All Forum Posts by: Chris B.

Its possibly in poor taste , but sure its legal.  Take this example: Maybe you said something untrue about the tenant.  Now can they come after you for libel.  Be careful what you post online as there are plenty of platforms where seemingly private posts became public.

I'm no attorney, but I'd speak directly with the seller or seller's agent and explain the situation.  Sounds like its pretty simple and doesn't violate the as-is agreement.  Maybe the seller has some kind of econo-lawyer and the attorney is not obliged to put in any more time.  At minimum, it will inform the seller of the current holdup of the deal and allow them to take action.

Debt to credit available ratio.  Get it down.  We pay our cards off pretty much every month and any time I get a new points credit card for all of the free points, my credit also jumps 20 or so points at the same time.

Real estate investors have vastly different resources and goals.  I got a very late start on retirement savings so my 401k / IRAs won't get me where I want to be alone and I have never had what I consider high income .  I have bought primary houses and moved several times over the years and never sold any of them.  They are rentals now and I am finally making some money off of them through rent after years of breaking even, but I'm OK with that.  If I sold all of my rental homes right now, the equity I gained on them would be substantial and that's what I was betting on.  So my strategy didn't maximize my potential for sure, and your mentors probably have much more effective strategies, but money definitely can be made having 1, 2, or 3 SFRs on the side if your thinking long term.   The headaches mentioned of managing them can be valid however I have adapted my processes to deal with these and minimize them so they no longer bother me.  You need to decide what strategy you want, but flat out saying its a bad idea is wrong.  BTW, I actively manage all aspects of my rentals myself and only hire assistance when I can't do it myself.  I spent the past several weekends repainting and improving the interior of a rental with my family.  This saved thousands in labor and allowed me to raise the monthly rent almost $400.  You should be willing to put in the sweat and hours as needed with this approach.

I have a home in the SE valley. Its 20 years old. A new SFH development went in next door to me starting 4 years ago and over these past 4 years my property value went up 33%. I see it as a blessing.

Legally, it would be hard to say no to your situation specifically because of the dogs and how you claim them, but as mentioned you won't find any landlords that are happy with what you are bringing to the table.  You'd probably have better luck if you agreed up front to pay pet rent for them as normal pets to help offset the rather high damage and liability risk your tenancy will be bringing to a landlord.

 I'll be checking out your product then.  thanks!

In my 12 years of renting, I've found that I don't care how I get paid but if and when I get paid.   I have one tenant that likes to go into a bank every month and directly deposit the cash into my account and another that has an automatic billpay check issued 10 days before the end of every month and that one shows up in my mail.  

So it is possible to treat this more like a business and still be flexible on payment options.

I have also considered online billpay options as the ease of use is attractive.  But, of all the services I checked out, none had the flexibility in late fees I need.  For me, rent is due on the 1st of the month.  I provide X number of days for grace period.  Then on day X+1 its a $30 charge plus $10 for each additional day after that.

I think pretty much all systems where there is a service that connects those offering something to those who want something have weaknesses (because its in the best interest of the service) and thus scammers who will leverage the weaknesses. This could be AirBnB, eBay, PayPal, OfferUp or any of the countless similar services. Generally the group tends to overwhelmingly side with the "customer" side of the equation at the expense of the offering party. This model works well for the service's profits. They always need a lot more buyers then sellers to expand their business. eBay for example always by default sides with a buyer no matter how ridiculous the story is. If a seller happens to have documented everything well, they might be able to defend them self, but possibly not even then. I've found that when using these services as the side offering something, I loose about 5% of gross profits to scams on average. This isn't even counting for all of the fees the services charge also. I guess these aren't really all scams, but a lot of buyer's remorse or a changed mind and trying to wiggle out of a commitment.