Apartment Investment Final Analysis

First off, for those of you that were wondering, this is the apartment complex I was investing in.

My distribution check arrived yesterday. I got the return of my principle and all of the accumulated interest since the last payment. Looking back in my records, I see that I received five payments in the first year after we bought the property, then nothing until now, as the economy soured and investor distributions were halted. So, if I've done my math right, factoring in those previous payments with what I received today, I earned an annualized 9.05% return over the 6 years that I was invested in the property. Another way to look at it is I earned a 55.05% total return. That number may inch up a bit after the investment company is closed and the funds that were held back for expenses are released. (The number is slightly elevated from preferred 9% return because back in August 2008, we earned some interest while our funds were sitting in the bank waiting for the initial purchase to be completed.)

Our investment agreement with management specified that the investors receive a preferred 9% return. This means that, on sale of the apartments, all profits would go to the investors until they received an annualized 9% rate of return. After that, the profits would be split 50-50 with the investors and the management company we used (or 70-30 in the investors' favor if the property did not reach a specific ROI goal). When I first invested in the property, I did so with the intent that this was an investment more for capital gains, rather than the 9% return. Things obviously didn't go they way I planned in that regard, but that doesn't mean I'm disappointed. A 9% return is nothing to sneeze at - that is also the rate I earn right now on my hard money loans. Originally, I had hoped for a return in the 30% range and, had the economy not tanked, I think this was possible. Actually, with the way the property has been performing the last 9 months or so, I think if we held off on the sale for another year, we could have come close to that figure.

So why did we sell now? The main reason was that the majority of other investors wanted to sell. They likely got sick of the lack of quarterly distributions. Additionally, the property was getting to the point where additional funds would be needed to add improvements and do an overall facelift of the buildings - similar to what we did when we bought it. That would mean another cash call to investors and I don't think people were willing to pony up more money. In fact, I know the new buyers are planning on spending about $1 million on improvements.

For the sale, we had offers from two buyers. One was an unrelated party and the other was the current management company. The management company was the winner. I was a bit concerned about a possible conflict of interest here when I found out they were one bidder because, obviously, the management company knew the details of our investors agreement. This meant that theoretically, they could figure out exactly how much to offer to exactly meet our 9% return and not offer a penny more. Of course, it also meant that, due to the nature of the agreement, any amount they wanted to offer above that amount could basically be doubled - because they would get half of that amount back at closing due to the 50-50 split clause. This would make their offer much more attractive than another party's at a lower cost to them.

But in the end, that wasn't why they won. They got the sale because they were willing to assume our loan. The other party was not going to do that. Our loan had a $1.5 million early termination fee, so the assumption saved us a ton of cash. It was also what delayed the closing for a couple months. We had to get approval from the lender for the loan assumption.

All in all, I'm glad I made this investment. It was a great learning experience. Apartment investing is really more like investing in a business than real estate. I would definitely do it again in the future, but probably not soon. Right now, I'm more interested in cash flow and I think my hard money loans are providing a more consistent return.

Apartment is sold!

I received word that the sale of our apartment complex finally and actually closed on Friday. Hooray! Our group of investors received net proceeds of $4.39 million on the sale. (Note this is net proceeds, not profits!) Four million of that is being distributed to us next week, with the rest of the funds being held back to cover any remaining company expenses that might come up during the closing of the company formed for the investment. Any funds left after that will then be distributed to investors. We made enough to cover our preferred 9% return.

I'll post a more detailed analysis of the final investment returns once I receive the check. However, I'm also going on vacation next week. Even if I receive the check before I leave, I doubt I'll have time to do a write up before I go, so the final report on this investment probably won't happen until the beginning of July.

Apartment Sale Closing (Again)

As I mentioned last time, the sale of the Houston apartment was supposed to close a week ago yesterday. I've been out of town until today and did not have anything waiting in my email or postal mail when I got back, so I sent an email asking for a status update. I heard from the manager about 5 minutes ago and the sale is supposedly closing today. I'm not holding my breath, but since the day is half over and I'm still being told it will close today, I am slightly more hopeful than I might be otherwise.

