All Forum Posts by: Chris Bingham

 College kids come in all sorts of types from the top ramen eating shoe string budget to the kids of wealthy parents who send their kids to college with a credit card that they pay. That being said, you can probably find a renter for your place no matter what if it is close enough to college. The nicer the place, the more people will come look at it, want to live there, and be willing to pay more. As far as marketing goes, I have found that with a commuter school you can post it on craigslist and be just fine. If the college is one where more kids are living on/near campus then you might look for a housing board at the college. Most colleges will have a housing board in one of the main buildings on campus. We had it at the student center, other universities called it the union building, your college might call it something else.  Regardless, tons of kids pass by it every day and tons stop to check it out. If there is a student newspaper, this is also a good place to advertise. Facebook is a great place if you target your audience, but it costs a little more than a free post on the housing board. Don't forget the power of putting a FOR RENT sign in the yard. If you have a lot of college students passing by there every day, you will get calls. Oh, and you could give a referral bonus..say $20 or $50 off one months rent if they refer a friend who signs a contract and moves in. College kids want to be near their friends. You could also send out an email to all your past tenants or those that stopped by and you were impressed with, but they didn't rent it at the time. Go knock on the doors of the rental you are interested in or a similar one and talk to the kids....ask them where they found the place to live. But don't stop there. Ask them what they like about the place. What made them want to move in. What kind of price range they are looking for, etc. Then follow it up by telling them about the place you are buying, tell them what is good about it, then ask them if they would like to hear more about it when it becomes available to rent. Get their info and start building a list of potential tenants you can shoot an email to or mass text msg. If there is a new student orientation that is done on campus before school starts, and you still have vacancies, find out how you can get a flyer to all the students coming on campus for the open house. These are just a few ideas. I'll bet there are a ton more. Keep us posted. I look forward to hearing how it goes for you.

 Welcome to BP Justin! That does sound like a great loan program. I refi'd one of my places through MACU a few years ago. They were pretty good to work with. I'll have to keep this loan program in mind. Recently I found the Jordan CU has portfolio lending options. 

 Thank you Cheryl! I really appreciate the help! I sent you a message. 

 Thank you! I'll contact Jerry.

I'm looking for an attorney in Uinta County Wyoming. Maybe someone in Evanston, WY. 

Who have you used? Why do you like them? If they are familiar with Wyoming lien laws that would be great!

Hey Jack, welcome to BP! Whats your W-2 background in? Sometimes I hear of someone with a background that can parlay into the real estate investing world i.e. marketing background for a wholesaler. What area of real estate investing are you interested in?

Hi Ammon, welcome to BP. If you have a lot of time on your hands and not a ton of responsibility yet....I would do everything to find deals, lock something up in contract and go to all the investor meetings and discuss the deals with other investors...you will QUICKLY learn a ton...I believe that this will help you learn a lot faster than reading more books. It will be a steep learning curve, but if you are really into real estate investing you will love it! Thats what I wish I would have done when I had all the time in the world. 

Hey Jon,

While I think it definitely needs improvement and it makes me want to keep looking at other options, Cozy does provide a unique number via email for each transaction. My credit union does not list it on the transaction. After way too long on the phone (30 mins to an hour) a supervisor was able to locate the unique number that Cozy uses for the transaction. It was a major pain point to try and locate. However, it is out there and possible to find. 

In addition, to Cozy's credit, when one payment was returned NSF they did shoot me an email to let me know. However, the flip side of that coin is that due to the LONG lag time between payment initiation and receipt (it take 1 week to receive payment) and then subsequent notification of NSF and another payment being submitted with a late fee....the month was half way over before I received payment. I can empathize with a tenant who "thought" the payment was made, even checking with me to be sure it was going through, only to find out that it didn't and then getting stuck with a late fee. This doesn't make for good landlord tenant relations when I can't tell them that the payment was good until several days later. 

Additionally this makes me concerned for a potential eviction scenario where the tenant doesn't intend to pay, but it gets strung out for a long time. I believe that I may change the contract to be that any payment after a NSF Cozy payment must be made via cashiers check (similar to what I had in place prior to utilizing Cozy). 

To wrap it up, I have a love hate relationship with Cozy. Its mostly love, but they still have some bugs they need to work out. The website could use some improvement, but it is functional. The initial setup for the tenant continues to be a pain point, but I have worked through it. And the difficulty in reconciling payments due to missing a unique tracking number in my transaction history is an issue. However, it has definitely cut down on my time spent collecting rent. It makes it so I don't have to coordinate schedules to collect rent..or worry that the check they deliver to my home mailbox will go missing for one reason or another. I like that convenience, a lot. And as I've ramped up my rental business it has been essential to utilize a rent collection company like this. I did a lot of research on the different options. I was tempted to try out Intuit at .50 per transaction, but Cozy has come through for me just fine up until now. I look forward to seeing their continued improvements. They definitely seem to be on the ball with trying to make the experience better. I just need to stay up to date on what changes they are making so I am aware of all the tools they have available. Best of luck finding a payment solution that works for you!

Don't rent to anyone who is unwilling to comply with the processes you have set in place for the application process! You established these "standards" to provide consistency and make a wise decision about who to rent to. Variation from that prevents you from properly utilizing the standards you have in place. This isn't kids play. You are talking about turning over the keys to a several thousand dollar investment. 1) If they are unwilling to comply with your standards now, then you are being a bad landlord by not training them properly. Meaning that if you allow them to get away with it now, they will certainly look to bend your rules and create more risk exposure for you in the future. 2) By not fully disclosing current information to you, there may be something he is trying to hide under the guise of not wanting his SSN floating out there somewhere. Every time he buys a house, buys a car, I even think they require it when you book a flight, your SSN is used. You are potentially allowing them to "drive"/live in your house that is worth far more than a car or an airline ticket. He claims to want to protect his identity, but you have a responsibility to yourself (if you are going to be a legitimate landlord) to protect your asset! 3) You Need to be Consistent in the case of a lawsuit!! If you are sued, you want to be sure that the processes are the same for every tenant and applicant. Your case will stand up a lot more in court if you are consistent. 

Long story short, run this thing like a real business and let this applicant go elsewhere. Be professional!

Thanks for the input. Just to give you a review of my decision. I went with A. I guess one thing I didn't list out in my initial post is that I was about to leave the country from the middle of October on. I wanted to have someone lined up before I left so that I didn't just lose money while I was away due to the empty space. I hate trying to fill rooms in Nov, Dec, and Jan. They always seem to be the hardest times to locate great tenants. 

Anyway, Option B was disappointed when I told him he wasn't being selected and offered to pay more than the asking price to try and move into the place. He later got kinda rude/(I kinda interpret it as him trying to be manipulative) and said that if I let him move in that he would be willing to overlook the fact that I had turned him down in the first place. 

Option A probably wont last that long, but now that I'm back in the country I can continue to vet potential tenants to replace him when he moves out. In the meantime Option A has paid me over $1000 already.