $648,747.
 
$90,928 / $648,747 = 14.0% cash on cash return
 
Not too shabby.
 
But again, this just can’t be exact with some of the educated guess work I’ve had to do.  So plus or minus 1% is probably safe to say.
 
And we haven’t even talked about the hidden equity in all of these homes now….
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Find out more about Kansas City real estate investing by following me
@KCInvestments

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Benefits of Real Estate Investing

I’ve written countless times about the 4 Benefits of Real Estate Investing.  And while 4 sounds easy and cool, there are many more.  Some of the more benign benefits of REI are;

  • Helping to improve/stabilize a neighborhood’s value and livability.
  • Providing affordable housing to worthy tenants.
  • Sweat-equity.
  • Teaching your kids how to work with varying people for a long term financial goal.

Let me explain a little about why I’m writing this.  I have a real estate investor client from Vancouver, BC who bought a relatively inexpensive rental property here in the Kansas City area.  The neighborhood isn’t that good, but not that bad either.  Anyway, we bought the dump and then replaced all the outside siding, fixed the rotted fascia boards and gave it a fresh coat of paint.  In addition we cleaned up the yard and rehabbed the inside.

So I’m over there the other day getting ready to rent the property and a lady comes out from across the street and insists on giving me a hug.

“Thank you for making our neighborhood look better!”

That makes you feel kinda good, you know?  And we already have a few applications on the property to go through.

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Principal Reduction Is STILL My Favorite

Of the 4 Benefits of Real Estate Investing I have to say that Principal Reduction is STILL my favorite.  To me, the reasons are obvious.  But if you are looking at real estate investing for the first time we can go over them…just in case.

The 4 Benefits of Real Estate Investing are;

  1. Cash Flow Before Taxes
  2. Principal Reduction
  3. Tax Reductions
  4. Appreciation

Feel free to go back in our history here to read about the other 3 benes.  But let’s talk about Principal Reduction.

Today I received my rent due for February from one of my tenants.  Included in that rent payment was enough to cover my mortgage, taxes, insurance and just a hair of cash flow.  (And only by the slightest of margins.)  But that mortgage is a 30 year fixed.  So each and every month when I transfer that rent payment into and then out of my checking account as I forward it on to the mortgage company I am reducing my debt on that rental property.

And the tenant is the one reducing my mortgage!  Sure, when I have that odd month that I have a vacancy I’m the one contributing to my “forced savings plan.”  But I’ve rarely had vacancies so, in effect, there are some very nice people around the Olathe, Kansas area that are helping me to buy this investment property.  🙂

That just makes me smile.

Owning investment property isn’t get rich over night.  I know. You want it to be.  But it just isn’t for most of us normal people.  And even the super rich have winded up in bankruptcy trying to cheat the process.  Get out your amortization chart, relax and go with it.

 

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Why Real Estate Investing Makes More Sense Than Ever

Real estate investing still makes sense. In fact, even in today’s troubled waters investing in income property still kicks the hiney of most other investment vehicles.  And it should.  After all, it’s more labor intensive (even with a professional property manager) and it’s not very liquid.  It could take months or years to sell, depending where you are, and to avoid locking in losses you may have to hold longer than you originally expected.

The Kansas City real estate investing market is still margins above other areas of the country.  We do not have the huge depression.  Our unemployment is still lower than most of the country.  And our real estate values haven’t declined anywhere near other markets.  We’re not perfect.  Go to the areas of town I’ve never recommended and you’ll find plenty of examples of bad stories.  But let’s take a look at a real live rental property currently for sale.

Rental Duplex Example
There is a duplex here in suburban Kansas City that is for sale.  What they are asking and what they will get is of course, negotiable.  But I figure this duplex will sell for about $111,000 and with closing costs and very minor repairs thrown in you’re probably all in at $115,000.

Nice rental neighborhood.  Safe and desirable school district.  Two beds, one bath each side.  Rents on one side are $525 (long term tenant) and vacant on the other.   Three bedrooms in the same neighborhood rent for between $825 and $950.  So the real rents here should be about $625 to $650.

Let’s subtract our vacancy (6.0%) and other expenses adding up to about 32.7% of annual rents (includes property management, taxes, misc., utilities, etc.)  and you’re left with about $9,200 of Net Operating Income.  Subtract your debt service (20% down at 6 1/8%) and you have an annual cash flow before taxes of $2,720.

Throw in Principal Reduction (always my fav) and add back in tax consequences after reducing your NOI with interest and depreciation and you have a net first year benefit of about $3,571.

What is $3,571?

That’s a 13.6% return  on your cash invested.

That’s an 8.0 Cap Rate.

That’s Cash on Cash at about 10.4%

Where else are you earning 10.4% on your money after expenses?

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Investment Property Worksheet

I use a very basic investment property worksheet that I acquired from Tom Lundstedt a few years ago. It’s simple and I can pencil out figures right in front of people so they can see how the numbers work (or don’t work) on any prospective rental property.

Yes.  Yes.  I know.  I too have used those fancy computer generated investment model programs.  But they are so stale and the sometimes you can’t see how the numbers were derived.  So I like this better.  And I fully realize that many real estate investors have many different formulas.  Funny thing is that the successful real estate investors may have different formulas but always end up with about the same calculations.

For the first time, I’m sharing a sample.  I always worried about sharing it.  But after years and years of investment property experience I realize it’s just a paper without the knowledge that goes with it.  So enjoy.

investment property worksheet

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Cash Flow Before Taxes

Listen, people over complicate this.  Cash Flow Before Taxes is simply all your income minus all your expenses.  I mean ALL your expenses.  That includes debt service.  If you calculate that you make $13,400 in rental income and you have expenses (vacancy, advertising, utilities, taxes, insurance, debt service, property management, repairs, sinking fund, etc) of $15,240 then you have a negative cash flow of $1,840.  That’s not good.  The prospective rental property may not be one you are too excited about.

In today’s economy Cash Flow Before Taxes is a great determiner of whether you should buy/hold or not.

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