All Forum Posts by: Glenn Espinosa

I recently bought a fourplex under VA financing and had this same exact issue. With my initial offer I had attempted to get the owner to pass a 30 day notice tp one of the tenants. He returned the offer and one of the changes was that he had refused to pass any of his tenants a 30 day notice. I could easily see why anyone would refuse to do this..

I believe you have 60 or 90 days to occupy the unit under FHA financing so just make sure to serve a notice to vacate quickly upon acquiring the property.

Maybe try offering a higher EMD along with this condition to entice the seller?

@Brian:

I don't believe I shared any information regarding the other tenants to these tenants. Elderly lady took it upon herself to speak to the retired gentleman and asked him if he would leave and his response was no due to being too lazy.

@George:

I don't know myself. Elderly lady says she will move out in order to find housing for all of them together considering the couple may have a hard time finding something on their own.

Thanks for the responses guys.

Hey Bill,

All of the tenants are on a month-to-month.

Thanks for the reassurance guys. I'm sure I made the right decision. If the mother wants to leave also then that'll just open it up for me to rent that apt at market rates so win/win.

I bought a quad last month through VA financing. With accordance to VA financing I have to occupy one of the units within 60 days.

The four tenants are all pretty nice people:

Unit 1: Retired military recently divorced man who pays one time every month if not 1 week early. Has lived at the unit 2 years now

Unit 2: Elderly woman who has lived at the unit for 7 odd years and pays on time, does get sort of picky with the maintenance, however.

Unit 3: Older retired military gentleman who has lived in the unit for 25 years. Pays 2 weeks in advance every month.

Unit 4: Husband/Wife/8 yr old son. Wife is the daughter of the elderly lady downstairs. In the process of filing for bankruptcy. Genuinely nice people from my dealings with them the past 1 1/2 months. Paid 2 days late last month and only paid half of rent on the 3rd followed by the rest on the 10th as agreed upon. Rental history from previous owner shows that they pay their rent if not late a few days. They have lived at the unit for 2 years.

I decided to let go Unit 4 as I saw no reason to let any other tenant go. All tenants pay the same rent amount. I did offer a $500 incentive if anyone wanted to volunteer and leave, no one took it. So today I served the notice to vacate and now the mother is threatening leaving also. She thinks that I should have let Unit 3 go since he only stays at the apt half of the time and when asked if he wanted to volunteer and leave he replied that he was merely "too lazy."

I do see their point that it would be much easier for Unit 3 to leave as his financials make it much easier for him to find another place.

As I sit now I may be losing 2 tenants with this decision (not really too upset about this, I'd prefer not to live adjacent to someone who has it out for me...)

I'm thinking I made the right decision but just wanted anyone's thoughts on this.

Thanks,

-Glenn

If only it was that easy...

You have the barebones strategy but execution requires much more details than that.

To get you started: What's your method for finding these low priced foreclosures, your finance vehicle, how do you plan to set your houses apart from all the competition, etc. etc.

We did go over budget, roughly 6k actually. Some unexpected termite work plus deciding after the fact to replace the roof accounted for most of that 6k. Also, small items and contractor nickel and diming definitely helped put us over budget. We made a lot of mistakes on this house but hopefully it'll all be worth it if it sells. We plan to list for 3 months and if no one buys we'll look for renters.

@Rusty: The curb appeal was a big issue for us. We hope the landscaping, new siding, shutters, and the new porch rail will help offset some of the curb appeal. We think it's enough to get potential buyers into the house, once inside we hope the interior blows them away.

Finally got the pics to work! Pics:

PS: The countertops and microwave hood come in tomorrow due to a last minute delay. Decided to list anyway as I didn't want to lose another couple of days of market time.

The rehab is complete and it's been on the market since Monday. A lot of positive comments from neighbors! Hoping for a quick sale at $109,000. For that price the new owners should be getting a lot of value for their money. Pics below:

In hindsight this experience was very refreshing. I am naturally a very passive aggressive person. I oftentimes equate being fair with screwing myself over and I almost always give people the benefit of the doubt the first time around. I knew I needed to fire this guy on Friday but dreaded it so much that I let him play me along for four more days...

So this whole experience was an exercise in being aggressive for me. I've come to realize that to get what you want in life and especially in the real estate business you oftentimes have to be the aggressor in terms of your negotiations, making sure your contractors are working and in getting the best deals for yourself.

This is the first flat out disagreement I've encountered in my short real estate investing career and it's given me the confidence in the future to better control my contractors in order to make sure I get what I need done.