Keep in mind, at this point in the process your goal is to get an idea of the ongoing services and repairs as well as upgrades the building may need. Later in the process, you’ll go into lots more detail. This is the time to put rough numbers on paper and analyze if the cost of the needed repairs will still allow you to be profitable. There is a real balancing act between spending enough to get the place in shape and overspending. Again, your property management representative can help you determine many of these costs.
The goal throughout this whole exercise is to get a picture of where your expenses are and try to find ways to do things better, smarter, and for less money. Those increase your net income and increase your profitability. So what are the expenses? To answer that question, we’ll turn to the pro forma expense table. It shows the seller’s anticipated expenses for the coming year (the pro forma column) and the actual expenses for the prior year.
Regardless of whether you will be using a property management company or not, calling one to visit the property and help you assess everything involved in running the place is a good idea, particularly if you are looking at a multi-unit building. Just call and say, “I’m looking at buying an eight-unit building, and I’m not sure if I want to run it myself or hire a company to do it. I’d like to show you the building and talk with you about it.” The hour or so you spend with the property management representative will be a good investment of time. And if you have to pay that person an hourly consulting fee, it’s worth it. Make the objective of the meeting twofold. First, you’ll want to learn what it will take to run the property, and second, you’ll want to get insight on how to minimize expenses.
Expenses are the second important variable to consider. As I mentioned earlier, the definition of net operating income is income minus expenses. In the previous section, we showed you the specifics you need to review to estimate the income potential of a property. In this section, you’ll see how to assess the expenses.
Just as we did when we verified income, you’ll want to get a picture of the current expenses. Unlike the income calculation where our goal was to be 100 percent on the money in terms of accuracy, with expenses the goal is to get reasonably close. We’ll find out all the minute details later in the game. This is another area where your team of pros can help you.
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