All Forum Posts by: Michael R.

Just a thought, don't have the financial planner send a letter. That's just more of the same outsourcing behavior that has gotten ou into this situation. 

Also, I'm happy to hear it sounds like you are learning that absolutely no one will make your best interest their priority. Not your realtor, not your PM and not always your financial planner. 

You need to be where your money is and stop immediately taking advice from people who make money off of the advice they give you. Trust but verify.  Dig into the forums, listen to all 130+ podcasts. Get educated or your principal will disappear.

Real estate investing is a business and should be treated as such. It's time for you to get involved. Sure get a letter from your financial planner, then send it. Signed by you. 

Your property manager answers to you. Works for you. Not your financial planner. I'm not sure what you're afraid of, but this is part of real estate...managing the property manager.

Build a team if that's what you need to do that includes people like your financial plander an attorney and a long list of contractors. 

But ask yourself this, would you go invest the amount you have invested into this real estate into any franchise that you can think of and then hire people to run it for you while you hope it all works out in a largely removed capacity? I'm guessing no. It's great that your diversified, but your risk has not been reduced in my opinion.

The place to start is by deciding where you want to be and when you want to be there. If it is cash flowing by Q1 2016 then you need to fully understand what it is going to take to get there

That means working backwards to list out every actionable step you need to take in order to get to your goal.

I hope this helps.

@Bill Hamilton made some excellent points.  Some things you should do, as others have mentioned are, immediately change the locks.  

Her hostile approach is throwing red flags.  There isn't anything to report to the police, and the cost of an attorney for her to ask what to do at this stage is highly illogical.  

In the future, this would seem a good reason not to give out the lock box combination in my opinion.  Always show a property or have someone show a property for you.   

I hope that helps -- this thread has certainly helped me. 

You don't trust her.  Otherwise you wouldn't be here posting these statements - and really there is nothing to be ashamed of.  You don't trust her and she is playing a part by not earning your trust; however, aside from all of us knowing this -- have you communicated it to your property manager?  Moving past that, what has triggered this post?  To be honest you know exactly what you're not doing and have acknowledged it. 

     "I realize I need to be a more active investor with my rentals"

Then take action. Start by making a list of things you need to do to be a more active investor. 

     "and there are probably some underhanded things happening to me because I live 5             hours away from my rental properties!"

Why do you say this?

"I know I'm making some fundamental mistakes in being such a passive investor"

      What are you going to do about it?  I think you know what you're going to do....

"and I've let it go on for years now! I have never taken the time to contact my tenants. I was always worried my PM would think I didn't trust her or she would get mad. Please help!!!

     So....stop letting it go on, contact your tenants, and stop thinking you work for your              PM. 

Other than that -- you've ended your last two posts with "Please Help!!".  What kind of help are you looking for?

@Justin Pandolfino Your choices seem worlds apart with a SFH vs an investment property. While yes, these are both pieces of real estate, they can both be used to achieve very different financial objectives. This would cause me to ask you - what is your stated objective in real estate investing? Mutual funds are entirely different than 50% of a duplex. Not sure what you are trying to accomplish and so for that fact alone I would steer you towards buying a SFH.

If you have intentions of land lording and building portfolio, then based upon the numbers from a business perspective I agree with @Barbara G. that you want your purchase price to be very clost to the $400K mark.  

Other things to consider, being an on site landlord is much different than buying a single family residence. Would you outsource your property management? If so, is that factored in to your numbers? Are you prepared to screen tenants and if you had a vacancy would you be prepared to float the $400K note ($500K - $100K down pmnt) vs the $350K note on the SFH?

If you are looking for a quick go / no go on the duplex - my answer is in line with what others have said and is no.  That doesn't mean someone else won't scoop up that property at the higher price.

So with that said - If you are truly interested in building a portfolio, consider the following.  If your rent rolls are truly $4500 / month.  Is there anywhere that you can add value to that property to get them to $5000/month?  Can you take a look at deferred maintenance on the property that you could also negotiate the seller down to the $400K - 450K Range?  The idea here is to get your gross monthly rents into the 1% range.  But even then -- that is just one metric to evaluate the property.  

What type of neighborhood is it in?

What future development is coming that way?

Does the owner have enough equity for you to purchase it with seller financing?

Have you run the numbers through the BP calculator?

This is residential property -- what are the comps telling you?

What is the age of the property and it's infrastructure (roof, water heaters etc?)

Is the electric, gas and water separately metered?

As stated -- on the surface the property is over priced.  But if you dig deep and work on where you can get the price down and potentially raise rents -- consider that.  Also, consider living in the cheaper half.  Rent out the more expensive side.  Maximize your revenues. 

I hope that helps.

This is extremely bad advice in my opinion.  Living next to someone - even closely with someone is entirely different than having someone financially obligated to you and living in a property you own.  This is a business, treat it like one and you will save yourself a lot of heartache.  Not only that - if you want to raise the rents, you'll need to know they can afford it.  This is accomplished through screening to verify income - screening includes background checks.  

So screening part of your processes from day one and let them know that is how you conduct business.  If they are they great as tenants, they will have no problem with it.  If you think an application fee will scare them away, offer to cover it perhaps.

With that said, I would also consider this:

If market is around $900/mo and you keep them for $700/mo.  Over one year you are losing $2400. If they aren't willing to pay market rents, transition them out, improve the property (new windows etc) and get someone in at market rates.  You may lose $700 for the month of vacancy, but you'll still be up at the end of the year.

I hope this helps.

To clarify, are you asking what the NYC laws state as far as what you are required to do in this situation as a landlord?

Without knowing why the tenant wants it washed limited advice can be given.  With that said, here is my limited advice.

If the house needs washing as preventative or regular maintenance, it is in your best interest, so you do it; however, this should have been budgeted and planned so it shouldn't be a big deal.

If this does not fall into the above category, consider letting the tenant know that you schedule these annually and it will be done on the anniversary of their lease.  

In either case, I would not just do this to satisfy the tenant, I would have the conversation to where you show them that you are working to ensure their satisfaction on your schedule as the business owner.  @Steve Babiak makes an excellent point to which, if you do go through with the power washing you may want to price out window cleaning and any other additional services that may come due as a result in order for you to better plan / budget in the future.

I hope that helps.

It takes 3 to 5 years of tax returns and proven revenues through the company from my experience.  Initially you will get credit cards through your company and you just have to work.  It won't happen fast from banks.

@Joe G. To run your numbers start here - even with a basic account you can run numbers a few times: 

biggerpockets.com/calc

Also, use the search function to look for NOI and How to calculate Cash Flow. These figures will make the decision for you as the numbers will drive your decision it sounds like.

I hope that helps.