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All Forum Posts by: Jay Orlauski

Jay Orlauski has started 20 posts and replied 430 times.

Post: 3/1 bath Pictures

Jay OrlauskiPosted
  • Realtor
  • Fresno, CA
  • Posts 468
  • Votes 223

looks real nice Kelle .. good luck

Post: Update on new Triplex

Jay OrlauskiPosted
  • Realtor
  • Fresno, CA
  • Posts 468
  • Votes 223

thanks. BiggerPockets has been a great source of info so far. These are tenants that came with the house, but next time , we will be screening our own. When I did it ten years ago, I had a pretty good track record of picking the right people, with one exception. I am hoping that I wont have to screen for a while however. :)

Post: Update on new Triplex

Jay OrlauskiPosted
  • Realtor
  • Fresno, CA
  • Posts 468
  • Votes 223

Hello everyone , I have been a little absentee lately as I've been dealing with the triplex we just picked up. Just wanted to update you all on what's been going on. Some of you may remember my " Awkward first visit" when I went to meet my tenants, but instead was met by a half naked kid who promptly shut the door in my face. I eventually got to meet the tenant, but she was just as dismissive and opened the door in her towel, expressing her inability to meet with me due to pressing time constraints. Well, eventually we served her 60 day so we could move in to the unit ( per FHA requirements to owner occupied) She paid her rent late and forced me to give her a 3 day notice , which she responded to and paid immediately.

The following month, she refused to pay rent, and says that her deposit should cover her rent. She also tried to say that my 60 day notice was null and was not legal because she claims " I gave her the notice before taking legal possession of the property" and requested that I send her another 30 day notice. I was not going to argue with her, she was 5 days late already, so she promptly received a 3 day pay or quit. She still did not leave, but this weekend she had a large truck take about 3-4 large loads of stuff , including mattresses. Also someone came and cleaned out about 1/2 of the garage the same day - she continuously avoided me and made herself very scarce - I was happy to see her moving her stuff out -
but I am wondering when and how I gain legal access to her unit. There is still a lot of her stuff there and she keeps coming back at odd hours to retrieve small things. Day before yesterday, a maintainence guy of mine was doing work and saw that she left her sliding glass door open ( in the closed back yard) and called me about it. I had him close it, but it was open again the next afternoon. I believe she is ducking me cause she does not want to receive her legal eviction. My suspicion is that by the 1st of next month , she will be completely in her new place. Based on the cost of submitting court ppwk , I am not interested in pursuing further unless there is major damage to the place.

I basically went through the same thing with another tenant last month, and he finally was out after two weeks. He strung me along with stuff like, " i will meet you tomorrow" or "can I have till this weekend" and "I will have your money in two days" , I will be moved out tomorrow , " I will be out by next weekend , I will be out by monday ..etc, etc. Thats how how he got by on me ....he even tried to say we didn't have an agreement cause he never signed anything with me, but with the previous owner. I said well if we have no agreements, than you are trespassing and can expect the police to show up soon. He finally got all his stuff out and left the place relatively clean the next weekend.

We have now done some remodeling , painting and what not and the place looks really beautiful. When we stand back and look at it we know that it is quality. Even the third tenants want to move into it , although it is already taken.

So anyhow, we cleared out one place and got it ready. We have the second about to empty and ready to renovate for me and my wife to move into and the third has tenants that are happy because I have taken care of all the problems that had been ignored by the previous landlord and they have decided to stick around for a while.

All in all, it has been very stressful and immediately riddled with problems - but overall, things are coming together, and I am once again reminded that the joys of property management & rental income are tethered by the responsibilities of tenant management & dealing with contractors .

Post: Awkward first visit

Jay OrlauskiPosted
  • Realtor
  • Fresno, CA
  • Posts 468
  • Votes 223

@mitch ... that was funny .. I needed a good laugh!

Originally posted by J Scott:
As Charles sort of suggested, there's probably some sort of economics-based differential equations that could be used to model return vs risk vs time in various investment activities.

While it probably wouldn't be useful in real life (not sure you could tune the inputs well-enough to be meaningful), you could probably play around with various inputs to get a feeling for their sensitivities to one another.

If I were smarter, I'd probably be able to apply some of the utility modeling work I used to do as a poker player to real estate investing...

Which actually reminds me that I've been meaning to start a really geek thread on a related subject...a bit off the topic (or maybe not), but if you've studied card counting in blackjack or were ever a geek poker player, you may be familiar with the Kelly Criterion...I've recently started thinking about whether there is a way to apply the concept to portfolio real estate investing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion

Interesting read....thanks for the reference

I think this happened to a member of BP recently. In a post he was asking about it because he was getting sued for a dog the tenant was not even supposed to have. Someone got bit and the owner found himself in the crosshairs. Maybe someone else remembers who that was.

Post: Buying my first Apartment Complex

Jay OrlauskiPosted
  • Realtor
  • Fresno, CA
  • Posts 468
  • Votes 223

One thing that threw me off recently was that a lender required for me to get "Rental Loss Insurance" . Though it was already covered in my homeowners insurance - they were asking for a separate policy that covered it explicitly - well, I fought with them on it and made them talk to my insurer, who confirmed that it was indeed already covered. They wanted to see proof of it at the very last minute and when that was finished and we thought it was behind us, with only 4 hours till the deadline for escrow to close , they came back and said we need flood insurance now( cause there is more than 1% chance of flooding over a 100 year period). ohh boy here we go again.. unfortunately for us, we lost this one and we had no choice but to get it .. and it wasn't cheap.

So be sure to be properly funded because any issues can come up even up to the last hour. They told us they were making us jump though hoops cause they had to be sure they could sell the paper.

Post: What does a Realtor look for in an investor?

Jay OrlauskiPosted
  • Realtor
  • Fresno, CA
  • Posts 468
  • Votes 223
Originally posted by Mitch Kronowit:


6. Eccentric - "I showed him a house with no carpet and peeling paint and he practically kissed the walls!"

Loved this one!! sounds just like me :)

Post: 1st deal in 7 years

Jay OrlauskiPosted
  • Realtor
  • Fresno, CA
  • Posts 468
  • Votes 223
Originally posted by J Scott:

For future reference, consider looking at HUD properties...they give preferential treatment to owner occupants, even when there are lots of contingencies...

sounds interesting , I'm hoping not to have to do an owner occupied again ( unless it's an sfr) , but we were starting to look into the 403K loans - seems to be some kind if government sponsorship for programs like that. are those similar to how the HUD homes work?

Post: Hello from Pasadena, CA!

Jay OrlauskiPosted
  • Realtor
  • Fresno, CA
  • Posts 468
  • Votes 223

Welcome to site iGSR - your friends did you right by referring you here. I have found a wealth of information on pretty much anything real estate. Hope to hear your success stories.