All Forum Posts by: William C.

I grew up there, and still pass through from time to time.  I would be happy to provide what ever help I can.

Cheers

Bill

I'm in Casper.  Would like to see a meetup in the area

Welcome Basheer!  

Are you thinking about house hacking?

Hi Michael,

This isn't advice, just sharing part of my journey...

I've inherited 7 tenants so far, and have kept all of them on their existing month-to-month leases that they had with their previous landlord.  Out of the 7, only one has gone bad (so far).  I knew before purchase that the one tenant was behind on rent and had no job.  Verbally gave tenant my expectations, then later posted pay-or-quit, and finally discussed if they wanted to leave quietly or be evicted.  They left quietly for the most part, and I filled the vacancy with someone of my own choosing.

The other 6 are all working out nicely to this point.  I've chosen to leave them on their existing month to month leases, which I do have a copy of, since I don't know them and didn't screen them.  I figure if it doesn't work out, a month-to-month lease is so easy to NOT renew.  30 day notice pretty much does it in most cases.  Another option I have in reserve is to give them a 30 day notice that I'm going to ask them to sign my lease, either a month-to-month or a yearly depending on what my goal is for the particular tenant.  If I feel I need to put them on my lease to get them to start/stop doing something that their existing lease does/doesn't cover, then I would probably stay on a month-to-month with them to see how the new rules work out.  

Good luck!
Bill

Howdy Shane

Good to see another Wyo investor here!

Good questions.  I'll follow along to see the answers.  I'm curious about what the provider of the internet could be held accountable for.  (Say a tenant was doing something illegal over the internet you provide.)  That being said, I've never heard of a coffee shop owner getting in trouble for something a customer did on their wifi...

thanks @Jerry W.  I sure will! 

October 2017 

I found and bought a foreclosed house on 20 acres. I've learned to always ask "why is this foreclosed? Why couldn't the previous owners sell it?" If an owner gets in a financial bind and turns it over to the bank, that’s one thing. If an owner has to move to a new town for work, and can’t sell the house due to a major flaw, that’s something else. Foreclosures in the first category seem to move pretty fast. The houses with flaws that make most potential buyers turn around and walk out seem to stay on the market for months, and go through one price cut after another. In this case, the cement floor in the basement wasn't done right, and had cracked, buckled, shifted and heaved. Potential buyers, myself included, will see the complete lack of landscaping, the neglected interior and be optimistic that it’s a good fixer-upper. But as soon as they go into the basement they would turn around and leave. Too big of a project, too many risks. I first saw the house in the summer. I went back in the fall and made a low offer. The structural engineer reassured that the foundation was fine, just the floor had failed due to being improperly done and the soil under it shifting, likely due, at least in part, to improper drainage around the house. The offer was low enough to justify spending $20,000 on replacing the concrete basement floor and doing the dirt work to establish positive drainage around the entire building. I believe that by doing the $20k work, replace flooring and painting, I could turn around and sell the property for a $20k profit... 

Meanwhile, I was looking for the live-in flip. I found a foreclosed house on 5 acres about 10 minutes from town. A little bit of a strange setup but had a great sun room and some other nice features. I made an offer and entered the inspection period. I was at work when my realtor and the home inspector met at the house for the inspection. She sounded a little upset when she called and said she was cornered by a rattlesnake. The home inspector, who is handier with a hammer than one would think, saved the day. When I got home we went back out to the property for another inspection and the wind was howling. Fairly common for the area, but it made me think about drifting snow in the wintertime. The house is accessed by a 2-track road running north to south, about a half mile long, that tees off of the “main” dirt road that serves a few other houses. I caught a neighbor driving home and stopped him to ask about the drifting. The neighbor said that the drifting gets bad enough that my Yukon wouldn’t make it, and that we’d need a tractor or something to keep the road clear with. Hmm… I spent a few days wondering whether I should back out due to wind and rattlesnakes before the very expensive well test came back with results I couldn’t tolerate. Backed out of another one.

At some point I'm going to add up how much I spent on inspections on houses I didn't buy in 2017, but I'm not sure I want to know, haha. Cheap education though, all things considered... and as my sister and realtor friend point out, better to spend a thousand on a property and not buy it than to skip the inspections and end up owning a property full of horrible and expensive surprises.

July 2017

The next property I made an offer I successfully purchased in July 2017. It's a duplex, 2bd/1ba on one side and 1bd/1ba on the other.  Both had tenants that wanted to stay, and the property needed very little work done at the moment. Still plenty of room to add value, but good enough to keep rented in the meantime. I put 25% down, and on paper the cash flow is about $500/mo after taking about $300/mo out for capex/repairs/vacancy/management (however I self-manage for now so that money goes towards repairs). Since buying the property I've had to replace both water heaters (at $900 each) and repair a console heater (another $800) and replace a fridge that somehow got misplaced ($400). One of the tenants that wanted to stay wouldn't pay rent so we had trouble seeing eye to eye. The new tenants are doing great. Even with the repairs and vacancy, I'm "only" down about $2,500 for the year on this property. Not perfect but still works with my 5 year plan above… I just had to make a few car payments myself instead of the tenants doing it for me ;-)

This deal was off-market, found for me by my realtor who knew an investor that was looking to sell.  It appraised for $8,000 more than I paid for it, had a new roof put on before closing that I only paid the deductible for and the previous owners insurance covered the rest.