All Forum Posts by: Calvin Thomas

Options - collect full payment for the 3 months up front and lower the deposit to secure against damages only, require insurance. Let them pay the deposit with a credit card. Collect first two months rent up front and deposit on next month. 

None really reduce the amount of money they have to come up with, but if they are broke as a joke do you really want them as your tenants?

Hi all! Just digging in to this forum and learning a lot. 
Have recently started a renovation company with a friend, both of us successful business owners and talented in the trades. Also both enjoy freedom in our schedules. My question is, for a fix and flips, I'm considering financing the whole thing with a HELOC instead of hard money. I have 100% equity in a home valued at about 400k. Secure income from a thriving business as well. My partner is considering the same on his home, however, he still owes about 100k with 300k equity.

Is this a wise strategy? Is there another way I should be considering? Thanks for any and all advice!!

I purchased a fix and flip that got complicated when we found one of the basement walls was bowing in. It ended up being an easy fix, getting steel braces installed for about $6000. Then things went south...

I decided to gut the rest of the basement since it got water damaged from the foundation issue. I noticed quite a bit of mold growing up the walls, but didn't think too much of it. The day after I gutted the basement I got really sick. I was dizzy and off-balance for weeks following. A couple months later finally starting to feel better.

That's when I called in a professional mold remediator. Long story short, his crew blasted through the job in a few hours and the clearance test failed. I asked if there was anything else we could try, he got very angry and demanded I pay him in full. After a few nasty emails and him threatening to sue me if I left a bad review, I paid him in full, $7000 and moved on. Worst contractor experience I've ever had.

I then hired a second remediator. They pointed out all the things the last company did wrong, and gave me a quote for $4000. I had a better feeling about this contractor so I hired them. Just received the clearance testing and still have "slight mold elevation" in the basement, still indicating Stachybotrys and a couple other bad types of mold. Not the clean report I was hoping for.

The numerous remediation attempts and testing have wiped out my profit on this flip. Now I'm just trying to get out. Anyone with experience that can recommend a path forward?

Ok, to those who think % base assures a PMc will "make sure property is leased" you are wrong, and I will explain why and the reality of what it does. 

A flat-fee PM has MORE incentive to get a property leased than a % PMc. Yes. Because the simple math. What is $109mnth? It's diddly-squat! And in contrast, COMPLETING, keyword completing, a NEW Tenant Placement brings about 1 full month's rent, for the tenant placement fee. 

So, which is the most incentive? Getting $109 for doing nothing and watching paint dry. OR 1 months rent for a Tenant Placement fee? Say $1,750? 

What REALLY happens when a PM get paid % of rents, for incentive, is the PM is more incentivized to keep BAD tenants in place who are paying. Especially those who have the nerf'd TP fee. 

Property damage, excessive wear and tear, but paying, that PM has an incentive to look the other way, don't they. 

A flat-rate PM fee incentives keeping things as SIMPLE and EFFICENT as possible. That is done via placing the highest quality tenant possible, keeping issues to absolute minimum, keeping maintenance and service calls to minimum, because to make it work properties have to operate on cruise-control. That's only achieved with QUALITY. 

So the whole idea that $109mnth is some "big incentive" to do nothing is just FAKE-NEWS. It's not. 

But it is a heck of a lot of incentive to do whats BEST in interest of a Landlord, which is getting high quality tenant with low occurrence of issues that operates on cruise control of consistency and quality care of property, for a duration. 

% based, it's just about getting bodies in and keeping them in, and that's done by taking the first most desperate trash off the street who says they'll pay. 

Flat rate vet's the snot out of people to assure QUALITY. Because it has to, it's operating on a razor slim margin and can't afford the issues. 

Just like the Landlord. 

Lol, yeah what do I know I only manage 1,500 odd SFR's.

I’m a first-time landlord (just signed my first fully-occupied LTR in Jan 2025) and have already run into my first potential tenant issue. I have two long-term tenants in the duplex—one for 5 years and the other for 7. I met both of them and provided a letter with my contact info, my property manager’s contact for repairs, and instructions to sign up for Avail to pay rent (the previous landlord used Zelle).

One tenant was cooperative and signed up right away, but the other sent me this text:

I understand you're the new owner and want to use Avail for rent payments. However, it seems that when I accept the invitation, I’ll be authorizing you to review my credit history amongst other things, and I’m not sure I want that yet, as we’re still unsure about renewing the lease. We need to know if repairs will be made and what the rent will be for next year? In the meantime, I will send rent via Zelle.

How should I respond? I want to avoid mistakes as a new landlord so hoping to learn from all of you! This is a good tenant of 5+ years, and I don’t want to cause unnecessary friction (I’m just trying to set up automatic systems for myself). However, I did take issue with the tone of the message, especially the part where they told me how they’d be paying rent.

For context, there are no outstanding maintenance or repair issues, so I’m unsure what the tenant is referring to.

Quote from @Calvin Thomas:

Quote from @Rene Hosman:

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Quote from @Spencer Ware:

Looking to start expanding portfolio.  Would like to be more hands off as well. Seeking connections, advice, deals. Thanks 

 Have you connected with Devon Kennard at all? He just published a book on this with BiggerPockets and does a LOT in the space of trying to educate athletes on how to invest. Have met him personally a couple times and he is just a great guy all around. 

His book: https://store.biggerpockets.com/products/real-estate-side-hu...

His IG: https://www.instagram.com/devonkennard/

Ah yes..  Who else would have the knowledge to lead others than a 33 year old former football player; who wrote a book that is being hocked by Bigger Pockets.

Maybe you can get Nails (Lenny Dykstra) to write a book that BP can sponsor?  After all, he also was in real estate AND a successful baseball player.  Pretty sure he stole from people in a ponzi-scheme or something.

You guys are classic.

 If you don’t believe in BiggerPockets message or mission then what are you doing here on the forums exactly?? 

 Pointing out the BS that people try to peddle.  Your "books" are equivalent to the image below.

 Really? I've read at least half of the books published and I don't think that's true at all. I'm curious which of the books you've read and why you didn't like them?

 Good for you.  Please, share some tips and cite the pages and books on what was so enlightening that one cannot find for free in the forums here or on Youtube. 

 "share some tips" is a very vague and unanswerable question. If you think that the forums and the books have the same information and the same quality, do you read books at all? Or do you get all of the information in your life from Reddit? Or do you not read anything on Reddit because Youtube has all of that same information? Different mediums have different purposes, that's the premise of media

 C'mon bro. The dude asking for advice is a 33 year old retired NFL player and she recommended he check out a $5 or $10 book written by another 33 year old retired NFL player. Seems like a pretty fair recommendation to me.