All Forum Posts by: Dave Carpenter

Eric, what area(s) of Milwaukee are your properties in?

Erich, First and foremost, if the numbers make sense, continue forward. It sounds like from what you said, they do. For me, having a tenant for 7 years tells me I don't have to worry about them or that unit right away. I can first spend time fixing up the property. Since you will ever living there you may want to be a bit more picky, but likely having a tenant already on the property will help with financing. This all assumes that this tenant has been paying their rent on time. Based on what you shared, it sounds like it could either be the management company or an owner that didn't want to spend the money. Either way, that doesn't need to apply moving forward. It sounds like you (the new owner) have budgeted for repairs, and you could always find another management company. If it were me and the numbers work none of this would necessarily scare me off. Good luck!

Chad, another reason to do an inspection on a buy and hold property is because you will have tenants that will want the shower, drains, lights to work. I have had more than one vacant property with clogged sinks, lights that don't work properly etc. also, lots of outlets wired incorrectly. If the items found are small, it may not impact the deal, but you never know. I got burned the hard way on one of my properties that had been vacant and when the tenants moved in I learned that the shower didn't work properly, the shower drain was clogged and a toilet leaked. These were all things I never noticed since I didn't live there, but my tenants did right away! Then I was under the gun to fix it. Another solution to this is to test everything, including clogged pipes that you may not notice by just turning the water on for 5 seconds. Good luck!

@Marcus Auerbach I think you are right about being stuck holding the bag. I may try and reach out to DNS and see what they say. The problem is they are right, the work is not to code. If something significant ever happened I'd imagine the insurance company would be all over the fact that the work is not to code, thus maybe not as safe.

Do you guys think there is any legal recourse with the company that did the work. They clearly pulled a permit and did not do work to code. Even though they have already been paid, I can't imagine that would fly from a licensed contractor (I'm pretty sure they are licensed)

Good morning all!

I had the city of Milwaukee inspection department (DNS for those of you who are local) call me the other day about an open inspection on one of the properties I recently bought. The short story, is there was a work order by the city put on the building for a faulty porch. The property was owned by Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac at the time and they hired a local company to install a new porch. This was over a year ago. I got a call from an inspector who siad that he had an open inspection that he needed to close out. 

It turns out someone at DNS closed out the work order without there being an inspection. 

The inspector met me out there yesterday and found all kinds of things wrong including using decking screws instead of lag screws for joists and headers, steps that are not even heights (the bottom step is more than 8" and the top step is about 3"! Tread depths of the steps are also incorrect. There are other things, but I think you get the point.

My question is this: Can I go back to the company that did the work and force them to correct the work they did that does not meet code? Do I have any recourse with the city department who inadvertently closed out a work order when they should not have. This is why it was not caught at the Title company when I purchased the property. 

What does the collective knowledge of this group think!?

@Shoshawna Merten it sounds like you have a plan and have done some research. I have only rented out a spare room, and in my suburban Wisconsin town, we see a lot more guests in the summer than the winter. I think location is a huge factor. You could also contact a few people on airbnb directly and see what kind of occupancy they have had in similar markets.

@Shoshawna Merten what do you mean by investing in Airbnb? I think you can certainly use that service as a tool for a property you are looking to use for rentals. I have a spare room in my personal home on Airbnb and have had a great experience. I think some of that is due to location as well. One thing to keep in mind is the frequency of renters. If you only have the rental occupied 2 weekends (4 days) of the month that may not be a significant enough income. Keep in mind this will be more hands on including cleaning, and letting guests in, etc. There are ways to automate that, but in general short term rentals will take more time, or cost to hire managers and cleaners. 

Good luck!

@Joshua Martin now its out in the world. the BP community will make sure you are retired in 10 years!

Jennifer, While I have not had that experience, I think contacting the police is a good first step. It seems to me like this is trespassing/breaking and entering. 

I wonder if this woman with 5 kids needs help beyond what she is getting. This seems like a pretty peculiar situation. 

Good luck, and take notes while having conversations.

@Andy Bonlender sounds like your area and type of property.