All Forum Posts by: Helen Zhang

@Aristotle Kumpis Indeed my questions are generic. The answer that I am seeking for is not a "it depends" answer. It is more of a data question to figure out the rental culture of Cleveland. 

To be specific, the appliance question is meant to figure out whether the generic rental culture favors landlord or renters. In California, most landlord provides appliances, and it is "almost" expected as a must. This shows California favors renters. As in Texas, appliances are mostly not provided for house rentals (regardless you are buying a new house or renting a place). This shows Texas favors landlords. Question 2-4 is meant for me to figure out what kind renters do we have in Cleveland. Question 5 is meant for me to figure out tenant rental culture in terms of how they treat the house. 

Imo, based on @Federico Gutierrez 's answers, the move out cleaning cost is way higher than any states that I knew of. This is the exact kind of information that I would love to know more about Cleveland. 

I'm less worried about utility bills as if water/garbage/sewage stays with the landlord, I will just charge a flat fee on top of the rent bill. Yes I will have tenants who just love to waste water. But I don't want to add more hassle to chase down extra $50 per month. If I see a trend of high water bills, I will continue to raise rent with reasons provided to tenants. 

@Gwen Fyfe @Federico Gutierrez Thank you so much for sharing. This is extremely helpful to an investor who never lived in Cleveland. The rental culture is better than what I was expecting, but still far from what I would like it to be. It would be nice to read more sharings =)

I hate that situation. We all know if we evict them, then it will cost us money. Not to mention they will hold our house as a hostage. 

I happen to have a tenant, who ALWAYS pays late on the 10th-15th of the month when rent is supposed to be due on 1st. But she pays, and she pays in full. 

Lastly, the reason why I have never evict her is... she had been living in the same property for 6 years now. 

I kinda just let it go at this point =(

@David Dachtera , fyi I am the buyer =) 

There are costs that come with due diligence that are necessary and there are costs that come with due diligence that are great to have. You are welcome to even hire an attorney to inspect the property to ensure absolutely nothing is wrong with your title to guarantee that it is 120% what you are buying is what you are expecting. But the truth is we do not need that 20% extra guarantee. 

To me, if I can guarantee it up to 99.9% that what I am buying is what I am expecting, is good enough. 

A survey in an established neighborhood that is cut in squares for all the houses in the neighborhood falls under that 0.1% that I, as an investor, will not pay for. There is always a chance that I will fall into that 0.1%, and I am willing to take that risk. If I were to purchase 1000 houses, I am gladly to run into that problem with that one house =) 

Hi Landlord/Investors of Cleveland, I am very interested to invest in Cleveland, and I have a few questions about Cleveland since I am unfamiliar with the rental culture there.

1. Do you provide appliances to your tenants? Do you believe it is your responsibility to provide appliances to your tenants?

2. How frequently do you have to deal with evictions? 

3. How frequently do you have to deal with late monthly payment?

4. How many tenant fix calls do you receive a year per house on average?

5. How much do you have to spend on average when a tenant moves out?

If you don't have an answer in mind on any of the questions above due to the fact that you do not have enough properties which allow you to calculate the "norm", please feel free just to share based on your experience. I am interested in the rental culture in Cleveland as this is the type of neighborhood that I have never invested in. This is just a process to find out whether the rumored "nightmare" is true. =) 

I am seeking for a mentorship (prefer someone from title industry) who knows all the in and out of how to read title report. (And no I do not mean just understand the basics of Schedule A/B/C). I meant reading details or search for details that I don't understand its meaning or how to look up for more information. 

I know your time is precious, and I appreciate that you are taking your time to teach me. I can offer any knowledge/data that I have as an exchange. Or even better, you will be my go-to person whenever I purchase/sell if you happen to offer title service in the region. If you are not interested in neither, please let me know what you are interested in and I will see if I can meet your expectations...pay for learning is also an option =)

I would like to meet bi-weekly or monthly via a call, and this should not last for more than 1/2 year. 

P.S. I am a software engineer who has no interest to go into title industry to create any form of job competition. I would like to have mentorship on reading title report only because with my level of investment there is almost no way to find a dedicated title agent who is getting paid by the number of auctions that I purchase. 

Interesting perspective guys. I appreciate everyone's answer. 

To some of you asked me why didn't I call them up and ask this question... I don't believe that their answer is honest. And yes the answer that I have received from them is "Someone started to offer this in the industry, and now it is a standard in the industry that we must be able to match. And yes it is drag to our business when we offer life-time warranty, but we had to do it or else we will have no business". 

@Brian Pulaski you are welcome to spend however much you would like and you will always make money with the ARV calculator. What I am saying is to maximize your profit margins. You could buy a house that is worth 10k and you spend 30k remodeling and sell it at 50k, or you could buy a house at 300k and spend the same 30k to remodel and sell at 400k. All I am saying here is, some houses, are not worth the effort as much as other houses.

I don't think a real buy would care that you didn't cover your outlets. Your house looks great.

I also do not think it's your marketing. Buyers nowadays are smart, they do not listen to stupid ads to get to know that you are selling. Leave it on zillow, redfin and local metrolisting, you should get enough buyers. 
Buyers nowadays are also smart enough to look beyond your minor imperfections. 

Your only problem is pricing. There are way too many houses around your area that is being sold for less than 200k. So It is likely that you over remodeled the house.

In order to maximize your profit margin, a house that is located in a neighborhood that is worth 1million, you should not spend more than 100k to remodel it.  A house that is located in a neighborhood that is worth 100k, you should not spend more than 10k to remodel it. I usually will not spend more than 5% to remodel the house UNLESS I am the person who is going to live in it. I don't like to apply a specific percentage in this situation only because there are apartments that only worth 70k and you would have to spend 10k to remodel it in order to move renters in. But percentage curve should be log curve. =)

This question is purely for curiosity purpose, and I would like to have someone who works for foundation repair answer this question. 

I see that many foundation repair companies are now offering lifetime warranty. Why is that? and how does your company sustain overtime with these "lifetime" warranty as if the customer experience any problems with foundation, you will be called and you will have to provide the support. 

Are the piers that you install adjustable? so if soil changes, you can just tweek the piers? 

As an investor, I would like to learn about your lifetime warranty and how you are able to provide the support for it.