All Forum Posts by: Filipe Pereira

Are you able to do a surface background check on his wife? Facebook, other forms of social media, truepeoplesearch, Etc.? Try to develop as good an idea of her as possible, and see if she has any evictions on her record. If all that checks out, I would feel pretty confident in giving the green light here.

There are services that allow you to run a basic background check by using a tenant's phone number, or their name and last known location. Happy to share more if you have any questions.

@Theresa Amouzou 

You can spend hundreds of hours reading books, listening to podcasts and analyzing deal after deal after deal. Or you can spend 20 hours investing into relationships with “doers” in your market that will be able to guide you along the way.

I don't think one way or the other is right, it's more likely a mix of both of them. I guess what I am trying to say is don't get so caught up in the research of things that you forget to make valuable connections that you can fall back on when things go south.

Reach out to some of the more active people in your market that are on BP and offer them lunch. Most would be willing to give you an hour of their time!

You asked for my opinion, so here it is….I love it!

House hacking is a fantastic way to get into real estate. I think the tougher thing you will have to deal with here is the ability to find a property to BRRRR in Boston, especially in a neighborhood you will feel comfortable calling home.

Try reaching out to @Lien Vuong, she is pretty familiar with much of Eastern MA and can definitely help you in the house hunting process. She's helped multiple members here on the forums and offers great advice regularly!

No problem @Jim Peckey. I believe that we all benefit as an industry when everyone has stronger leases. Send me an email or message me here and I will happily share my entire 15 page lease. Here's a section on payments due landlord for early termination (basically says all rent is still due) :

If the tenant fails to pay the rent, breaches the terms of the Lease, becomes bankrupt, or abandons the unit:

(1) The Landlord may immediately cancel this Lease, and shall become entitled, without any further notice to the tenant, to immediate possession of the unit; and

(2) All rent under this Lease shall immediately become due and payable, and the security deposit forfeited;

(3) The Landlord may sue to dispossess the tenant; and

(4) The Tenant shall be responsible for all legal fees and court costs incurred by the Landlord as a result of Tenants’ breach of any term of this Lease Agreement.

That being said, I would deduct from their security deposit any amount that would fulfill the 30 day notice. So if they gave you 15 days, they would be docked for the 15 days from their security deposit, or the number of days until you place a new tenant, whichever is less. 

If you were called in front of a judge after having charged a full 15 days (but the tenant somehow knew you placed a tenant in 5 days) I can't imagine a judge would think it's fair for you to "double dip". I could be wrong, but it's better to not find out! Don't get greedy in this business. 

@Matt Pursley buyers will flock to you when you've got a good deal. Seriously, there is SO much money out there right now. Stocks are at an all time high, people have sat on money not knowing how Covid would impact things and there's a lot of players trying to diversify. 

Start in your local facebook groups. Try to find a wholesaler group, or a REI group and ask around. You may be surprised by the responses. Even my small state of CT has 5 or 6 of these groups and we see this question multiple times a week, to the point that we just made a google form for people to submit their information and we now host the list on our website as a resource for other investors.

Once you have their email / phone number add them to some kind of email / text service so that you can quickly share the news on any deals you have!

Rather than pointing out what they did WRONG you would be much better served to highlight what they did RIGHT. This is a pretty common tactic in "How To Win Friends and Influence People" (great read so far, by the way). 

You will gain more by helping them do more of what they are doing well than by pointing out flaws and mistakes, even if it is done through a constructive criticism format. Center your conversation about what is being done well, and use that as a basis to improve the things you would like to have improved.

It could look something like this:
"Hey, I really like how you asked the seller why they are investing in the area (building rapport), I think it would be great if you could also tell them about what your connection is to this area as well."

The above is better than:
"Hey, I think you need to work on ways to better relate to the seller. Here's what you can do:"

In the first scenario you're highlighting what they are doing well and expanding on it. The second scenario is really just "constructive criticism" which is often just *felt* as criticism. 

Human psychology is a fascinating thing!

@Dana Williams it really doesn't matter WHAT you are evicting for right now. Whether it be for non payment, lapse of time, nuissance, etc. The issue isn't necessarily that the CDC has halted evictions or that there are moratoriums in place - it's that even when these moratoriums are lifted, there is going to be a heavy backlog of eviction cases. 

I'd like to think that there is some protection in having a shorter term lease, but at the end of the day, you're going to be in the same eviction line as the guy with a 12 month lease, so be ready for that. You can evict for reasons not related to non payment of rent (as @Kyle J. said), but even those evictions are going to put you past most eviction moratoriums in place right now anyway. 

We're proceeding as usual, and giving special attention to income vs debt ratios and how much a tenant has in savings.

Hey @Andrew Sampino, 

You got a lot going here, so bear with me as I give it my best shot. By the way, what are the unit mixes here? 1 bedrooms? 2? 3? That will help determine the rental rates. 

1. Your numbers seem accurate enough, yes. My main questions are 1- Are you sure you have a trash bill? (some towns in CT include it in your tax bill, some don't. 2- Is there an owner's electric meter you're responsible for here? 

2. It IS difficult to get to "living for free" on almost any duplex. Triplexes will work much better in your favor, or duplexes with 3+ bedrooms per unit, as the rental rate will be higher.

3. Broad generalizations can be foolish. I know people who are very successful in SFRs, MFRs and STRs in CT. Just find what works for you and exploit that area.

4. Don't buy based on the market, buy based on your criteria. If the property fits your criteria, buy. If it doesn't, move on. Buying based on the market will have you trying to time the market, and well, that never works. 

Don't be discouraged by someone else's failures. Find out what they are doing wrong, and fix that in your approach. And yes, run more numbers. It will help you find a good deal. Generally, in most north central markets in CT, you want to buy a duplex between 150K and 180K with gross rents north of 2K for it to be worth your time. 

@Account Closed I am a huge fan of not signing long-term leases until I feel tenants out a bit - sometimes their true colors come out a few days after closing, and sometimes it’s a few months. So just make sure you are confident in them as quality tenants before you sign a long term lease. 

If you are set on keeping this tenant long term, suggest you will do a $100 / mo increase spread out over 12 months. Months 1-3 will be 1225, then months 3-6 at 1250/ea, months 6-9 1275, etc. until you work your way up to 1,300. If you don't think the tenant will "bite" consider holding of as a turnover will likely cost more than the money you stand to gain. 

@Susan Tan, it's no longer worth it when it affects your enjoyment of your own home. I purchased a 4 bedroom house in CT in September of 2017 and moved in shortly there after. I also moved in a couple of guys my age. Since then, I have never paid the mortgage out of my own pocket and have put a few hundred bucks a month into my pocket during that time as well.

Have the numbers been fantastic? Yes, absolutely. Has it worn me down mentally in some areas? Yes, absolutely. My girlfriend and I are now done with it, and we are phasing our way out because we're ready to call home, home. In our case we share common areas with our housemates, and it's really just becoming too much of an inconvenience. We want more peace and quiet, and while our current housemate is pretty quiet, there is nothing like just having a house to yourself.

Obviously this would be a bit different if we lived in a duplex, triplex, etc, but eventually we would still want our own place. It's worth mentioning that when I started having housemates it was out of necessity. I had just quit my job to start my property management company, and I was concerned about an additional mortgage. Now that I have been in business for a few years and things are much more stable, I'm comfortable making the leap to paying the mortgage myself.