All Forum Posts by: Brian Garlington

Jake, were you able to find what you were looking for as it relates to repositioning?

Very interesting subject. I just got done reading MultiFamily Millions by Dave Lindahl. Although I will not be signing up for their guru course this seems like a very interesting strategy. I know people like @Michael Swan 

@Michael Swan swear by the book and the strategies in it.

A colleague of mine bought the 3 day boot camp that Tyler Deveraux teaches. It's going to be this weekend in Sacramento. Apparently he used to be one of the teachers of Dave's program. She invited me to go with her and I said, "Sure, but I'm not going to buy anything." She said, "Well I already paid $995.00 for the bootcamp so you can go as my guest. 

Now here's the kicker. RE Mentor also has a 3 day bootcamp, this weekend coming up,....for $1,495.00.  I wonder if they are "competing" against each other :-)

Go to Meetup.com and do a search under real estate investing. There are usually a couple advertised there.

Willie,

Wrong. Your first step is to go to the Oakland Housing Authority Website and see what the requirements are as far as the shape the property needs to be in. You will also get an idea as to how much they will pay you.

Then advertise on GoSection8 for free.

Some of the things I do to mitigate a lot of the nonsense.

No smoking AT ALL. I don't care if you have a "green" card. You are not smoking anything in my rental.

No evictions or felonies in the last 7 years. Period.

Have the voucher match the property. You have a 3 bedroom place for rent and the tenant says they have a FOUR bedroom voucher is a recipe for disaster. Ask kow hamny people will live at the unit with them. If you have a 3 bedroom rental and she says "Me and my two sons",....you should be fine., but always ask.

No dangerous breed animals or pets, period.

Do they have any animals or pets? If the answer is no then I actually prefer that to someone who does have them. If they say they have a "dog" your antennas need to go up. Usually someone will say they have a yorkie or a chihuaha or labrador. If they say a "dog" ask what kind. Pit Bulls, Staffordshires, Bulldogs, Bullys, Dobermans, Rottweilers or any dangerous breed is a no-no. If they say they don't know what kind of dog it is because it is a "rescue", then ask for a picture of the dog.  If all is well, make sure to tell them to bring the dog with them when they come see the property. If they show up without the dog (Rocky the dog doesn't like strangers......or whatever excuse) then that is part of the screening process and if you end up finding a "better qualified" tenant then that is their loss.

I actually don't care what their credit score is or income is because I know the housing authority is covering 70-100% of their rent. I also don't care about the employment history either because if they get lose their job or get their hours cut they simply send an email to me and the Housing Authority and the housing authority starts covering 100% of their rent until they get another job. 

I also require them to pay one fill month's deposit before they move in. No exceptions.

If your rental is in Oakland or anywhere in Alameda County then check out a program called Abode Services. They are like Section 8 on Steroids in a good way.

Paul..............yes I have been purchasing in Cleveland for years. Started having my PM rent out to Section 8 tenants out there as well. Too much nonsense from cash tenants and this was BEFORE the pandemic.

A (now previous) property management company (who shall remain nameless) started getting creative in figuring out ways to NOT rent out to Section 8 tenants, even when I made it 100% clear that it what I wanted. I was shocked at some of the nonsense and excuses they were using to (supposedly) legally not rent to Section 8. The last straw as when a Section 8 Applicant who passed their background check came to the property management office with their full deposit and RFTA paperwork after seeing the property and the PM told them that someone else had already come in with their deposti before them and had signed the lease. Turns out they were "mistaken" and they apologized profusely.

I have since fired them from managing that duplex. 

Willie, I can't emphasize enough what Paul said. I have Section 8 tenants in deep east Oakland right around the area he is talking about and those Section 8 tenants are a gold mine when they are properly screened. If you are wondering who to take and how to screen them I can lay out to you what's worked great for me in that area, as well as Contra Cost County and in Cleveland my man. And do not sell your Oakland property. Maybe do a cash out refi and spend the money on more assets.

Frank, those are not B Class Areas my man. D/D-     I will also respectfully disagree with you on your assessment of Section 8 tenants out there. The tenant issues I have had out in Cleveland 90% of the time are with the cash tenants that we had to evict because they weren't paying (I didn't say they lost their jobs, none of them did, they simply decided they didn't need to pay, especially during the pandemic) or phantom maintenance requests where there was no issue (they seem to pop up right around the time rent is due).  

I would walk away from the deal, now.

No GC will pick up the phone out there if you don't own the property yet. Do you know how many people say what they "plan to do" here on BP that never even bother getting pre-approved, let alone buying a place? Own the property first and then the GC's will take you more seriously.