All Forum Posts by: Helen Zhang

I hate to ask you this, are you managed by property management? If so, here is more questions that you probably should ask: are those suppose to cost that much? 

The cost breakdown that you got is not detailed enough, which leads me to think that this is what property manager is providing you. 

If I were you, I would ask for a detailed report on what repairs are these exactly. (Sure the property manager can still provide more , but at least they would have to put in some effort to make their money). 

I can see some of the  items already... HVAC inspection, why tenant moves out needs that? When a tenant moves in and they have HVAC problems, they can then report it. Why is it being inspected as a move out expense? 

Bottomline, your cost breakdown seems to be questionable to me. 

@James Wise, 1-5k is a good range.  I'm glad we are using the same map. 

The type of properties that I am interested to purchase are all single-family homes as they are way more liquid. I believe the difference between B-class single-family home and C-class single-family home is roughly about $150 for 2-3 bedrooms. Correct me if I have the wrong understanding. 

@James Wise Thank you for your sharings. This is very helpful. May I ask how much do you spend on average when a tenant moves out on a B/C class neighborhood? A range (even if it's a wide range) is still very helpful. 

I have never visited Cleveland, and yes correct I would imagine the city to be very low density. 

The young hipsters tend to not be the type of tenants that I am targetting. They are short term tenants, and expect more maintenance work from me as a landlord. I believe the young people who don't want to purchase are likely to be the uptown hipsters who lived in high-density cities where the price of houses are too expensive. Here is an interesting article about Millenials like us (maybe I should be speaking for only myself?): https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/26/most-millennials-w...

I would love to visit Cleveland. It does sound like the type of city that I would like to expand my rental kindom =P 

@Andre Wilson There are couple questions I would like to ask if I were you: 

1. What is the square footage of the house? If the house is less than 1900 square foot then it is likely the house has illegal constructions. 

2. When was the house built? It could be a really old hard-to-maintain victorian house. 

3. Do you have the opportunity to visually inspect the property before start the purchase process? Start the purchase process can be expensive... your inspection fees are not cheap after all. You should ask visually inspect the property. 

Prior sealing the deal, DO ask for bank statement from seller to show that tenants have been paying. The bank statement of the seller should show that tenants have been consistently depositing money into the account. You do not want to run into the situation where you have to be the person evict those tenants. 

Good luck!

@Gwen Fyfe That totally make sense for high density city apartments. I would imagine you are a different type of renters from the B/C class neighborhood from Cleveland. I would assume you are single, has very good income from your day job, mobile (in terms of where you work as you may change your job when you find a better one). Mobility and convenience matter a lot to you. You are in my opinion, a short-term renter and probably not looking forward to settle in the high-density city. And please correct me if I'm wrong on this, I will assume the tenants from the B/C class neighborhood in Cleveland is going to be very different from you. I would imagine they would be below-middle-class families. They want to get settled, but they do not have enough savings/income to purchase a house. (Or the real common mentality is: buying a house is hard when it is not). I expect them to be long term renters (long term as 3years+)

@Steven Aviram, thank you for your generosity for sharing. These are great information. May I ask you in what area are your rental properties located? and also I am curious why do you believe that providing appliances helps you to get higher quality tenant?

The reason I ask is because I've always believe that if I do not provide appliance, I will likely to score higher quality tenant. I believe quality tenants usually have no problem getting their own appliances, and good tenants would hate to use lower-grade rental appliances. Is this not the right mentality? or am I missing something that I'm not aware of? 

@Angela Yan, you can look up these information via redfin

Congrats, you are one lucky gal who got section 8 tenants for free! 

For the rest of us, we have to leave our property vacant to be inspected by S8 authorities to be approved to get S8 tenants in. 

Keep in mind that not only you have to follow Section 8 Regulations, the tenants also have to follow the section 8 regulations. If you do not follow the rules, at the most you will lose a specific type of tenants. However, if the tenant destroys your property, they have failed to comply with section 8 regulations, and they will lose the voucher and have no place to go. IMO, if something were to go wrong, the tenants' loss is way higher than yours. 

Yes, they are likely to be filthy. Hey, all landlords have to deal with a percentage of tenants that are filthy. That's just part of landlord's life. 

What's more important is, rent will be ON-TIME, in FULL. =)

Edit: Before you close the deal, ask the seller to show bank statements to prove that the tenants consistently deposited rent. 

Lastly, I think I should repeat that I am not looking for "it depends" answers. I would love to know what neighborhood you are in (in this case, it would be general cleveland neighborhoods) and what type of tenants you have. That is exactly the information that I would love to have. 

If you manage any properties, you would know this data. If you do not manage, but as an investor, you should know this data. If you absolutely have no insight for this data, then perhaps you might not be the right person to answer these questions.