Apartment Sale Closing In Two Weeks

It appears the sale will be finalized now on June 5th. We have received approval of the loan assumption, which was what was holding things up for the past several weeks. Management has said they are now in the process of preparing the closing documents for close of escrow on the fifth.

Nice..This will close a few days before I head to Las Vegas :-)

March Apartment Update

It's very late this month, but the March numbers for the Houston apartment complex have arrived. Occupancy remained at 96%. Total revenue rose to $204,000, up slightly from February's $201,000. Total cash flow for the month was just over $23,000. This is the highest it's been this last November, when it hit $25,000 and almost double what it was last month. Where did the extra money come from? Rent concessions were down about 40% over February and our apartment turnovers expenses dropped from almost $4,000 to about $700. Repairs and maintenance costs and utilities costs were also lower. The property is currently running about $49,000 ahead of the budgeted profit for the year. That's good news. It almost makes me wish we weren't selling it.

Based on the numbers, it would appear the Houston area economy is turning around. Rent concessions are down, bad debt write offs have dropped, bad debt collection increased, and apartment turnover expenses  dropped sharply (meaning people aren't moving out as much).

Speaking of which, the closing date for the sale has been pushed back until mid-May for no other reason than the loan assumption process is proceeding more slowly than anyone thought. Management says all is going well and they don't foresee any material issues arising that might jeopardize the closing.

February Apartment Update

Things continue to cruise right along at the Houston apartment complex. Occupancy remained the same as last month at 96%. Total revenue was $201,000, a small decline over January's $204,000. Cash flow was a positive $12,000 for the month. The $6,000 drop in cash flow over January was due to our lender not collecting the appropriate amount for escrow. They need to collect a bit extra for a while, then the escrow amount will drop back to normal. The good news is that, even with the temporarily increase escrow collection, the property's cash flow is still $27,000 over budget. Granted, it's only the second month of the year, but that's a good sign.

No word on the sale of the property, which I am taking to be good news. It's in escrow and things are, I assume, moving along without major problems. I believe it's scheduled to close escrow mid- to late- April.

January Apartment Update and HML #30

First off, my hard money loan #30 was paid off a couple weeks ago. This only lasted a couple of months.

On the apartment front, occupancy was at 96% for January and the total revenue hit almost $204,000 - the highest ever. Cash flow was a positive $18,000 for the month. As mentioned last month, there was a fire at the property around Christmas time. The insurance adjuster and an engineer have been out to examine the property but we have not yet received their report. The year is starting off well and with just one month under our belt, our income is already almost $17,000 over budget.

Which brings me to the next point - the possible sale of the property. It's looking good so far. The buyers have completed their inspections and the bankers are now working on going through the process of getting the buyers approved to assume our loan. Once that is done, the sale can progress. At least point, we are estimating a close of escrow around the middle to end of April.

December Apartment Update

The December numbers just came in. Occupancy continued at 94% and revenue stayed about the same as last month. Next income dropped by about $11,000 to $14,000 however, due to an escrow analysis from our lender which discovered we needed to be putting more into our escrow account for insurance. This resulted in about a $6,000 increase in our monthly mortgage payment for the month.

We also found out the property suffered a "fairly significant fire" the first week of January, caused by a dry Christmas tree. Four units were destroyed and there was damage to the entire building, which contains 18 units. Thankfully, there were no injuries. An insurance claim has been filed and management expects full coverage, not only for damages, but also for rent loss until the building can be repaired and re-rented.

The escrow increase is a disappointment. That represents a 25% chunk of our monthly net income. No word on if this is a permanent increase, or the lender needed a lump sum to bring the escrow account up to a certain level and the regular monthly increase will be smaller. But, as the fire shows, insurance is needed.

Rent concessions almost tripled in December over November, but that's understandable, given it is a big holiday month and people likely need some encouragement to move during the holidays. I know I would.

For the entire year of 2013, the property ended up with a positive net income of just over $150,000. That's about $135,000 over budget. It looks like this was the turn-around year for the property.

Delayed November Apartment Update

I've actually had the November financials for the Houston apartment sitting in my inbox for a couple weeks. The December ones should be arriving any day now, so I've been putting off writing anything so I could  write a single post for the combined two months. Well, the December info isn't here yet, so I figured I better get something out for November before it falls too far in the past.

