All Forum Posts by: Elliot Galpern

@Cayce Baierski be careful with exterminators. All they usually do is lay down poison and charge you a lot for it. the problem with poison is 2 fold. 1) you are overpaying for it by a lot and 2) the mice die, crawl into a space and start to decompose (stink like high Hell). I've had mice crawl and die inside walls, fridge insulation and anywhere you could imagine. Finding them is neat impossible and the tenants go crazy about it because their place stinks until you find the dead mice. 

glue traps and snap traps also have their own issues, their effective rate is pretty low.

solution 1) get a $20 victor electronic mouse trap from amazon. It has a 100% kill rate. I've caught tons of mice with these (in nyc) and we have never had a mouse get the bait without a dead mouse in the chamber.

Soulution 2) get a $73 victor electronic mouse - this one will auto reset and can kill 5-10 mice in one setting. This is great if you have an infestation. also, there is rarely ever just one mouse, its usually a family and this will kill at least 5 before it needs tending to

Solution 3) Victor has a wifi mouse trap that tells you when it caught one. If the tenant is willing to add it to their wifi and toss a dead mouse and reset it, its the best option.

I normally will get a tenant demanding that I call an exterminator. They are normally very set on an exterminator. I ask them to listen to me for 5 minutes and if they want an exterminator, I'll order one for them. Then I tell them about the poison that exterminators use that leaves a stinky mouse that cannot be found, which will be their problem and not mine or I tell them about the electronic traps that have a 100% success rate. They never want an exterminator after the 5 minute chat and are very happy to let my super in to put down a trap or two and also allow my super to check it daily or they call then the red light on top starts blinking. 

Only option I could think of is using hard money to be able to buy at auction

@Tessa Burks Hard money is rarely ever a good option for a rental. The interest is usually to high to sustain it. Go to a couple banks and see what your options are. Hard money should be a last resort for a rental. 

@Jim K.

I also use simplysafe in my properties that I flip. Its so easy to set up and move and it works right out of the box. very simple setup and no contract. 

Of course, you can. many people do this by mistake and call themselves incidental landlords. It's a great way to do it. Before you go ahead discuss the capital gains tax implications with your accountant. 

@Michael Myers

I agree the fee is high for what it is. Here are a couple questions to consider: Is it worth the aggravation of finding a new property management company for 25/month? Could you negotiate it down? Are you happy with the company right now?

That is impressive. for me 24Hrs is a rush order. 

There are a ton of pros and cons to each side. If you work 60 hours/week can you pick up phone calls from a tenant and call handymen, price it out follow up with your tenant and then pay the handyman every time an issue comes up?

Also, if you hire a property management company, you need to vet them carefully and watch them very carefully for at least the first couple of months until trust is built. 

This decision is different for every property owner. My suggestion would be to talk through the pros and cons of each with a couple of people. If you want to chat about it on the phone, PM me. 

forgot to mention. talk to a CPA and attorney about giving a 10-30 year lease with an option to buy. you can do the money the same way. the down payment could be money to purchase the option and you would push off the capital gains tax for a while. 

@Account Closed

Since you are not a bank, everything is fully open to negotiations. First if you are selling the house and going to incur a capital gains tax (I know I'm assuming). You need to make sure its worth your time. You need to see how much you want as a down payment, the total sale price of the house, how much interest you want to charge. And the flip side how much he is willing to pay. 

In not licensed in Texas so please confirm this and do not look at this as legal advise. 

In New York, I would Transfer a deed with om echange for the down payment, a note and a mortgage. Also, you need to make sure that you are named as an additional insured on his insurance policy. Policies Lapse, you should get notices and make sure its always paid.