All Forum Posts by: Rob K.

Have you guys used Rentlinx? It's free and the ads go to dozens of websites. I get calls from people who saw the ad on sites that I never heard of.

The only problem is that when you remove the ad, it's slow to come off of those other sites. I get calls months later. I just let the callers know about other houses that I have.

Scott W. I'm talking $30,000 or less after repairs. I look for houses that need very little work. The last one that I bought was $24,000 and I put $4,500 into it and then rented for $900. My best deals were in 2009. I bought one house for $4,900 and put $1,200 into it and rented for $585. I put a roof on this year ($2,200), but still a cash cow.

I like houses that are solid, but ugly. I've also done very well buying houses that are missing the kitchen. I guess cabinets are one of those things that people feel the bank owes them for throwing them out. It's hard for the average homeowner to buy a house and then have to dump money into a kitchen. I buy the cheap cabinets at HD and have a granite guy that works cheap.

Check out the suburbs around Detroit. You can buy a nice three bedroom ranch with a basement for under $30,000 and get $900 per month. It's safe to walk around, even at night. I carry a gun and have never had to use it. Not slummy areas. Lower working class areas.

Everything that you have ever heard about Detroit is true, but the suburbs are a different story. There are few murders and little to no gang activity. Some property crime, but you have that in any suburban area.

I replace plumbing valves also. Prevents a lot of problems later. I avoid gate valves and always go with quarter turn ball valves. I also replace faucets and toilets. I eliminate garbage disposals and get rid of pop up drains in the bathroom sink. I replace them with a grid drain and nothing can go down there and plug it up. Plumbing problems are always a nightmare and it's best to take care of them early.

Sometimes when you make it all fancy, you do what you think looks good and it's not what the masses are into. Also, the fancy stuff goes out of style faster than the basics.

If you are going to rent to Section 8, keep it simple. Those people are lazy and destructive. Whatever you put in is going to be abused.

I purchased my first house with a no doc and 20% down. I paid it all back and got several more similar loans.

The government needs to step out of the entire mortgage business and get rid of HUD, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. All loans would become portfolio loans with your local bank. Sure rates might be higher. So what? The individual banks would compete with each other for your business and absorb any risk of making bad loans. If you didn't like the terms the bank was offering, you could get a HML. Maybe you could get a loan from a guy at the pork store that hasn't shaved in four days. Either way, everyone would compete for your business instead of following the same boring set of rules.

These shows on TV are all faked. I do enjoy watching Flip Men. The little guy is funny. I'm sure that show is fake too.

House Hunters International can be fun to watch. I would never want to even visit some of these turd world s#*t holes they go to, let alone live there. It's still interesting, though.

I like to get 3%. I don't know how you would make any money at 1% or 1.5%.

I have my cable, internet, and home phone (landline) through Comcast. They will give you a basic second line for $10 per month. It doesn't have call waiting or caller ID, but it's good for a fax. It came with a local number. I just use it to send and receive faxes, but I sometimes use it as another outgoing line. I don't get many faxes these days. One of my friends laughed when I told him I still have a fax machine and called me a dinosaur.

It's nice if you want to make a call where you don't want someone calling you back. If they do call back, they get the fax.

I've dealt with this a bunch of times. It can be a real gray area. According to the courts that I deal with, if they left possessions and didn't give you the keys, you need to evict them.

I usually look to see if they left "possessions" or "garbage". Were appliances included with the lease? If yes, check the fridge and see if there's any food. Did the tenants have their own washer and dryer? Did they take them? What about the microwave? Was there a pile of garbage at the curb recently? Your best bet is to take a lot of pictures.

I would never do this, but a guy I know that looks just like me has done this a lot: Move stuff out of the way before you take the pictures to make it look more empty. Remove anything in the fridge before you take a pic. Do not throw their stuff out at the curb. Take it to a different location, either another house you own, the dump, or a dumpster. Also, you could change the locks right away and claims that you got the keys back from tenants.

I would try to call these people from a phone they won't recognize or have a neighbor call them and see what the deal is. They sound like real winners.