Occupancy remained at 94%. The property had a positive cash flow of a tad over $25,000 for the month. This is actually the highest monthly cash flow of the year, beating out August's number by just over $100. Rent concessions dropped. Our overall income for the month increased by about $2,000 over October.

On the other hand, expenses also increased over October - but only by about $1,000. We saw increases in marketing, apartment turnover, and repairs. These were partially offset by a large decrease in administration expenses.

Management says the last 10 months of positive cash flow have allowed us to pay off $100,000 of aged accounts receivable over the course of the year. Now our balance sheet shows our accounts receivable greater than our accounts payable, so we look to be finally rid of all those old debts we accrued during the bad years. The property is currently $124,500 over our budgeted net income for the year. That's good news.

No word yet on the potential sale of the property. One of the potential buyers requested a four month or so examination period and we're still in that, so I suppose this is a case of no news is good news. I hope we get an update with December's numbers, but we may not.

Houston Apartment October 2013 Update

The numbers for October are in and things are still looking good. Occupancy remained at 94%. Rental income reached a high for the year, coming in $1,000 over September, which was the previous high for the year. Overall income dipped slightly due to some higher administrative expenses that consisted of once time charges. Year to date, the net income for the property is $100,000 over budget. (!)

As I mentioned before, the property is up for sale. I had a talk with the managing partner (of our investment group, not the property) a while ago and he mentioned that the property does need a little bit of work to bring it back up to being a highly desirable location for tenants (which isn't to say it's a pit right now). We did some renovation when we bought the property, but with the multi-year economic downturn, management didn't have the funds to keep adding amenities. As a result, at least one of the potential buyers we are talking to has indicated they plan to put about $1 million into improvements if they end up as the owners. That's good news for the tenants. Of course, now that the property is performing well, we have the option to not sell the property and invest in making improvements ourselves. However, that would require raising additional capital from the owners (us) and our managing partner told me he spoke with the largest shareholders in the property and they did not want to invest any more money. So the property is up for sale. I can't really blame them. I also miss getting the quarterly distribution checks and can understand wanting to get back into something that produces income on a regular basis.

Houston Apartment Up For Sale

I received word this weekend that the Houston apartment complex is up for sale. In fact, we already have two offers for it. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to discuss any details at this time, but after any sale completes, I'll talk about them. The property was just appraised at between $13.2 million and $14.5 million. We bought it for around $12 million back in 2008.

Apartment September Numbers And HML #28 Pay Off Delay

September saw a continuation of the good performance of the Houston apartment complex. Rental income (which excludes utility chargeback amounts) reached its highest level to date - $170,000. Total income was just $1,000 lower than last month at $198,000. Net income (cash flow) for the month was $19,000, a bit lower than last month's record setting $25,000. I don't really have anything else to report on this other than rent concessions dropped by $1,500 and bad debit write-offs dropped by $5,000. Both of these are good things.

I reported last time that HML #28 was paid off. I was a bit premature on that one. It was supposed to be paid off on Oct. 18, but escrow did not close then. In fact, escrow still hasn't closed and we are now looking at this Friday to be the new closing date. No word on the reason for the delay, but given the unusual demands by the title company (like requiring a signature from me, a mortgage holder), I would not be surprised if they were the reason for the delay.

Update: Turns out, the delay was because the buyer had a scheduled vacation and was out of town. Escrow is closing today, although not without some additional drama. The title company was saying they would not release the funds to my partner and needed wiring instructions from me so they could wire the funds directly to my account. I was off getting that info when I got another call from my partner saying the title company changed their mind and was ok with simply cutting a check to me and letting my partner mail it to me. So that's what we are going to do.

HML #28 Paid Off And Looking Towards 2014

HML #28 was paid off on Friday. This loan was started just a few months ago in August and, at the time, we knew it was going to be a short loan. Out biggest borrower is not buying much these days because he feels people are paying too much at the foreclosure auctions. As a result, my partner has $1.2 million sitting around waiting to be re-invested and where I normally have four loans outstanding at any one time, I currently only have one.

