Pretty interesting to have Houston in this mix. Read the store here

Photo is of a nice meal at Underbelly. It’s pretty amazing the amount of great restaurants we have crammed in a relatively small area (speaking of Montrose specifically)

Sorry to take a break from the real estate stuff. Sometimes you have to enjoy the rest of life. That’s actually not a terrible resolution for 2013.

We haven’t been this excited about a game in a long time.

We’re always asked “What do you have available?“  And that normally means pointing people to our tenant site which basically is more of a portal for our current tenants to log in, pay rent, view their ledger, put in a work request, etc.  Or for potential tenants to apply or view additional pictures.

With our new “Units!” page, we have on centralized page where our property mangers will do their best to list anything upcoming (and a few tips from our FAQ on how to get one).

Note that this page will normally only have units available now or in the next ~30 days.  If you’re looking for something 60 days+ days out we likely won’t be able to help. The exception being in our larger properties were all units are the same.  If you were to view a random unit and like it, you could put down a deposit for an upcoming unit that fit your desired move in date.  Contact our property managers for more info

So enough reading already.  Check out our new Units! page here.

Update:  Whoa, we had three units taken today already, only hours after making this page.  So two properties have been moved to “Recently leased”, but a new property has been added.  We’ll keep doing our best to make this page up to date.

Normally we don’t post on properties we’re going after — or even those under contract. The adage “It’s not done till it funds” rings true.  The only time we’ve done so is with Holman, and that was because we basically took over the operation of the property while we had it under contract.

However, since it looks like January is going to start off a busy 2013, here is a sneak peek at what we have going.  It’s part of our goal of expanding out of Montrose and into other quality inner loop locations (midtown, near medical center, 5th ward, etc.). Below is a few of those properties, in somewhat order of their potential to close.

Property #1: “Midtown”, just a few blocks from our Holman property.  This building will function as a midtown office and central storage facility.  However, it also has a few units on it just for fun.  This one is under contract.

Property #2: “Midtown”, close to TSU.  Not a large property, in the 10-15 unit range. This one is under contract.

Property #3: 5th ward. 30-40 unit property. We’re not a fan of this location in it’s current state. We normally focus on good areas regardless of current building condition. However, close (4 mile) proximity to downtown and proximity to schools, parks, the Heights, etc. make it worth the gamble.  Seller has accepted our offer, we’re just hammering out some financing details.

Property #4: Medical center area. 30-40 unit property.  We loved the location and there is a lot of opportunity to improve the area simply by investing in the several buildings close by.  Met the owner and, and know the agent. Both class acts. We should be able to get this done.

There are others…  a 50+ unit in an area we’re also not thrilled with, and a 40+ unit also next to the medical center.  We’ll comment on those if and when they happen. We also have several other projects that we’re keeping off the site for other reasons.

Fat Property is a Texas based company, with headquarters in Houston.  We’ve been in business for over 6 years – about as long as Gary Kubiak has been the head coach. In honor of the Texans making it to the playoffs for the second year in a row, we’re going to change our site to display various Houston Texans photos. GOOD LUCK TEXANS!*

*unless you’re playing the Chargers.  Sorry 🙂

Our largest midtown property is a 56 unit complex on Holman St. If you’re one of those people who are interested in where names come from, then you’ll find this interesting:

Holman St. is named after James S. Holman who was the first Mayor of Houston back in 1837.  He won in a close race against Francis Lubbbock and Thomas Ward.  James Holman received 12 votes while Lubbock received 11 and Ward received 10. Talk about a close vote!

Thanks to Dana Thorpe for the info!

The owner of Fat Property has been known to go on and on about real estate subjects of interest   One of the most interesting things in the market right now is the Wrap Around mortgage.  In our discussions with owners about purchasing property, the “wrap” come up often.  And when is does, we’re often asked to explain how they work.

With that in mind, our very first entry in our Owners Blog will be ironically titled “Lets Wrap”.  Check it out

 

We are pleased to announce our new office and company headquarters, located at 3800 Garrott St. This new office will allow us the room to expand our personnel, as well as provide a better meeting place for our vendors, investors, and partners.

The property is located in a nice 7000 SF corner lot on W. Alabama, in the heart of Montrose just a few blocks East of Montrose Blvd.

