All Forum Posts by: Anna Watkins

Even banks have varying requirements, depending on the bank, the borrower, and the property.  Sometimes their terms work for the investor, sometimes the investor moves on to another bank for a given deal.   They all get to call themselves banks.   Sounds like your quarrel is with the definition only.   Small problem to have -- congratulations!

I bet you knew the answer you'd get from Bigger Pockets -- OF COURSE it's better to use the $10,000 on a deal than on a course.  

Your girlfriend is scared -- I was up all night with butterflies (more like angry bees) in my stomach when I made my first offer, and it didn't get any better until the 3rd or 4th.   A mentor can help you through your first deal/offer/transaction AND (this will make your girlfriend sleep easier) if you spend a month or two looking for a really good RE agent who specializes in investors, you will have another mentor who will get paid (just with the seller's money).

Set reasonable expectations for the first deal -- don't stress on whether it's a "killer' deal or its braggability on BP.  Are you looking to hold and rent?  Flip?  If you break even, it's still better education than a $10,000 class that leaves you holding some promotional materials and a book or two!

Still not clear on your area -- exactly which neighborhood is this house in.  If you are in the City of Decatur (in which $139k is a killer deal, and your neighborhood options are Oakhurst or Winnona Park), you could be right on appreciation, but your taxes will kill you.  You could potentially get $1,400 in rent, to a family who wants CoD schools.  If you're in East Lake, it's city of Atlanta, trendy, high taxes but the Drew Charter Schools could be a draw for the right family.  There's nothing south of "downtown Decatur" that's not CoD or CoA until you get across Memorial or Glennwood (depending) and that's unincorporated DeKalb, with crappy schools (except for the Museum School or Dekalb School of the Arts, both in Forrest Hills/Avondale) and appreciation not as fast as the incorporated areas. 

 I am not an expert in higher rents (my highest is $900 for a 3/1.5 in Belvedere), but if I had $1,400 to spend on housing every month, I'd either buy my own house right now or expect some dang good schools.

My 2¢.  @Rick Baggenstoss and @Kevin Polite -- y'all Midway guys may have a finer-tuned read on this than I do.

Likelihood is roof leak in attic, or general high humidity (I just had to deal with a leak around a vent stack after the non-stop month we've had).  As for those spots causing your tenant's illness -- not likely unless she's REALLY sensitive, and if that's the case, she'd probably know for sure already.

Sounds like you've got a good plan. Congratulations!

Ditto what's been advised before -- plus, check it out yourself, not because you don't believe the tenant, but so you can gather information on location, extent etc and take photos.  This will be helpful in determining what you need to do next -- if an area of drywall or something is really bad, you need to fix the moisture problem and replace the materials, which are construction issues not "mold remediation" issues.  Keep in mind that not all mold is actually toxic and/or dangerous.

I had tenants worried about "mold" that oddly appeared around a thermostat and the outlet below.  I couldn't see any way moisture was gathering at those places, so we just wiped the area down with a bleach cleaning spray (a shoutout for satin finish paint on rental walls!!) and nothing has reappeared.  It was probably mildew anyway.

And make sure tenants are using the exhaust fan in the bathroom -- even my college-educated sister-in-law thought the main purpose was for smells (so didn't use it for the shower), but the MAIN purpose of a bathroom fan is to remove moisture!

I'm small potatoes, but I have had good experiences with WrightBilt,  (770) 229-9584 (re-ducted a 1950s ranch for me last spring) and ACS, 770-939-7500 (they've maintained my residence furnace for 19 years, and 2 rental systems as well).

Oh, and one last thought on this -- on advice from someone in the forums,  my leases all include a clause that says something like "the appliances that are in the house when you move out must be the same appliances that were in the house when you moved in," and the move in/out checklist includes make, model and serial numbers.  I also have pictures of the plates with that info on them.   

My properties generally don't attract the sort of folks who might sell new appliances and replace them with used, but you never know.  And some tenants get a kick out of it when I explain the clause, since they, of course, would never dream of that kind of thing!

Agreeing with both Michaels above (@Michael Boyer and @Michael Seeker) that having tenants move heavy appliances, possibly dripping water or grease, in and out of the house isn't an appealing idea.  For what it's worth, even though in our area houses are often offered with kitchen appliances and only "W/D hookups," my agent (also a landlord and a property manager) advised including the washer and dryer to avoid the wear-and-tear on the floors.

If I don't own a house, why would I want to own appliances?  That's what I thought in my pre-ownership days, and that's why I wouldn't dream of offering a rental house without appliances - fridge & stove at the very minimum, dishwasher if there are hookups.  I do provide washer and dryer because I feel like they're extra amenities I can offer to increase the appeal of my houses, but would be ok without them.  This is in metro Atlanta, single family houses, mid-level educated tenant pool.

@Trieste Musial - Welcome!  Good advice given by @Rick Baggenstoss -- take your nest egg and turn it into 2 or 3 properties if you can get the financing, or put it all into one 1031 exchange and cash-out refi later on to fund the next several.  $15k down can get you a $65k house and you'll have some wiggle room for a few improvements.  I like the southeast area inside the perimeter (most, but not all of the areas south of Memorial and east of the Atlanta city limits), partly because it's close enough for me to manage from where I live in the city of Decatur.  It sound like we have similar goals -- it's important to me to provide decent housing to tenants who will be positive citizens of the neighborhood.   @Heather W. -- I'd love to get together with you sometime too!