This payoff was also strange in that this was the first time in the 7 or 8 years I have been doing this that I was required to go to the title agency and sign documents. As a mortgage holder that is being paid off, there isn't anything I normally have to sign and for those few things that do require a signature, my partner and I have a loan servicing agreement that gives him permission to act on my behalf. However, this particular title company was very picky and didn't want to accept that document, so I had to rush around a bit last week to locate a local branch of the title company, sign some documents and have them overnighted to the closing title company in California.

I've been thinking about the Houston apartment lately. The property is performing nicely now and I think management will look at putting the property up for sale near the end of the year or beginning of next year. Investors were guaranteed at least a 9% annualized return and the last time we received a profit distribution was October of 2009, so a sale would give us 4 years of accrued interest plus our share of whatever profit we make from the sale over our purchase price.

I'm trying to plan how to reinvest my money once this investment is over. (I know, I'm counting my chickens before they hatch.) I'm not sure I want to reinvest in an apartment complex right now. I do like the idea of apartment investing and plan to do it again in the future, but I'm not sure it's the next investment I want to make. For one, it's become clear that the performance of apartments is closely tied to the economic situation of the area. That's obvious and holds true for any real estate investment, but what this investment has shown me is that, because apartments have many tenants, a widespread economic downturn can result in the loss of many tenants. That can cause a cascade effect where property income drops and operating expenses don't get paid and investors can't get scheduled distributions.

Which brings me to my second point: apartments really are a business. They have operating expenses that have to be paid and maintenance and other activities to manage. As an investor, I didn't really have to deal with the day to day administration of such things because we have a management team that handles that. However, as was the case with this property, if things go downhill for a while, investors may be asked to contribute more money to help keep the business afloat. This is in contrast to investing money in a mortgage, where someone just sends you a check every month and a call for more money would be very rare. True, you may have to foreclose and then the mortgage investment can become like a business in that you'll have expenses like fix up and repair costs to sell the property. But on the whole, I think mortgage investing is a lot more hands-off than apartment investing. It also seems the cash flow is more stable, although that may just be due to the quality of the borrowers my partner deals with.

Overall, I think apartments tend to be more of an investment for those looking to get capital gains rather than monthly cashflow. I'm reasonably sure that, had I made this investment in a strong economy and did not have to suffer through 4 years of no cash flow, I would have a different opinion. In a strong economy, apartments probably do provide a robust cash flow. However, at this point in my investing career, I'm more interested in dependable cash flow than capital gains, so I'm leaning towards reinvesting these funds into hard money loans.

August 2013 Apartment Numbers

The results for August for the Houston apartment complex have just come in from the management company and things continue to go well. Occupancy stayed at 94%, the same as July, but total revenue increased to $199,600. Net operating income hit almost $94,000, which was almost $4,000 higher than July. Cash flow for August also increased just a bit over $25,000, also an increase over July. This is the highest monthly cash flow number this year.

Expenses were normal with the exception of a one time $4,000 expense for tree trimming that was required by our lender. Our losses due to bad debt, which had ballooned to over $22,000 last month, dropped back down to just under $10,000, which is still higher than average, but at least it's moving in the right direction. Rent concessions almost doubled from last month. Since occupancy stayed the same, it looks like my predictions of a stronger rental market last month might have been a bit off.

Nevertheless, the property is performing nicely now and our net income figure is about $14,000 higher than budgeted for the year. Management hasn't made any mention of it yet, but I think the property is beginning to look like it might be in shape to be put on the market towards the end of the year.

July 2013 Apartment Update

The numbers for July are in and things continue to improve. Occupancy is at 94%, a 2% drop over June, but total income for the month rose to the highest level of the year, just shy of $197,000. Expenses rose by about $2,000, but the increased income more than made up for it. Total Net Operating Income for the month was just under $90,000 and Net Income (i.e. cashflow) was about $24,000 - both of which were the highest for the year. The cashflow amount was up about $4,000 over last month.

