All Forum Posts by: Mitch Dowler

Too bad I missed this as I live nearby.  Hopefully it happens again.

Don't advertise a unit for rent until you are certain the current tenant is going to move.  It is much less expensive to keep a good tenant than to spend money turning the unit and placing a new tenant.  Approach the tenant about signing a new lease when this one expires.  My leases all convert to month to month and I just do a reasonable rent increase and drive on.

Very few loans are assumable. This is determined by the lender. It is possible to have the VA guarantee transferred from one veteran to another but not common. If you are purchasing as an investor you can't do this as VA loans are for owner occupied only and you would have to live there for two years.

I am an Army retiree myself. Here is an option for you to invest and leverage you VA loan benefit. Purchase a duplex, triplex, or fourplex. As long as you personally live in one unit for two years you are free to lease out the other vacant units. At an opportune time when you have had some appreciation refinance into a conventional investor loan and use the VA loan for the next multifamily or the home you truly want to live in.

Sounds like a time to step back and take a deep breath.  Do not feel rushed or pressured to jump into something.  Find a mentor to network with and spend some time and possibly a little money on education first.

I have properties in Washington and I am also a Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound member.  A verbal rent contract is never, never a good thing thing.  Landlord tenant law is strictly enforced and favors the tenant in this state.  For that reason a solid rental contract with all addendums may exceed 30 pages.  Use those RHA contracts and all addendudums that apply.

Have these tenants fill out new applications if their current lease is not expired.  This authorizes new background checks and the RHA leases allow them to be repeated periodically.  Raise rents uniformly across the units to avoid the appearance of discrimination.  I would expect your tenants to move with that high of a rent increase.  When I had this situation of rents way below market I incrementally raised them while also making improvements to the property.

I owe an update here! I have a licensed inspector look at the property. He found a couple of BIG problems. Much of the siding was rotted and the Fannie Mae contractor had simply painted over it. The crawl space had all the insulation under the floor, around the pipes and duct work torn down by animals. There was also a carpenter ant problem.

Fannie Mae is going to completely reside the house and fix everything at the agreed upon price but I decided to move on. I already had other investments in the queue and decided not to spend my time dealing with repairs of this magnitude.

This was a good experience but I will obtain much greater cash flow with other investments although less potential equity increases.

Pat,

I work downtown in Seattle near the Westin Hotel. I am here every week day. I have two investments in the Tacoma area but I focus more on out of state investments at this time.

I'm happy to meet for lunch or coffee any week day. I have nothing to sell and only enjoy learning and sharing with others.

OUCH, so the inspection revealed that the contractor for Fannie Mae painted over a great deal of rot in the siding of the building. Also the crawl space was ripped apart by animals. All the insulation under the floor and around pipes and duct work was torn off and spread around. Fannie Mae said they would fix everything as part of the deal but I decided to move on to another opportunity that was ready to go now and provided stronger cash flow but not as much equity.

All contractors don't cover this entire area but I use some more in the South Sound Tacoma area. I get a lot of my referrals from the Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound.

Plumbing - Spartan Services Inc.

Electrical - Paul Hughes of Hertz Electric 

I used these and their prices are more reasonable than some of the competition, they are licensed and do quality work. Here is a link to the RHA's Vendor Directory: http://rhawa.org/search

Interesting Jon as my duplex is in Spanaway as well!