All Forum Posts by: Ed O.

Yikes. I'd set a fire under K. She's likely in violation of some re laws, especially if she's doesn't hold a license.
See if you can get her to have the tenants removed. Don't take her word on anything tho. How did you find her? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Tenant screening is so critical and a poor tenant out of the gate will sting bad. We all have made a ton of mistakes, so don't feel too bad about it.
With all that said, begin the eviction immediately. Also, try offering the tenant $500 to move - cash for keys. Give them the money when they move out by an agreed upon date. It's cheaper and faster than a full blown eviction.

Avoid carpet wherever possible. I have begun using allure flooring. It's attractive and allegedly very durable, a 25 year floor. It's floating and waterproof.

Yard: Make as much as possible, mower maintainable. Limit / remove trees and shrubs whenever possible.

Plumbing fixtures: Use shedule 40 drain pipes under bathroom and kitchen sinks with a wye cleanout. I have had so many leaks with the screw together pipe over the years.

Bathroom remodels: Remove any bathroom windows that reside inside a shower enclosure. They can be a massive maintenance headache. Install a fart fan to bring it up to code.

Gas lines: remove all unused fuel runs. Run electric for dryer and stove if electric not present.

Security: 4 inch screws in the latches of all exterior doors. Makes it a little tougher for them to get in and steal my copper.

Storm doors, if present: have chains installed so they can't whip wide open and trash the closers. Be clear with the tenant, they're on the hook for it if anything happens. It's best to remove them altogether.

Appliances: NEVER an icemaker. They make up 50% of appliance service calls. NO THANKS!

If having a furnace installed, pay the extra 10-25 and have a filter rack installed. Makes changing the filter much much easier.

Wish I learned these things on day 1.

1) If BiggerPockets put on a conference, would you want to attend?

Yes.
2) Would you be willing to travel (fly) to attend such an event?
Yes.

3) Do you think 2 days would be adequate for a first shot at it?

How about an optional 3rd day, or some sort of activity or networking the day before.

4) What kinds of ideas do you have for sessions?

Have people on this site present. I attended the mrlandlord.com
national conference this year - the best presenters were the contributors. Here's what totally sucked. When I got to the conference, I was extremely broke. I expected to refine my landlording skill set to the max. Instead, 80% of the day was spent listening to national guru's try and sell their products that were completely unrelated to landlording. It's frustrating when you literally scrape by to get to a convention, sleep in a ripped up rental home with no a/c or working plumbing, and then get the hard sell for pricey products. That being said, it's been a tough year, but things are starting to look up again.

5) What would a BP conference look like to you?
A big room filled with successful investors willing to freely share their ideas and experiences.

6) Of the real estate and other events that you've attended, what is the one thing that you've liked the most?

The networking. By far the most valuable thing I have gained.

7) The least?

The hard sales pitch. The financial expense as well as lost family time is a large price to pay to make it to these sorts of events. To have to sit through national speakers fudging details to make people buy their super deluxe investing 3000 set, which included 800 cds and 25 manuals, which could be reduced to 1 cd in mp3 format sucks. The person hosting or gathering groups like this usually gets a nice fat cut of the sales of the guru materials.

If we're there to become better investors, why not put it all out there, so we can all benefit, without the pretense of a salesman pushing products? Just charge a little more and give us all the material when we walk in the door.

The conference sounds like a great idea!

Exit strategy is the most important concern. If the addition is recent, it may pose a larger problem. If it's older, it's less likely to be noticed. That being said, if the city doesn't know by now, they may never figure it out. You could always play the "it's always been like this" card.

On the surface, it sounds pretty good.How is the neighborhood? How easy would it be to rerent if the current tenant is a bum?

Since you have not matched, you can't be certain where you'll be a year from now. It would suck to buy a place and have to move out in a few months for your residency. The deals should still be out there.

The problem with the situation is this: fannie and freddie will allow more than 4, but I know (and have not been able to find anyone) of no large, national lenders that will go beyond 4 financed properties. If you do, share the secret with the world. Your best bet is to find a local bank that will work with you. You may have to make a lot of calls to find one, but they are out there.

A broken underground sewer pipe in the yard, is causing a puddle outside for days? If a temp fix is to snake it out until he can get bids and get it done correctly, I think you're way too aggressive in your approach. It's not like a dead A/C that can be fixed in 30 minutes. A lot of work goes into digging and replacing a broken pipe.
Did you ever think about keep your animals away from the problem in the yard? This should be common sense.
Why not work out a deal to move early and leave things on good terms. Work out a deal, such that you get your deposit back at move out, and start looking?

Do you blame the guy for snaking it out to see if perhaps there's a simpler solution? Landlords can't always fix things at the snap of someone's fingers. If your lease is up, I'd move. I can't side with the other investors here and encourage you to try and make an example out of your landlord.

Sometimes a line may need to get snaked twice, because the first guy didn't do a good job.

At a local reia last week, I talked to a newbie investor... just getting his feet wet. I asked him if he'd read any materials, etc.. He said he was thinking about going on Armando's bus tour. I think what I told him changed his mind.

Move on from the mess. Reporting it will only steal your time from more profitable ventures. I don't know what you stand to recoup from doing so.