All Forum Posts by: Brian Mathews

Sell your house to your dad.   Then buy the duplex, then buy it back from your dad in a few months.  

Maybe it's time for granny to move in with the cousin a little sooner than expected and give the house back

Install a cheap furnace to get her by.   Keep the old one in the garage and pay to have it re-installed before she leaves  

Push the car in the street and call the police about it.    Aside from that, you can call the bank and make an offer on it, they can either accept or decline based on what it is worth.   All they'll do is take possession of it and auction it off and go after whoever financed the loan for the difference.   Since he's dead, they can go after his estate.   Maybe you can save them the hassle of the inevitable.   As far as trying to charge the bank for storage fees in an attempt to strong arm them into giving you the car.    Good luck on that.   You'll more than likely get charged for grand theft auto than them paying storage.   

This is a lesson learned why not to go crazy leveraging properties and using other peoples money.  It doesn't take into account risk of the market tanking or a bad tenant.     What's worse is that this isn't a bankruptable debt either.   The IRS always gets their money.   By the time they tack on penalties and interest, its a painful lesson to learn.   Not trying to pick on you, I feel for you.   You've got some tough times ahead.  

You're writing an email like this and you're expecting them to be grateful and tell you how much they love living there?   I don't think so.   If the relationship with your tenant has progressed to writing an email like that, then I think you might be in a for a battle and possibly some damage to the property on their inevitable exit from your property.   That is a drama filled email and if it does go to court, as somebody mentioned, the judge could have fun with it.   Just state where in your lease it addresses their issues and leave it at that.   If your lease states that they must pay for the clogged drain, then they pay for it and that is that.   Don't get your panties wadded up because they didn't tell you thank you for fixing the drain or putting them up in a hotel.   I at least wouldn't put that in what could become a legal document to a judge

What is the matter with your appearance?   Unless the picture you posted is not representative of the way you look.    You look like most people I see on a daily basis.   Do you dress funny in your native garb or do you dress "American"?    Do you have a thick or heavy accent that makes it hard to understand you?   Do you smell funny or cuss a lot?   From looking at you, you look perfectly normal to me.  So it must be something aside from your appearance turning people off.  

The big difference is risk.   If you have 10 properties with loans, over the course of a year, you get a turd tenant who doesn't pay rent and you have to evict and you lose 3 months rent.   2 go vacant and take a month to turn over with average make ready costs and another one needs a new hvac system.   Can you afford all that and make the mortgage payments?   If you have 10 free and clear.  You don't have to sweat how to pay for all that stuff and pay mortgages.   

No laws in Texas requiring what you're asking.   Basically you owe what you both signed off on or whatever your contract says.   If there were signed change orders by you or your authorized agent (realtor) then you are on the hook for that amount.   

 Trust me.   I shop the hell out of my insurance every year.   Its typically about $500- $1000 a year higher than where I'm at right now.   It only goes up every year as well.  As a plus, the guy I use is great at customer service, even if he was a little bit higher, I'd stay with him for the lack of hassle factor alone.   I can email him a question or needing proof of insurance sent to somebody and he's on it in 10 minutes .   Something I've learned in my life is you get what you pay for.   I'm not saying that the most expensive is better, but cheap isn't necessarily better either if you have a lot of hassle or it's not done correctly and you pay more to get it fixed.   I always tell people when they buy anything hvac is to ask friends and family for recommendations or who they've used.   If they've had a good experience, chances are you will as well.   If it cost you an extra $300 and you don't have to hear from your tenant at 3am because the heater isn't working, it's worth it to me.