Management is touting the trend of increasing profitability, of course. Our Net Operating Income is the highest it's been since 2009. But looking at the figures, I'm a bit skeptical as to if the improvement will continue or even stabilize. Compared to last month's numbers, I notice a couple of things:

1. The Bad Debt loss doubled from $11,000 to $22,000.
2. Rent concessions decreased from $8,000 to $6,000.
3. Other Income increased from $27,000 to $40,000.
4. Apartment Turnover costs rose from $3,000 to $4,000.
5. Property taxes increased by $2,000.

Others figures stayed relatively the same. What I'm curious about is item 3 above - what exactly caused the increase in Other Income? Digging in deeper, I see the biggest change in Other Income over June is that in July we received $9,000 in lease buyout payments versus none in June. We saw increases in other categories as well (including a $3,000 increase in utility income), but lease buyouts was the biggest increase by far. Obviously, this is not likely to be a recurring income stream.

If we look at the numbers, we might be able to read between the lines and get an idea of what is going on at the property. Rent concessions decreased. That points to a stronger rental environment. Bad debt, apartment turnover costs, and income from lease buyouts rose. Those items points to non-paying tenants moving out, either on their own or due to management becoming more diligent in enforcing leases. The occupancy dipped slightly, so that also supports this outlook. I would guess management is seeing more desirable potential tenants becoming available as the rental market strengthens and they are stepping up their efforts to replace unprofitable tenants with profitable ones.

At least, that's my take on it.

June 2013 Apartment Results

Things continue to look good at the apartment complex in Houston. Occupancy climbed 1 percent to 96%. Total rent collected was almost $165,000 - the highest total since 2009. Total income stayed around $192,000, the amount it's been hovering around since April. Expenses were normal and there were no large, unexpected expenses during the month. The best part is that the net operating income was almost $87,000 for the month and the highest figure year to date. Total cash flow was $19,000 - also a highest year to date figure.

Digging into the details of the financials, I can see rent concessions dropped by $6,000 over May, although write offs of bad debt increased by a similar amount, so that was a wash. Administration expenses dropped by $2,000 and utilities expenses dropped by $3,000. Everything else stayed pretty much the same as in May.

Compared to the budgeted numbers, we are looking good. Our income numbers for the year are $11,000 over budget, expenses are $36,000 under budget, resulting in a net $25,000 income over budget for the year.

Things are looking good and I'm becoming more hopeful that we will be able to sell the property at a significant profit towards the end of this year or beginning of next year.

May Apartment Update

The May results for the Houston apartment complex are in and the good performance of April has continued through May. Occupancy remained at 94%. Positive cash flow was $8,700, a noticeable improvement over April's $7,500 (which was pretty good itself). There are still some legal issues with some vendors that are increasing the administrative expenses for the month and, once again, management says these are at reduced levels compared to the past and they should be decreasing.

Rent concessions increased by about $4,000 over last month, but the loss due to vacancy decreased by about $7,500. We did have to write off almost $6,000 in bad debt compared to no write-offs last month, but we also recovered $1,000 of bad debt. Our total income was just about $1,000 less than April.

Expenses for marketing dropped, as did those for capital improvements / replacements. This is what drove our bottom line higher than last month's.

We are still running in line with the budget. We're about $3,000 over budget in income for the year and $27,000 under budget for expenses. Unfortunately, we're also $22,000 over budget for capital improvements / replacements. But overall, the property is $8,000 over budget for net income, so I really have no complaints.

Well, that's not entirely true. I do have one complaint. Management seems to be very poor at handling investor's questions via email (or at the very least, at handling my questions). Last month, when I read the news about the ongoing legal costs for vendor issues, I sent them an email asking about how many issues were still outstanding. I got no response. After reading the May results this morning, I sent them another email asking the same question. I'm also somewhat bothered that it appears t be taking longer and longer for them to get the monthly reports out. I believe back when this investment started, the monthly report would be sent out maybe 2 or 3 weeks after the end of the month. Lately, it has been coming 5 weeks or so after the end of the month.

April Apartment Update

I returned from a quick trip to Las Vegas to find the April financials for the apartment complex in my email. Things continue to improve!

Occupancy is up to 94% and the property reached a couple new milestones: we had the highest monthly revenue since September 2009 and the highest net operating income since August 2009. The property had a positive cash flow of $7,500 - this is over twice last month's NOI and management expects this number to continue to increase in the coming months. Rent concessions dropped to the lowest point since January. The increased occupancy translated to the lowest vacancy expense this year. Bad debt losses were zero (!) and we recovered close to $1,000 in previously recorded bad debt.

