All Forum Posts by: Bonnie Rakes

You specify 5 consecutive nights. Do you have anything specific in place to keep someone from staying five nights, leaving for one night, and then coming back for another five?

Jordan,

      I would turn him down. I have been in the exact situation and let them in. In my situation, the abusive boyfriend was constantly arguing with the girlfriend and it caused so much of a disturbance that I had other tenants around them threatening to leave. Once the female tenant came to her senses, she had the nerve to come and ask me to kick him out because he would not leave. At that point he was on the lease and it went to the eviction process and I ended up evicting both of them because they both refused to leave and I was not going to let one bad tenant scare off 3 others. Hope this helps.

Tim

Hi all,

I recently started a mailing campaign and it bombed pretty hard. I know that the first campaign is not going to be the most fruitful.

I went with a mailing list to out-of-state buyers who have little to no debt. Didn't even get a single call. What do you believe went wrong and how can I improve future campaigns 

First time landlord here. We just started advertising our rental 3 weeks ago. $1675/month for a 3 bedroom in Garfield NJ. We've gotten a lot of interest, 30 different groups of visitors, of those 8 applicants...

We wanted to make a decision today, we are leaning towards one applicant. So when another applicant called to see if there was any updates on his application status, I told him we were going to go with someone else. He called back to say that he was willing to pay an extra $150/month... not sure what to do at this point. He is a single Divorced Man, good job at a big company, away on business a lot. He gave us his W2, and it shows he makes $150,000/year. His Credit is shot however, he says due to his recent divorce, his Ex-wife took his house and everything. He has four kids and has them for two weekends a month, so he wanted a 3 bedroom so he could have his kids have some space when they are over. *He has yet to submit his credit report or background check, both of which we are requiring.

Our other applicant we are considering is a nice family with three daughters, they are very focused on their education. The parents run their own bodyshop, so its hard to verify income, they claimed they made $50k on their 2014 Tax Return, which would meet our requirements. Their credit however is on the low end. We wanted an average of 640 or above, and the Wife meets it but the Husband does not, he says its because of identity theft.

Thoughts, what would you choose?

Here is a link to the ad if interested https://home.cozy.co/apply/#/47395

So 2015 was my first full year in the real estate business.  Someone published an article a week or two ago about making sure we get our 1099s together out to our contractors and such.  I honestly didn't know I had to do that, so I called my CPA and asked about it.

I told him that I had a roofer guy do 2 roofs for me (I paid him over 10k) and my main contractor which I paid 27k+ last year.

My CPA suggested I 1099 both of those guys, and to try to get their SSN but if not, still 1099 them to protect the business.

I called my contractor and he was ok with it, although he acted a little surprised I was asking.  He even gave me his SSN.  

The roofer,  I didn't bother to even ask.  He's a roughneck type and I knew he would not be happy.  So I just got the phone call.  I saw his name pop up, and I 'gulped' lol.

I'm not sure he was even aware of what the 1099 was, but he was livid. I  couldn't even get a sentence in without getting cut off repeatedly about how I'm acting like he's done 15 roofs for me and "I've done several others for everybody else and nobody's ever 1099'd me".

When i asked if I could explain what the paper was and why I had to issue it he just cut me off and said he didn't care to hear it.  At the end he told me to lose his number and never call him again.

Did I do anything wrong?  Should I not have sent him one?  I was just trying to protect the business and do the right thing.  I lost a good, cheap roofer over it, too.

I had a gentlemen contact me yesterday about coaching/mentoring me in order to achieve financial freedom. He contacted me through a young investor I met through Instagram. The young investor found this mentor after dropping out of college with no sense of direction. He also has no family members who invest or any who are business owners and claims this mentor will teach anything you want to know about becoming financially free. I'm starting to feel like the young investor is the perfect recruit for these mentors. My parents and my girlfriends father are business owners and have invested in properties. I was interested in joining this mentor but after thinking about it I feel like I don't need to pay someone to motivate me or teach me about investing when I have some family members who are already doing it. Can someone chime in and tell me if mentors are worth the investment or is my thinking more logical with this situation that mentors are better for new investors that have nobody to give them a sense of direction.

 Where should I start?

First, he may not be making "anything" now, but he has zero chance of losing anything.  However, if he decides to fund an inexperienced real estate flipper's very first flip, he stands to lose tens of thousands of dollars.  The worst case scenario isn't that he gets back his investment money in six months with no profit.  The worst case scenario is you purchase a house for too high a price, end up hiring the wrong contractors, they rip you off by overcharging, insisting upon advances and by doing shoddy work -- and you can't refi in even nine months because the house is still a construction zone -- and you ask him for yet more money so you can finish and try to get him back something.  I'm not saying that will happen.  I'm saying it could happen.

Don't be PO'd.  If you display any sort of attitude to him, he may take that as a sign you're not mature enough to undertake a venture of this sort and magnitude.  At least, not with his money.

If you can't get him to agree to terms that make you happy, search for another source of funding.  His money isn't the only money in the world.

Good luck.