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.