All Forum Posts by: Dave Antonelli

Heres backstory:

Rented a 4/2 house to a roofing company (mistake #1) for $1800/month (which is reason I did it, thats insanely high for my area). After about 5 months, they left town on me, which I was ok with. The subcontractors they had living there wanted to stay, so I agreed to continue lease with them. I didnt have them sign a new lease, thinking it would give me an out since old lease was broken. After about 12 months now of him paying, but late EVERY month, sometimes not even paying until the 23rd (mistake #2, however, he was paying $10 a day late so sometimes his rent was as high as $2030, so I rolled with it), he is now a month behind. He paid me December in January, but no January yet.

After giving me story after story and runaround on the rent, I finally made up my mind to evict. I made him an offer on December 26th, if he gives me $500, he can stay until Feb 6th and I will forgive his $1800 of owed rent (his deposit would take care of that, this was cheapest and fastest way I could think to get him out). He never gave me 500 and a couple more days of stories came so tonight I served with 3 day note to vacate. (He also had 2 dogs, a collie and a large white pitbull, which lease stated no animals) When speaking to him, I even extended another generous offer that if he was gone by the 6th, I would GIVE HIM $500 (probably another mistake, but he is a subcontractor originally from another state that works job to job and could work for cash. A judge can order him to pay me due rent, but he cant garnish his wages because he doesnt work for anyone and he cant stop him from just waiting until last possible second and then just packing up and leaving to go back to his home state. So if I can get him to leave peacefully that would be great because I really cant go after him for past rent or damages since he has no money and no home and could just disappear)

Ive never had to evict before, so what happens next? Ive done some reading on here, so am I correct that after 3 days (they wont be gone) do I do a court hearing where judge orders them out? or what happens? 

HOW DO I GET THEM OUT AS QUICKLY AND CHEAPLY AS POSSIBLE?!

 @Mark Gruetzmacher 

yes it is, Id like to message you to discuss futher

any other opinions welcome

 I do not know a lot about these investments and dont really want to get involved with them. 

Im starting to look at the pros and cons of my initial deal:

Pros of keeping duplex: 

More stable predictable income

Ease of not having to sell and buy

Easier exit, larger buying pool, and more room for appreciation

Pros of buying cabin:

Higher ceiling for income, but also some potential for less

Less headache compared to managing own property

Able to use property for recreation

Get out of updating duplex property

seems like almost a coin flip, wish there was a way I could keep duplex and buy cabin as well but with 2 mortgages I think I am tapped.

 Thank you for the info but I wouldnt be comfortable doing that based solely on the fact that I dont know enough about it.

So basically I would buy mineral rights to land and if they ever find oil/gas on that land I would get the $$ from it? Wouldnt anyone who has land in the bakken area already have checked if there was oil/gas on the land?

 This is a good and valid point. I dont think we would be using it more then 14 days a year. I talked to a gentleman that owns one down the road from the cabin that also is a BP member and he said you can be down there more if you are doing "maintenance"....that seems like a broad category....also this particular property has a garage with a finished living space in it. So theres an opportunity as well if it is rented if I wanted to stay there a night (would have to make deal with property manager that the living space doesnt get rented as well....which I have no idea why it would)

I forgot to subtract insurance and taxes from duplex, so lower that $17k down to about $14500

 32k gross rent

6800 utilities

3500 prop taxes

3000 "cabin exp" (not sure what these are, ive inquired)

500 repairs and maint

1200 "adv" (Also not sure on this, inquired as well.)

So not really much I could do myself being 300 miles away, but thats a double edge sword. Because the cabin would be hands off, management company handles it completely. I manage and repair my duplex.

 I do like the idea of the cabin because its an area that we visit frequently as we enjoy snowboarding. We go there 2x a year right now and spend about $1k a year on lodging that would be eliminated.

Also, the 17k on the duplex is the newer higher rate, and thats about as high as it can go. 

I have 4 properties in Bismarck,ND. With the recent oil boom up here, rents have increased dramatically. Oil prices have dropped, but production and trucking havent slowed down and probably wont for awhile.

I bought a side by side duplex in 2010 for $149k. It generated $1375 a month at the time. In 2014 I signed new leases and now it will earn $1750 a month. I was recently placed the property online for sale more so as a feeler rather then a serious effort. I listed it for $211900. I have good interest in the property and have been dragging my feet on showings and what not, so lets just say I could sell it for $211900. The property has about $7k in needed updates waiting for me in the spring.

So the reason I am dragging my feet, is I am not sure what I would invest the $$ in. It makes no sense to simply sell and rebuy in my own market, because I wouldnt be taking advantage of in the hot market here and I might as well keep the property. I found a cabin in South Dakota in a tourist/ski area. The cabin is 1/4 mile from the base of the ski hill. Cabin costs $240k but has been listed for nearly a year now. So for comparison sake, lets just say I could get it for $212k and just wash on the deal.

The cabin:

Grossed 32k

After all expenses it netted $17k last year.

The duplex:

Will gross $21k this year.

After expenses will net around $17k (I do all repairs and management, so I just deducted $1000 water bill and $3000 for misc repairs that may arrise)

Soooooo theres the dilemma. Nets will be very similar. Advantage to the cabin because I need to update the duplex to the tune of about $7000 in the spring, or could sell as is now. Duplex is more the sure thing, if economy tanks then vacation home may sink.

Any input?