There were still some expenses due to legal costs incurred from vendor issues when we had to delay payments for several months in 2011 and 2012, but those are greatly reduced from prior months and hopefully, the end of those expenses are in view.

Budget-wise, the property's net income for the year is about $1,500 ahead of budget. Clearly, apartment complex financials are closely tied to the performance of the local economy. That might be stating the obvious, but this whole process has helped me see just how true that is. This is something to keep in mind when investing in apartment buildings.

It's hard for me to believe I've been in this investment for over four years now. If this improvement continues through the rest of the year, I think we'll be on track to sell the property for a nice profit early next year!

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that hard money loan #24 was paid off on May 31st, so that money is waiting for another deal.

New Loan Started, March Apartment Update

I've started  a new hard money loan on a property in Richmond, CA. This is a 4 bedroom duplex, 2 bedrooms and 1 bath on each side. Each unit is 600 square feet for a total property square footage of 1,200 square feet. Each unit has an attached one car garage. There is at least one tenant in the property (my partner was unable to see the interior of either side). The property was built in 1960 and is on a 3,750 square foot lot. There is a train track nearby and my partner said he could hear the train as it went by, but he thinks it might not be audible from inside the property.

Surprisingly, there are several duplex comps within a 1 mile radius. They sold for between $140,000 (REO sale, slightly smaller property) to $215,000. This property was purchased at auction for $176,000. The opening bid was $117,000, so there was a lot of interest in this property and the price was bid up nicely. Our after repaired value estimate is $220,000 with a current value estimate of $170,000. (Yes, our current value estimate is lower than the purchase price.) Our loan is for $120,000, giving us a 71% loan to value ratio based on the current value. We also estimate the units can rent for $700 a month each, which would be a $1,400 monthly income on a $120,000 investment, should we have to foreclose. Not bad. Our borrower is someone we have worked with a couple times before. He has always paid on time. He works for our biggest borrower and is starting to build his own business of rehabbing foreclosed properties. He is personally guaranteeing the loan. I'll refer to this property as Hard Money #27.

In other news, the March numbers for the apartment complex are in. Rent income increased by $2,000, occupancy rose. Total revenue dropped due to lower utility billbacks, and operating expenses declined. All those factors combined to give an increase in Net Operating Income over last February by almost $3,000. Management expects revenue to continue to increase going forward. For the first three months of this year, the property is cash flow positive, although it is still below the budgeted cash flow amount.

March Update

I've been away for a couple weeks on a cruise to Hawaii. Got back and found out my hard money loan #22 finally got paid off. This was 5 months overdue, but since the borrower is one of our biggest clients and he was still making payments on time, we didn't call the note and opted to let him pay it off at his leisure. The property was under contract for sale two or three times, but fell out of escrow each time, I believe because the buyer's lender would not consider this a valid property for a conforming loan. The unit was a triplex and those are normally considered conforming (i.e. non-commercial), but apparently in this post-real estate bubble world, lenders are being more strict in what they define as conforming. Our client ended up keeping the property himself and renting it out. He did a re-fi to pay us off. I'll be adding some money to the principle return from this loan and am looking for a new property to loan on.

My other three hard money loans continue to pay on time.

The financial results for January for the Houston apartment complex came in. The property showed a loss of about $6,500 for the month. This is very disappointing, considering how things appeared to be turning around in December. The silver lining is that the loses in January were due to one-time expenses. We had to pay a vendor almost $4,000 for work done 4 to 5 months ago (we had been delaying paying the vendor until the property's cashflow improved), there was a bed bug infestation that required pest control treatment costing close to $1,000, and several fees related to health and fire permits and loan reserves processing by our lender were paid. We had to replace a hot water boiler that failed, although this $14,000 cost will be reimbursed from our capital improvements escrow account with the lender. If you exclude the boiler and one-time items, cashflow would have been a positive $11,000 for the month.

February's figures should be coming in soon. I'm looking forward to seeing how things went that month.