All Forum Posts by: Jacob Chaney

Hi Daniel,

This will really depend upon local tenant protection laws in Buffalo. I know in DC that even an oral lease is considered a contractual agreement and is fully enforceable by the landlord and tenant court. Any desire to evict someone with a oral lease in my city would need to go through the entire eviction process.

Ultimately it's going to be up to your local landlord and tenant ordinances about what constitutes an actual lease and any eviction remedies that might be available.

Good luck

Jacob

Hi Shadonna,

From their site, it looks like they charge a 7.5% commission from their hosts. Doesn't seem awful, especially if they are able to increase my cash flow and keep my property filled for 3/4 months at a time.

Question becomes if these intern and college student tenants are worth the additional risk at this point.

Thanks for everyone's input. I really respect everyone's opinions. Can I get your thoughts on the folks at Roomsie? They're are going after this exact demographic and are focused on D.C. only. They are advertising that I can get 34% more for my single family homes per month in the better locations than market rent.

Seems like a viable option, especially with the Summer coming up and the recent law passed by DC Council.

Hi Russell,

Thank you for the feedback. This is a popular misunderstanding and one that I'm happy to clear up.

However, upon a closer read, the most recent legislation that was passed by the D.C. Council only applies to short term stays.  As defined in the bill, a short term stay is considered anything less than 30 days.  These students and interns need housing anywhere from 14 - 20 weeks which put them well outside the restrictions of Airbnb type regulations or zoning limitations.

If anything, I believe that it is this recent crack down on short term stays that would make serving this demographic an even more attractive option for the savvy real estate investor.

I'm curious to know if anyone here has experience or is currently servicing this niche market in D.C. proper or even in VA or MD? I'm considering building a platform to let others reach these customers but wanted to take the pulse of this forum first.

• Are you currently serving this niche?
• What has your experience been like so far?
• Do you think this is a growing or declining customer segment in D.C.?
• What would be your biggest concern in dealing with these customers?
• Would you participate in a platform, similar to Airbnb, that was designed strictly to target these customers in our area?

I have a decade of domain expertise serving this demographic and have first hand knowledge of how profitable it can be if done correctly.  I'm also happy to answer any questions you might have about this very niche investment strategy in our area.

Thank you all in advance for your feedback :)

@Russell Brazil @Chris Mason @Stephanie Medellin @Jeff Dulla @Harjeet Bhatti I uderstand that you might not consider it an error but it's enough of a problem and inaccuracy to severely drag down my FICO and therefore my loan pricing. All other fundamentals are super solid. My DTI is good, documented income levels are healthy and all signs point to these being solid loans for my lender with the exception of this FICO issue which I've traced to inaccurate credit balance reporting.

Would you all recommend that I just wait it out for the next two weeks for my accounts to report to the credit bureau's instead of paying the $430 my lender wants for the rapid rescore?

I agree. The lender is under no obligation to offer a rapid rescore. 

However, as a consumer, I'm free to take my business to a lender looking to get me the best terms but who also complies with federal law when it comes to passing fees to customers. 

My question here is what others are doing and if their practices are rooted in the law or simply company policy. 

@Jeff Dulla Thank you for the reply Jeff. Is the reason you don't pass these costs on to borrowers is because your company believes it's prohibited by law or is this just a matter of company policy/customer service?

Working on a cash out refinance for two investment properties in DC. Credit agencies aren't reporting correct revolving credit line balances/utilization and lender is suggesting rapid rescore to increase fico. 

There's a debate about who pays for this. There are many places online that state that it is illegal to charge consumer for rapid rescore per the Fair Credit Reporting Act. (See https://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/blog/charging-consumer-rapid-rescore)

In your experience, who historically pays for a rapid rescore? 

@Chris Mason I've got contracts, tax returns, copies of checks, bank account statements etc.  If that's not enough for underwriters to trust my P&L's then I'm going to have to rethink everything!! I thought I was making sound decisions but without knowing what I would get for my premium income stream it's impossible for me to do deal analysis. 

I was hoping maybe an underwriter or commercial lender would chime in here.