Category Archives: Kansas City

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.

***     ***     ***     ***

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….
***     ***     ***     ***
Find out more about Kansas City real estate investing by following me
@KCInvestments

2 Comments

Filed under 4 Benefits of Real Estate Investing, Investment Property, Kansas City, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Investor Interview

Kansas City Named a Great City for Young Adults

A few days back I read on Yahoo! that Kansas City had been named one of the 10 Great Cities for Young Adults.  I read it, smiled and then moved on.  Others were impressed, as well.  No fewer than a handful of you have emailed me the link to make sure I saw it.  Civic pride, I guess.

Kansas City skyline

I love my home town.  And I’ve been to most of these cities.  I think Austin is the greatest college town in America. The people down there are great and the emphasis on outdoors activities always makes me happy.  Plus, I like a cold beer over on 6th Street or in the Warehouse District.   And it’s always good fun to watch my Jayhawks whip up on their basketball team in their own city.  🙂  The BBQ leaves something to be improved upon.

My dad live in Charlotte.  So we get down there quite a bit.  A clean and growing city. Reminds me of Kansas City in so many ways. Don’t get me started on BBQ that has cole slaw on.  I’m sure that’s something Jesus wouldn’t do.

Chicago.  Enough said.  Love that town.  Maybe even more than New York.   Love the blues.  Love lakefront.

I haven’t spent much time in Houston.  Though I don’t really dig the site of refineries and hate mosquitoes that are as large as most mammals.

I’ve never been to Lansing.  But any place where Tom Izzo is the head coach is alright with me. He’s one of the best college basketball coaches of all time in my book.

New York?  God, how I hate the Yankees and everything they stand for.  But God also knows I just love the entire experience of each and every visit there.  The sensory overload feeling.  I thrive on it.

Never been to Portland.  My friend goes there a lot for business.  Says it’s really pretty but a ton of traffic and the entire city is overrun with hippies.  And yes, that is just the employee base that works for him.  Not just the homeless people that are everywhere…at least according to him.

Salt Lake City is just not on my list of places to hang.  Sorry.  Just never really considered it.

Washington, DC is my home away from home.  Regular readers here know I lived there 15 years.  Well, in the Maryland suburbs, actually.  The town has so much going on all the time.  The power.  The money.  The activities.  The history.  The importance.  The self-importance.  Some real idiots there, to be sure.  Some really great people, too.

I love my birth home of Kansas City.  Glad I live here.  And glad I’ve got to experience these other cities, well most of them anyway, too.

CC licensed image of Kansas City skyline as Night Descends courtesy of calebdzahnd via flickr.

APJF3XUY8PAV

Leave a comment

Filed under City Comparisons, Kansas City, Worth Reading

Updates from Kansas City

* Hey.  Some great job news for Overland Park.  I’ve said it a million times, Overland Park is the economic engine of this area.  Not KC.  Of course, I expect a few angry emails about that very soon.  🙂

* My dog, Ben, would be wrapped up and put under the tree if my five year old  had anything to do with it.  There are Barbies, books and all sorts of things she has found under our Christmas tree.

* A very sharp, reasonably priced duplex for sale in Overland Park has just come on the market.  $795 rents with good occupancy history and little deferred maintenance.  Priced at $190,000.   Location around around Johnson Drive and Metcalf.

* Taking the family on our annual drive around Kansas City to see the Christmas lights this Friday evening.  I’m asking, is there any better place on Earth than The Plaza at Christmas?

Leave a comment

Filed under Kansas City, Kansas City Real Estate

Kansas City #30 Strongest City…Economically Speaking

Perusing Yahoo! recently I saw that Business Week had ranked the 40 strongest economies when speaking of cities.  As expected, the list is jam-packed with metro areas found between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.  Especially when looking at the Top 10.

oz01I know that both coasts consider a large part of that area as “fly-over” country.  I know they consider us backwards, a bit behind the times, lacking in intellectual prowess.  I know this, because I spent 15 years of my adult life in Suburban Maryland.

