All Forum Posts by: James Defazio

Hey bill how does tying up the property with a lease option work? Reverse 1031 exchange sounds great but I don't have the down payment money apart from the equity in the property I would be relinquishing so seems like that would not work? If neither of these options work can I make an offer on the new property subject to sale of the relinquished property? And hopefully just explain this should only take a few months? It might be annoying to the guy who probably wants a quick sale and he'd probably not take it and see if he got a better deal within the next few months I would think...

thanks for the feedback you guys! One other thing I'd like to note. The guy wants 329k for the 7 plex. After walking through it, to get it up to our standards we would need to put 30-50k into it right away or asap for renovations on outdated kitchens and bathrooms. For that reason I was thinking about coming in low on the offer. Somewhere in the 270-295k range in hopes of getting a good deal on it or at least a good counter offer. Would like to pay no more than 299k for it. Additionally, the owner is in his 70s and ready to retire and tired of managing it himself so hopefully that will be some additional motivation to put a deal together with me. Do you guys think a conditional offer for 30-40k below their asking price is still an okay thing? 

Haven't researched much about a reverse 1031 exchange. With a commercial inspection in the neighborhood of 2k most likely coming, the less fees I have to pay probably the better right?   

so I want to do my first 1031 exchange. I have a 2 bedroom SFH that I have paid off and is worth between 92-105k. It is only making me about $625 a month after taxes and insurance. So it's a very low performing investment for the amount of capital I have tied up in it. It is currently rented until the end of May and the tenants that live there now would like to buy it but say they probably have 2 more months before they will be able to secure financing. The problem is I found the property that I want to exchange it for. It has been on the market for about a month now and is a 7 plex in a great area that cash flows about 2 grand after taxes insurance prop management and debt service and that would be on a commercial loan at 20 years. I don't want to lose out on this property but i can't sell the other property yet obviously. Not sure how 1031 exchange works was hoping to get some advice from people that are more familiar with the process. Thanks!

I have only owned the property since January of this year. She signed a new lease agreement which says no smoking in the house shortly after I closed on the property. After contacting section 8 housing on the matter they said they stay completely out of the security deposit matter. That is between her and I she told me. I did not allow her to smoke in the house and called her out on it the first time I saw it. (I did not smell smoke when I did the walk through before purchasing the property and just assumed she was a non-smoker). She promptly a few days later notified me of her intent to vacate the property. So the damage may have been done the previous 4 years that she has lived there before I owned the place but she clearly did not abide by the lease agreement. And I am gonna have my work cut out for me. Hope this clears up some details. 

When I bought this house with a mother in law suite I inherited a renter in the little attached unit. Since she was section 8 housing (which was an absolute nightmare to set up) we immediately signed a new lease which was my lease. It has a clause about absolutely no smoking in the house in it very clearly. Apparently, under her old lease there was no such clause. She must not have read the lease all the way through because I caught her family members taking lit cigs into the place and called her to remind her there is no smoking in the house per our lease agreement. She told me that she didn't think the lease changed that much but that she also "occasionally" smoked in the house. She has been living there now 4 years total so I am convinced I am going to have major cleaning, painting, and replacing things to get the stink out. She elected to notify me per section 8 that she will be moving out and I gladly accepted that since I knew she was doing damage to the property. The form I had to sign for section 8 said it was mutually beneficial for both of us to forego the rest of the lease, so I cannot charge her for breaking the lease. So my question is, since she broke the terms of the lease due to smoking in a non-smoking contract can I keep the entire deposit since I am sure it will cost me more than the $550 deposit to clean up the smell? Thank so you guys! The house is In Ohio 

thought I would update you guys. He finished the job today and I paid him the rest of what I owed him. He did pretty good work  and I'm just happy he got it done finally. I think he may have even given me a small discount. Anyways, I have learned my lesson. Thanks for the help everyone! 

 Tim, he is putting a new shower in for me last. He told me a couple days ago that he doesn't have the money to buy the shower. Even though I have paid him for 3/4 of this project. He did ask for me to wait until yesterday when he will have the money to buy it. That turned into today and he said he was on his way to get it so hopefully he gets it put in today. 

The update on the timeline is we talked it over with our tenants and decided to push the walk through and move in to March 1st instead. So it is now costing me lost rent but he is nearly done now. He said he will be done by Saturday. We'll see. I will keep you guys updated! 

I will also mention he has done pretty good work when he has been there. He's just rarely there seems like. But I have become frustrated with the idea of paying full price for something that my expectations were so far from being met. 

hired a contractor to remodel two bathrooms in our rental. Bid came out to $4600 for everything so we signed a detailed sow contract and he got to work. I told him I had to have it done by Feb 1st because I had tenants moving in and he said he'd have it done way before then. He was supposed to start on Jan. 10th. Every time I ask him if he's there working he's always "on his way" or "has his kids" and won't be there today. One time last week we went 4 straight days (Sunday through Wednesday) where we didn't hear from him at all. He didn't return phone calls or text messages and it took me threatening to tow his nice expensive trailer to them impoundment place for hi man to call me back. He told me his fiancée broke up with him and he has been sick (apparently enough to not answer phone calls or texts for 4 days) 

Long story short, he was in tears and apologized so I decided to let him finish the project. He is working on it today but we are not going to make our deadline and unfortunately I didn't have that in the sow. He also asked me for an extra 1000 on top of the 50% I paid him up front a few days into the work because of money trouble. Of course, me being a nice guy, decided to help him out and do that for him. I can see how that has worked out for me. 

My question is, do I have to pay him the full amount he charges me since he has repeatedly taken advantage of my kindness, patience, and abused our timeline? Thanks in advance for the help. 

This is my first ever post ever on bigger pockets. I simply had to point something out to all the people like me who read all of these posts and responses. The mere fact that nearly every single person has agreed that to use this man's knowledge at his expense without any appreciation and then leave him a bad review to hurt his business when you don't like his quote is disgraceful. What is more incredible to me is two things. 1. Not once after all of these people explain why he is wrong does he humble himself and say maybe I'm not in the right about this. Perhaps I change my mind and should correct this wrong. 

2. The last post this man has talks about greed and it being such a downfall to honest business. This infuriates me because this guy is blaming the contractor for being greedy while he expects others to offer him free information at their expense to save him money and do the repair himself and then leave a bad review for a guy trying to earn a living. The hypocrisy is incredible. To save a couple hundred dollars you disparage the name of a reputable contractor who went out of his way to help you? And he called HIM greedy! Pride hides greed pretty well I'd say. I'm still offended and I'm not a contractor. People are more important than our bottom line. When we treat others with kindness it tends to come back around to us.