Rental Property Investor · Minneapolis, MN · Member since 2016 · 161 posts · 221 votes
My wife and I had been interested in purchasing a rental property for about a year with the intent of making this a business. She's a teacher, I'm an engineer and we have little faith in the future of Social Security / 401k stability. So bring on the house viewings! After many viewings we decided to look at a 'slightly' downtrodden 1954 ranch with the right square footage.
Notice the fancy red-white-blue spray painted garage windows! Seems like we may have an artist on the premises (more on that). After viewing the place twice, researching the rent comps and recently sold comp values for the area we decided to purchase it. Here is my wife after closing...inspecting her snazzy new $60,000 purchase (so much better than an escalade).
Your wife and I are kindred spirits. If things don't work out between the two of you, please give her my number. She and I would be a match made in heaven because clearly she knows what hell looks like.
I want to take a moment to record my list of prospective tenants (really glad I learned how to run background checks):
- 12 grams of coke with a gun, he's just out of prison
- felony possession of meth with a firearm, she's just out of prison
- forgery of checks, judgments from wells fargo/us bank/payday loans in the range of $1000 to $2500 each, then the last one to Kum and Go gas station for $12.53.... I guess they really wanted that money
- fleeing an officer, multiple DWI(3), driving without a license, driving while revoked
- Drug possession - marijuana, DWI (2), multiple evictions, dog enthusiast (pitbull)
These are each separate individuals who were interested in renting. I can't describe how many others I denied for having pitbulls, rottweilers, etc.
My ad said no Section 8, I had five Section 8 families/individuals ask to see the place. One indicated she would help me set up the Section 8 housing and became angry when I said no thank you.
It took me nearly two months to place a family who had a good credit history and no history of violence. What an eye opener.
Being a landlord opens your eyes up to a whole other world. Don't be too discouraged by the state of humanity. We only see those who move often, so it seems like there are more people with issues than there really are.
@Lee Fahy , are you permitted in your state to discriminate against Section 8? I know that in NJ we are not. We are advised never to put "No Section 8" anywhere.
@Scott Weaner ; Yes, we can deny Section 8 housing for now. Minneapolis recently passed a law saying you cannot deny tenants based on Section 8 housing status.
Hey @Lee Fahy I hadn't realized that passed "Minneapolis recently passed a law saying you cannot deny tenants based on Section 8 housing status." Not good for Minneapolis
Hey @Lee Fahy I hadn't realized that passed "Minneapolis recently passed a law saying you cannot deny tenants based on Section 8 housing status." Not good for Minneapolis
Go with the check forger, just insist they pay the rent in cash. They should have no trouble raising rent every month....until they get sent to jail. lol
Lets review. Drug house (no hidden money)...made wife work on renovation with buckets on her feet.....a water heater from the Reagan Administration..... the parole board wants to set up a sub-station close by to cut down on travel times to check in on your tenets....
This is truly the fast lane to wealth and privilege. You will be on the podcast before you know it.
Honestly I wish you nothing but good luck and fortune. Having a sense of humor has served you well, and apparently allowed you to marry far above your station.
Go with the check forger, just insist they pay the rent in cash. They should have no trouble raising rent every month....until they get sent to jail. lol
Lets review. Drug house (no hidden money)...made wife work on renovation with buckets on her feet.....a water heater from the Reagan Administration..... the parole board wants to set up a sub-station close by to cut down on travel times to check in on your tenets....
This is truly the fast lane to wealth and privilege. You will be on the podcast before you know it.
Honestly I wish you nothing but good luck and fortune. Having a sense of humor has served you well, and apparently allowed you to marry far above your station.
Personally I like the idea of the short commute for my ex-con tenants to check in with their parole officers, haha. My wife is on board for our next purchase and I'm hoping to find Disaster 2.0 in the very near future. She's definitely my better half.
Thanks, love this story. I wish this could be me and my wife. blah blah LOL. Super congrats, I'm doing a similar BRRRR with a duplex I purchased cash in 2016 as well. I'm learning on the go and I know things with turn out great. I appreciate the inspiration.
@Victor S.; Hey sorry about the delay, I try to respond in a timely manner. So I guess there's an update, I bought another crap house from HUD and am in the middle of fixing that one.
It's a 2004 cookie cutter that was left vacant for several years and really suffered for it. Nothing to the extent of the duplex, no clown graffiti, vintage pornography or colony of dead mice. Really kind of disappointing.
How much asbestos was present in all those layers of flooring? Originally posted by @Lee Fahy:
We rip the awful upstairs kitchen out because the cabinets (well made but not salvageable) had to go. The floor had about six layers of linoleum stacked on top of each other. The wall in between the living room and the kitchen had to go as well.
The light fixtures had been painted with white supremacist symbols, my wife was so kind as to google search until she figured out that little nugget. "LEE, they must mean SOMETHING".
I know what house this is. It's on the way to one of my stores. I often look at it when I'm stopped at a red light. I remember a couple years ago when I noticed the garage door had been replaced.
This was a great read. I never realized the history of that house.
@Lee Fahy: What a wonderful story. Reminds me of us in 1982 when we decided to build our own passive solar house which we finished in only 10 years. BTW we're still living in it, having raised 3 children who all moved away and have never come home to roost, only to visit with our six wonderful grandchildren.
@Lee Fahy - Great thread. What were the ending numbers? (Purchase price + all in rehab cost before fully occupied, months between purchase and fully occupied)? Did you brrr? What are you renting it out for now? Are you going to hold it or sell it?
Are you planning to live in rehab any properties going forward (instead of having to drive so far away?)