“Wow.  You must be glad to not be living in Kansas anymore.”

“What are tornados like?”

“Do you know Dorothy?”

And other stereotypes abound.  But isn’t it funny that if it weren’t for that very are of the country our nation’s economy might have totally collapsed.  Yes, being conservative both politically and economically does have it’s stereotypes and weaknesses.  It also has it’s strengths.

Take a look at the list.  Kansas City is #30.

Leave a comment

Filed under Kansas City

Kansas City Set To Rebound?

reboundDriving in this morning I heard on the radio that Kansas City is one of the first cities expected to rebound in 2011 from our current recession.  Dallas, Houston and some other midwestern cities were on the list as well.  But not Milwaukee or St. Louis. They are still expected to struggle.  I cannot remember the name of the study they were quoting.  I just heard it. 

Then I get here and hop on to the Kansas City Star webpage and see that Warren Buffett says we’ve hit the bottom and leveled out.  He’s not expecting a double-dip recession.

It would be nice if his economy would begin a slow to moderate climb up.  I suspect, however, that we’re where we are gonna be for a while.   Japan in the ’90s?  I don’t know.  I’m not an economist.  I’m just like everyone else.  Trying to hang on.  Trying to build a future for my wife and family.

2 Comments

Filed under Kansas City, Kansas City Real Estate

Where There Is Development There Are Jobs

And where there are jobs you can expect housing to be more in demand.  And if housing is more in demand you can expect an upward pressure on prices. 

kansas city wizardsToday I logged on to KansasCity.com and about spit out my orange juice.  The Kansas City Wizards soccer team owned by OnGoal LLC (think Cerner) has decided to abandon the Bannister Mall (now a huge pile of nothing since it’s been torn down in anticipation of building a soccer specific stadium) and keep the team in Kansas City, Kansas just a few thousand feet from where they currently play.  See the full story here

My Initial Reactions
Kansas City, Kansas continues to out-fox Kansas City, Missouri.  Which, given the leadership of KCMO over my lifetime really isn’t saying too terribly much.  But KCK was a wasteland twenty years ago, commercially speaking.  Now western KCK is alive and vibrant….but taking a hit in this current economy. 

KCK’s property taxes are too high.  They need these 4,000 jobs that Cerner will bring to the area in conjunction to the Wizards and fans to generate spending which then generates more sales taxes which can help to alleviate the problem of highest property taxes in the KC area for the residents of western Wyandotte County.  That’s 4,000 people eating lunch, shopping and a good portion of them looking for housing somewhere close to their jobs.

Kansas City, Missouri could screw up a wet dream.  ‘Nough said.

It’s brilliant for the Wizards.  Fans are already used to driving to that neighborhood for the games.  There is plenty to do before and after the game with all the shopping and restaurants (see the polar opposite of what KCMO did with The “K” and Arrowhead Stadium) and of course there are some pretty nice bars if your festivities head into the early evening. 

Note to Jeff Brown:  This is the area where we all had that steak dinner before you left town.  I knew Google Search would alert you to your name being mentioned.  😉

This really sucks for the people of the Bannister area.  They could use some positive news.  But sadly your city government blew it again.  Something tells me this wasn’t all about money.  In fact, I’m quite sure of it.

2 Comments

Filed under Kansas City, Kansas City Sports

Kansas City: Right In The Middle

Seriously, is there any category in which Kansas City is not right in the middle range?  We are in the middle of the country with easy access to everywhere.  Our housing prices?  Right in the middle.  Our income per capital?  Right in the middle.  Our unemployment, Fortune 500 jobs, spending, saving and now job postings?  Right there in the middle!

KS_4758I find it kinda humorous sometimes. There are so many reasons we do well here in KC.  And so many reasons we don’t excel.  I love Kansas City as a safe-haven for at least part of your real estate investment holdings.  But it’s long term growth here.  Nothing fancy.  We’ll just keep moving with the pack.

Look for us right in the middle.

3 Comments

Filed under Kansas City, Kansas City Real Estate