Connie Lee’s Post

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Cofounder/CEO @ Reffie | Helping real estate operators fill vacancies faster using centralized leasing software | Get 50%+ engagement from all inbound renter prospects

When I bought my first rental, everyone said, "California doesn’t cash flow. It’s an appreciation-only state." That was the conventional wisdom back then, and it still is today. One of the most common metrics to estimate cash flow potential is the Rent to Price Ratio (RTP). You get it by dividing the sale price by the monthly rent. So, when RTP goes up, cash flow goes up too. It's not a flawless measure, but you get the idea. But here’s the thing—very few things are truly impossible, especially if you’re willing to get creative. My rental portfolio is entirely in the Los Angeles market. When we started our rental journey, we wanted our first property in an area we knew (we lived in LA then) and we wanted it to cash flow. Otherwise, it wasn’t worth the risk for us. So, we got creative. We looked at duplexes, traditional multifamily homes, affordable housing complexes, you name it. Eventually, we came across co-living, or renting by the room. Here’s the short version: we bought our first single-family home (3 beds, 2 baths with a detached ADU) and rented it out by the room. It turned out to be less of a headache than we anticipated, and we were immediately cash flow positive month 1! Fast forward a couple of years, we acquired a few more properties and kept using the rent-by-the-room model. The lesson? Don’t let conventional wisdom stop you from figuring out how to cash flow in markets you like. #realestate #multifamily #coliving #propertymanagement

Memoona Salahuddin (ACCA)

Transforming SME Financial Analysis with AI

5mo

Turning tables is what I call wisdom Connie and you got it! I would suggest you some KPIs that can help : 1: BER (Break Even Rent) (Expense/Rent) should be < 1 Gives you a view of least rent you can charge per room. Then you decide margins 2: OR (Occupancy rates) You can focus on areas with high occupancy rates and move from low OR area 3: NOI (Net Operating Income) You arrive at it after all maintenance exp. It can help you with below 4: Cap Rate : Rent/NOI Its your retention rate 5: MC (Mortgage cover) Tells you the % of mortgage being paid by rent. Helps with better property occupation where MC is higher

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