Built in 1930, this 3 bedroom 2 bath home has 1600 SF — giving us work spaces that include a large reception area, conference room, mini kitchen, and office space for all our employees.  In addition to this work space, there is also a separate bedroom area for out of town guests with washer/dryer, private back entry, and full kitchen.

The property has been painstakingly upgraded inside to modernize many of the features while keeping as much as the original charm as possible.

A large back yard provides room for outdoor entertaining.  The back also features a two story guest house that has been almost completely rebuilt.  It features brand new kitchen cabinets, stainless steel appliances, new doors and windows, an attached 2 car garage with washer and dryer, new bamboo flooring upstairs, and the addition of a new central air system.

Keep your eyes open for an “Open House” welcome party coming soon!

(picture below shows the building in process of being repainted)

 

It was a busy year for Fat Property.  Lots of new projects and properties, including a few firsts.  Here is a quick recap:

• 01-12: Bought a small 5 unit in Montrose (406 Hawthorne), in the lovely Westmoreland subdivision.  Our first with a pool.

• 03-12: Bought a 9 unit in Montrose (1424 Marshall)

• 07-12: Hired a new property manager for the Montrose area.  Christopher Wilkerson

• 07-12: Bought a 10 unit property in Montrose (4315 Jack). Our first with a billboard! 🙂

• 07-12: Brought on ADP to assist with payroll.

• 09-12: Hired a new property manager for the Midtown area. Stefan Kovac

• 10-12: Bought our largest inner loop property to date. A 56 unit in midtown (“Holman“). This represents our first entry into Midtown

• 12-12: Sold a 9 unit in Montrose (1424 Marshall) we had bought earlier in the year to help fund some larger projects.

• 12-12: Bought a new building in Montrose to serve as our office (3800 Garrott)

Other activities

• We added 5 people to payroll to help with our Montrose properties

• We added 6 controtrs to our Midtown group to specifically focus on Holman and future projects.

• We won our first “Swampie” award. Or at least Holman did. In a  new “It’s Alive!” category.

• We’ve begun making several offers on new properties in the midtown area, which will be our target for growth in 2013.

• We remained one of the top most active multifamily real estate companies in the Montrose area.

• The company generated over $1,000,000 in rental income for the first time.

A lot of tenants think of the typical landlord as Scrooge Mcduck. Taking the rental income and using it to fill a giant pool with gold coins to dive into. Sadly, that’s not the case.

As 2012 draws to a close, we decided to dig into our books to get a global picture of where rental income actually goes.  As those who rent from us and work with us know, we’re an open book.  So in the spirit of openness, we’re giving our tenants a dollar by dollar breakdown of where your rent goes.

A few notes: I tried to find a quote that someone once told me about accounting. The CEO says to his accountant “How much did we make?”, to which the account replies “how much do you want to have made?”.  And so goes with accounting.  There are so many ways to look at identical numbers and draw different results.

While our accounting system can generate reports that show every dollar in and out, we have some property types (mortgage notes from properties we sold via seller financing, single family homes with only partial income/expense capture in the system, vacation homes, places we manage for others, etc.) that are not applicable that throw things off.  I removed most of those. However, the largest problem with a company like ours doing a report like this is we are often operationally negative on a property for up to years due to capital improvements put into the property. So if we buy a building and put $200k of improvements in, then a report like this would show more than $1 being spent for every $1 of rent collected that first year. And we bought a lot of new properties in 2012.

This also doesn’t take into account insurance costs, which I noticed were not included after I did the chart. Also, the ‘supplies/repairs’ might be inflated as it captures some capital improvements as noted above. And the mortgage number includes principal portions of payments that shouldn’t be included.  So I guess what I’m trying to say is the chart below is close, but not exact.

 

If we take a rental amount of $800 a month, here is where your rent goes:

Mortgage: $267
Supplies: $142
Repairs: $105
Utilities: $105
Taxes: $91
Management fees: $56
Cleaning: $14
Other: $11
Auto / Travel: $7
Legal: $5
Company income: $4
Landscape: $3
Advertising: $2
Permits: $1

So using the estimated data above, about 5 cents out of every dollar goes into the companies coffers for growth. So if one month of rent isn’t paid on a unit, it takes almost two years of renting that unit out before we’re even again.

Again, this is likely not typical as we are not the typical real estate company, but it should be at least an entertaining look at where rental income ends up.