All Forum Posts by: Karen Bickford

Chan as you are finding out MA is a very tough state to landlord in. 

Get very familiar with the laws which are readily aviallable on line.  What you need is the housing violations in MA .

You need screens on Wimdows storm doors for exterior doors.  No leaky plumbing etc. It is an exhaustive list but there to prevent landlords in the state from being slum lords. I am not implying you're a slum lord😊

I would say updating plumbing and electrical. Plumbers charge more than doctors lol. Luckily I am married to one. 

Find a candidate that meets the 3 times monthly income or 57,000 per year for the rent you are asking for. 

10k in savings for two people to live off of is nothing.  

I would let him. He is likely right that lack of a liquor license is affecting his business. If the food is good he is committed and from the area I think it makes sense. 

 A tiny little pizza joint in my bedroom community got a full liquor license and the place is a mob scene so the liquor license definitely helped.

Liquor licenses to take time to get there is a process you have to go through so not sure what that timeline would look like. 

 If the 10 businesses that have been in the space before have failed and he doesn't he will likely fail as well and be number 11. OTH  if his restaurant takes off he will be there in definitely and you will always be able to get a good rent. Unless of course he does so well he needs to leave to expand again. 

Same experience. 78 days to close with a local bank that I have 5 mortgages with. It was for a 225k cash out refi. Will be looking elsewhere for my next one. So much for local bank. 

Gorgeous !

@Rich Hupper  you can go to masslandrecords.com and any public liens will be listed. 

Gina the pics from the "sold " listing are much nicer and there are more of them. Can you see if you can use the original pics from the Mls listing?

Other than that it looks very nice with a reasonable rent. 

You could put a lock on it. Probably would be inconvenient for the tenants. Each would have to have a key and hopefully they wouldn't low it  to their friends.  

You could also try security camera to see who is dumping. Lastly go through the trash and find info on someone that isn't on the rent roll.  Old mail bills etc. 

I would do multi family first. You can live in it while your tenants pay your mortgage. Save some money on living expense and put toward your next property.