All Forum Posts by: Erik Cabral

I will be speaking at our Princeton NJ @SJREIA meeting tonight to discuss my mind state and preparation it took to get there! Our main speaker will be @Joseph Scorese enlightening the crowd about Residential and Commercial Lending and how to get your financial resume right! Hope to see you there! 10/19 @6pm Holiday Inn 100 Independence Way Princeton, NJ

@Tarsha Adeyemi I'm also currently dealing with an inherited tenant who has paid me late twice in a row. Not just late but only made a partial payment the second month. I called the king of evictions in my area and his team advised me to start the process right away. Which will probably take about 2 months from the day I called them. So don't hesitate and get the ball rolling! Call a reputable lawyer and tell them your situation. If they're good, they'll handle it swiftly and do most if not all of the heavy lifting for you.

Thanks @Lillian Leigh and @Odie Ayaga for the shout. Good people find good people. Any way I can help, please let me know. Hope to see you guys soon!!

Hi @Account Closed there are plenty of duplexes here in the Mercer County area. Especially in Hamilton, NJ. These are fixer uppers that would allow you to add value to the home while at the same time renting to tenants that would be helping you pay your mortgage. These properties are on the MLS so I would take a look to see if some meet your criteria.

I did a semi-house hack on my first property (a condo in Woodbridge). I bought it low in 2000, renovated (it was stuck in the 80s) and sold it for more than double 13 years later. I wasn't an investor at the time and feel I got lucky with appreciation. The condo thing isn't a terrible idea but you would have to sacrifice your privacy by renting a room or basement out to someone. Duplex or more is your best bet and as the gentleman above stated, take advantage of FHA and 3.5%!

Best of luck!!!

I highly recommend Anderson Advisors. I use them for everything! Tax advice, setting up my LLCs, Corporation, retirment options, living trust, etc. You name it they handle all of it. Ask for Michael Hackler when speaking to someone there.

Chris Reichelt yes, I'm currently closing on a multi-family (2-unit) this week. Of which I'm inheriting a tenant (unit 1) and getting the CO for the 2nd unit in order to begin the process of finding new tenants. I'm not sure if I'll be in Willingboro this week or next but shoot me a PM and we can arrange a meet up.

Hi Chris Reichelt and welcome to BP! As Karl Knaupp mentioned, great resources can be found at our SJREIA meetings. I co-run the Princeton subgroup and usually attend the main meeting at Cherry Hill the same week. Hopefully I'll meet you at one of those. I recently picked up a house in Willingboro to flip, which is the town next door to you. If you're ever interested in walking through while I'm in town just let me know. Good luck!

@Ann Bellamy thanks for the info on the water bill staying with the property and how to deal with that when needed.

@Jake Thompson one of my partners mentioned RUBS when dealing with larger apartment complexes. That is what I was referencing in my original post. This is an attached multi-family and I feel as if the tenants would expect to pay their water. I may just keep things simple and take care of this since I've accounted for it in my numbers. Thanks!

Originally posted by @Jeff G.:

I echo @Matt Lefebvre, this is a very market dependent issue.

Now, if you know you're going to run into trouble due to tenant abuses there is a sometimes a third option. You could pay water but stipulate (in the lease) that if water usage exceeds 120% of normal (you'd have to explain what this means in concrete numbers and have a sound statistical basis for what defines "normal") the tenants will be billed the difference divided evenly.

It takes a bit of legwork up front and some math, but it's a good way to curb tenant abuse of "free" utilities. Some Section 8 landlords swear by this tactic. The only gotcha is, you've got to be willing to evict someone for not paying their portion of the water bill.

I like this idea. @Rick Stein what are your thoughts on the above? Do you have language similar to this on your multies where you pay the water/sewer?

Great advice @Matt Lefebvre @Shawn L.! Thanks for the insight. The current tenant (Unit 1) is paying water/sewer. Ideally, he may like the idea that now he only needs to pay 1/3rd once the upstairs unit is occupied (the current owner left if vacant). I've been told by other investors in the area that they pay for w/s on their multies. So I most likely will take this route.