All Forum Posts by: Ernest Grindle

Hi Christie, a good place to start is the old lease. Are you able to start with that and expand the areas you feel are lacking? There aren't as many rules for commercial leases as there are for residential, so you have a good amount of latitude for what you have in the lease. Another option is if you have any friends that rent a commercial building/space, see if you can get a copy of their lease as a template. If you message me with your email address I'll send you a copy of the lease I inherited when I bought my commercial building as well as the one I'm using now, but they are both very short and missing the legal CYA stuff a lawyer would put in there. I have eight units in my building, some still in the old leases, and have never had to point to a lease as part of a tenant conversation. It's always been a business-like conversation and if I tell them they need to leave (always for rent payment issues) they all have gone willingly--probably because they are actually grateful to be able to point to someone else as the reason they closed [their failing business that has been a major cause of anxiety and stress in their lives]. But I'm sure a lot of landlords can share their own stories of why you need more beefy commercial leases.

Hi Jarvis, a lot of the wholesaling process is finding the deal. For the lead you have now, you need to find out what's his motivation (retirement isn't really an answer, why retire from the business now?); what's the condition of the properties; what's his timeline for selling; and what's the least amount he'd accept. Once you have that you can bring it to an active and reputable investor or wholesaler and they can help you figure out if it's a deal; and if it's a deal they would work through the transaction with you. I'd be interested in buying them if it is a deal. Shawn would help you wholesale them and maybe could get you a better price for the contract since it's going out to more people.

I recommend PMI Virginia. Patti Robertson is the owner and has posted earlier in this thread. She manages a lot of property in Portsmouth.

@Patti Robertson What, nothing in Suffolk? That's the place to be :)

@Account Closed Every interaction I've had with PMI Virginia for property management has been great, but I've bought some houses that had really bad property managers in place so you need to make sure you vet them and get rid of them quickly if you're expectations aren't being met. I think it's best to go with a property management company rather than a real estate sales company. I'm a Realtor and every office I've worked in the rentals always took a back seat to sales.

@Kristopher Kyzar Who are you using for insurance? My rental insurance is more than my homeowners insurance. I probably need to start shopping around more.

Hello Devon, I am. 

@Patti Robertson I didn't say it was easy, just that you can find them :)

@Danielle Bulla Isenhour Good job on your flip, and good call going with the GC. My first flip me and a partner did the work ourselves, on weekends because we both work full time jobs, and it took us a full year! I think my hourly wage ended up around like $2/hr :) Since then I've transitioned to hiring out all the work and it's been so much better. It's tough to pay a lot of money for things you know how to do, but it ends up being more profitable in the end due to lower holding costs and more volume. Not to mention it's a heck of a lot less work! I look forward to seeing you at one of the local meetups.

Hi Logan and welcome. Yes you will have some challenges that full timers don't have, but it can also be a net positive in that you'll be forced to work more on your business than in it. The exception is on the agent side where clients will want you to work on their schedule so you'll have to be selective in who you take on. I also work a full-time W2 job so I understand the schedule complications, but it also makes it easy to get conventional lending. Putting a good team together will be your foundation.

Hello Katherine and welcome to the neighborhood! There is great opportunity from every angle in the Hampton Roads area. There is a lot of competition but I haven't found it to create a lack of deals. I've been fortunate and had every flip go under contract in less than a week. And my rentals are easy to keep filled; that may be because I keep them all in good condition, which isn't as common as you'd think. I'd be happy to chat with you anytime if there is anything I can help with. Definitely participate in Tidewater Real Estate Investment Group (TRIG) and Hampton Roads Landlord Association.

@Tim Catalano Do you have the addresses? I considered looking at the portfolio but he wanted a $2M preapproval letter or POF before he would tell me the addresses. It thought it would be pretty funny for me to approach a lender asking for $2M (or $400K) and not be able to tell them what it was for...so I didn't give the deal much consideration at the time.