All Forum Posts by: Alecia Loveless

I've got a great general contractor. In the past 8 months he's worked at 3 of my properties. The first doing odds and ends getting it ready to be sold, maybe about $3000 worth. Then he did a major renovation to the second side of the duplex I live in including installing a shower, laying flooring, and supervising other employees such as the plumber and electrician. This could easily have been as much as a $12-15,000 bill from him. He promised at my insistence I would be invoiced before December 31,2020 so I could properly account for these bills in the correct year. Now he is renovating a third house for me, another $12-15000 project. 

I have yet to receive a single invoice of any kind from him. I have referred him much business and many new accounts but I can't imagine he doesn't want or need this money. There aren't any other reliable, insured contractors in my area that won't simply charge me an arm and a leg for this type of work. He also comes at every emergency I have so I don't want to alienate him or offend him especially as my portfolio grows. 

If anyone has any suggestions on how I should handle this I would appreciate it. 

Thanks!

I've got a great general contractor. In the past 8 months he's worked at 3 of my properties. The first doing odds and ends getting it ready to be sold, maybe about $3000 worth. Then he did a major renovation to the second side of the duplex I live in including installing a shower, laying flooring, and supervising other employees such as the plumber and electrician. This could easily have been as much as a $12-15,000 bill from him. He promised at my insistence I would be invoiced before December 31,2020 so I could properly account for these bills in the correct year. Now he is renovating a third house for me, another $12-15000 project. 

I have yet to receive a single invoice of any kind from him. I have referred him much business and many new accounts but I can't imagine he doesn't want or need this money. There aren't any other reliable, insured contractors in my area that won't simply charge me an arm and a leg for this type of work. He also comes at every emergency I have so I don't want to alienate him or offend him especially as my portfolio grows. 

If anyone has any suggestions on how I should handle this I would appreciate it. 

Thanks!

I would try very hard for the duplex. I landed one of the only ones in my tiny town and it is so nice every month to only have a few personal bills like car insurance, cable/internet, and groceries while tenant rent covers almost all the rest. Best of luck!

Hi Javier,

I closed on my first bank financed 4-Plex two weeks ago and it did make me stressed and nervous. I've done other deals with creative financing before but that bank mortgage sure made this one feel a lot more formal and grown up somehow even though I'm almost 45 years old. 

However, when those rent checks arrived it sure did feel good, like I'd definitely made the right decision for my future. I know I'll have maintenance issues, tenant issues, etc down the road at some point but that's A part of doing business. 

So try to relax, stay focused, and continue to plan for the future with your new real estate purchase squarely in your pocket. You can do this! We're all rooting for you.

Continuing to do my own due diligence even though I have qualified Realtors working with me. It has been my experience that often I find the best deals then use a buyers broker to get that extra information from the MLS.

@Krystal Stone I would be sure to check and see how many clients (youth) they are planning to house at one time. I work in group home settings for a living and at my previous facility there were two clients per bedroom which would give you potentially 8 in your house while at my current job there is one client per bedroom which would only be 4 clients in your home. That is a big difference in the amount of wear and tear on a property. Not to mention staff, I’d check on the number required to stay up to ratio throughout the day, night ratio is likely lower than day ratio.

And then, with every new program manager we get it seems there is a new idea about what color scheme will be better to keep the clients calm so we repaint them walls at least with each New management change that occurs.

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t consider this opportunity because my current company has about 50 homes throughout New England with about 1100 employees and is well funded. They pay their bills on time and make good tenants. Often they like to ultimately buy their properties and will pay over market value so they don’t have to uproot the established program to stay in the home they’ve been renting.

Check your insurance, I’ve seen a lot of people specialize in renting to group homes or care facilities so there must be a commercial policy for this. If your company can’t write the policy, call around and see if someone else can.

Best of luck!

@Jace Prozeller Just bought some LED boobs to put in a starter flip I am doing. Might not have been the best decision and I might look some more for other lighting but they are new and will throw off 5 times the amount of lighting as the existing lights do and the ones I got are dimmable.

@Jared Kotler I’m closing on a 30yr fixed at 3.5% next Thursday. The deal is similar to yours 4plex cash flow close to $3,000. A little lower price.

I was biased on the 30yr because a family member just took a blood bath on 8 ARMs down in Texas that they weren’t able to refinance during the first part of the pandemic.

Of course you can’t fix stupid and I’ve given them BP books and advised them to join the forums for some time now so I think they weren’t familiar with many alternative lending options.

Best of luck!

Hello. I’m closing on my first MFH next week and any help on writing an introductory letter to my new inherited tenants would be appreciated. One has lived there 3 years, one 6 years and one 20. The fourth is new. Rents are at market value.

I’m also thinking of including a short questionnaire with a self addressed stamped envelope on things such as, “Does your apartment have any maintenance issues?” “Have you noticed any maintenance issues on the property?” etc. Unless any of the more experienced BP members can think of a reason this might not be a good idea.

I seem to recall one of the BP books has a chapter on this but off the top of my head I can’t remember which one. If anyone can point me to it that would be terrific too.

Thanks for your help!

@Jonathan Santiago

The place I work uses a combination of a mini split and a furnace but I think the combination of the mini split with the baseboard would be the cheapest, easiest way to go for you, the investor.

In northern New Hampshire the electric is prohibitively expensive so we wouldn’t consider any type of electric so you might try to compare costs for your tenants before making a decision.

However it is definitely nice to have the mini split at work providing air conditioning to the whole downstairs of my office come summertime.