All Forum Posts by: Craig Janet

Do not buy the home until the solar panels are removed and the roof is repaired. It's as simple as that. 

I agree with the poster above. You got robbed on the trenching. In Louisiana I found a guy on facebook with a mini excavator to trench out 100 foot about 4 foot deep for $300. It took him about 20 minutes. You can rent the mini excavators for about $250 per day.   

I normally despise all PMs and would never let them hold my money. But you are so out of the loop on your own property that I can see where he is coming from. Do you even know how much money you're making? How much will go into this account? Do you get a statement monthly/Quarterly? What happens when the HVAC goes out? Will he have to secure another loan and deal with angry tenants who will have to wait for a new HVAC. He maybe sensing how hands off you are and preparing for the worse.

After a dispute is filed. The recipient must provided proof that the charges are valid. This should be easy if they are still living there. Did the PM follow up with the dispute? If not then they will have to eat this charge.

If they did dispute it, provide the necessary supporting documents and it still wasn't reversed. They I would be open to paying something to them. This is a risk you run when accepting credit cards. 
 

Sometimes "stuff happens" that's beyond your control. Don't look around and look for someone to blame. This is why you should pay $15-$20 a month for renters insurance. Which I'm certain you don't have and will continue not to have. 

You would be better off paying for this with a hard money loan, HELOC or even a credit card cash advance. If you are familiar with area and the building do you really need an appraisal and a reinspection fee (whatever the heck that is)? Without the underwriting fees, points, etc, titles fees and escrow you could save 3-4K. That's pretty significate on a 50K deal.

I do all the work myself and a turnover is usually about $1K in materials and my wife does most of the cleaning. Most of this is covered by the security deposit. If I were to hire out the work I can see it easily being $4K. Most turnovers need painting, interior door knobs, patching sheetrock, removing junk left behind, changing locks, light bulbs, deep cleaning and yard work. This takes me about 30-40 hours. I do this on nights and weekends and will take me about week. I don't think many people consider this expense when investing.

Also, PMs have no incentive to keep cost down or decided what is really necessary to make the home rent ready. One of my many complaints about PMs.
 

Why do the appliances need to be replaced?

From the pictures this doesn't look that bad. It's not good but no way $14K of damage. Am I missing something it just looks really dirty. The plumbing issue wasn't the tenant's the fault. Rent a dumpster and start hauling that junk out of there. You should be able to do that in one day. Repaint the house and clean it up. No need to fix it up really nice because this will happen again. Your PM dropped the ball and are now trying to screw you again. I could turnover this house over in a week and I work full time. Could you please attach the line by line quote from the PM. 

How much do you need to retire comfortably? How much risk are you willing to take. 2.5Mil in a CD could get you $75K per year for doing absolutely nothing. Add one or two SFHs with a good property manager and your easily over $100K per year with very little risk and no work. If it were me I would do this:

1. 1 Million Cash/CD- $30K per year

2. 500K in SFHs- $50K

3. 500K- Dividend Stocks- $20K

4. 500K Buy House, Car, Boat, etc. Cash

That would give you $120k per year with no bills and you can blow every penny of it because you're still worth 2.5Mil and growing. That's my two cents but I pretty conservative and would be happy living a modest lifestyle.