All Forum Posts by: Cassi Justiz

Hey @Megan Ransome, 

If you haven't read Scott Trench's book Set for Life, it's a good one. I definitely think that if you are trying to do the no/low money down path, you should look into house hacking. You can take advantage of some of the best loans and opportunities as an owner occupant. Look into HUD foreclosures and your local down payment assistance programs and grants. If you can utilize some of these strategies to house hack a small multifamily, that would be awesome! Even you just buy a cheap SFH that you can turn into a rental, that's a great place to start too.

Good luck!

Hey @James Fowler, 

I don't have any insight into Illinois but I can share what I do for deposits. When I receive a deposit, we have tenants sign a document stating that the deposit purchases an "intent to rent" for that tenant and secures the property for them. If they fail to produce full rent amount and sign a lease by set date, then fee is non refundable. If they do sign a lease and produce all money to move in, the money collected will be applied to the security deposit. I'm happy to share the wording that I use if you want to see the exact form. 

Hey @Noah Barba, 

If you have an agent that you are working with, they can give you specifics. You can also call a title company in your area and they can give you a general range. Your closing costs can vary a bit by area, so the best thing to do will be to get quotes based on the area you plan to buy in.

Generally your "prepaids" are things like insurance and upcoming taxes. If you are getting a loan, they generally require for you to fund certain amount of this up front. If you are buying in cash, you have a little more flexibility.  

You'll also want to consider lender fees, appraisal cost, any fees or charges from the title company, attorney, or real estate agent as well as the cost of any inspections or home warranty products you choose to purchase. Your appraisal fee and inspections regularly have to be paid at the time of service, so that's something you'll want to keep in mind. 

You'll also want to budget for reserves after you close the loan. Not only is it good practice to keep money in reserves, most lenders will want to see that as well  So good practice is to plan that even after down payment + closing costs, you'll to have at least six months worth of mortgage payments in your bank account to cover anything that pops up. 

Hopefully that helps! 

Hi Brittany, 

@Jesse Lynch had some great advice. I would say that even if she's on a longer lease, it would probably worth getting him on a lease now while you can. Your tenant may not be able to afford the additional rent increase. But I would at least try for it since you are now going to have to do smoke clean up as part of your make-ready. I would also say that you want to at least run a background check on him to make sure you know what kind of person you are encountering when you go into that unit.
Once all of the eviction ban stuff blows over you can look into not renewing or getting them out based on breach of contract (smoking, etc). 

I would still buy cashflowing properties right now as long as the current numbers make sense. I wouldn't get into leveraged "appreciation" deals right now though. 

I was able to lease out two properties this past week (with leases starting this weekend) to excellent tenants with stable jobs (food distribution worker/ truck driver, healthcare worker/industrial contractor). There are still people that need to move, but the tenant pool is smaller right now. You may need to do slightly lower rent, lower app fees, etc to get it leased out quickly. But there are still enough essential employees out there working that you should be able to find someone as long as you have a quality "product" and competitive price.

Hey @Derrick C., 

So it's really going to fall into the wording of your lease. For most situations in Oklahoma, you'll want to issue at least a 5 day notice in writing to "remedy the situation." If your lease specifies anything different, then you'll need to follow that.
My lease agreement specifies that upon receiving written notice to remove the pet, the tenant has 10 days to permanently remove the pet from the premises. "Resident’s failure to permanently remove the pet as provided above or failure to comply with all other terms of this Pet Addendum shall constitute a default permitting termination of the Rental Agreement."

Verifying this could be driving by, asking the neighbors, etc.

My understanding *I'm not an attorney though* is that you can still issue notices and terminate rental agreements, but should the tenant decide not to leave you won't be able to do any sort of escalation until the courts open back up. 

@Douglas Stanley, 

The OKC metro is a great area to invest in. There are a lot of active local investors on the forums, so feel free to post questions or reach out if you have anything specific that you need help with! 

I'm always happy to connect!

You should also check out the local meetups. Most are still on but they've primarily transitioned to zoom meetings. This website has the links to a lot of the different local meetups. 
https://www.renascentmastermind.com/new-events

Hospitals always need nurses. You also have a ton of ancillary staff that are associated with hospitals as well. Unless you have a teaching hospital with a residency program or a nursing internship program, there usually isn't a huge influx of staff at one specific time of the year. 

I have a nicer rental close to an air force base that is also assigned to fantastic schools. I knew I wanted to rent to someone that was associated with the air force base that also cared about schools.  So the first thing that I put in ALL of my marketing was the distance to both the schools and the air force base. "This fully remodeled 3 bedroom town home is less than 10 minutes from the Tinker AFB main gates and is assigned to award winning ___ schools." I also included a picture of the AFB and the schools in my listing pics with descriptions of how close they were.

If I were you, I would start your add with something similar. "This beautiful x bedroom, home is located in the established x neighborhood. Located a short 10 minute walk from ___ hospital, this would be an ideal home for healthcare workers looking to reduce their commute time. "

Also, in my area, FB marketplace and Zillow (and associated sites) are my best source of leads. I really get anything but spam from craigslist. I would dig through fb for any of your local buy/sale/rent, garage sale groups, etc. Some hospitals will have employee fb groups too, so you may try searching there as well. 

Hey @Douglas Stanley, 

Welcome to BP! What part of Oklahoma are you interested in? 

This is exactly how my pet fee works.
The pet fee is an extra fee that is non refundable to cover the additional risk + "normal wear and tear" from having a pet in the home. Damages from said pet (or human) come out of the security deposit. 

If carpets needed to be replaced due to wear/tear after a tenant with a pet lived there for a few years, I wouldn't charge that to the deposit. But if a dog ate the carpets then I would charge the security deposit.