All Forum Posts by: Jamie O'Connell

 Thanks for the info, yea it's a pretty common theme in the podcast and such world. I agree though, not worth the hassle. I dont think I will be offering it again. 

The theory is good, not pay $1200 for a lawyer to do an eviction and wait 4 months not getting paid rent when you could pay $800 the first month of non payment. But as in most theory, only good in theory haha.

 So I spend a lot of time on TikTok (too much really) and I have NEVER heard or seen this squirrel in my life. Apparently it's in Elmira NY which is where all of my investment properties are! Almost knocked me over. But also people are thinking of marching to the house of the lady who POSSIBLY reported the squirrel and burning their house down, so I think it's best I dont go down that route haha. 

Yes that is my thinking too! But you hear so much about it and time is money so in theory I think it's a great idea. But seems to be a bit of a smoke screen. 

Very thankful I kept going with the eviction route as well and didnt blindly trust them. Would have cost me a fortune! 

I know that most people preach about cash for keys, I have had two tenants I have tried it on and it has always lead to an even bigger headache and elongated the stress. 

I inherited one tenant when I bought a property that the seller moved in right before I closed. I knew the risk of them not paying as they hadn't even signed a lease but it was my first Seller Finance property so I was willing to take the risk. 

They paid about 90% of their first months rent after my ownership (after a lot of follow up on my point) and never paid another cent. In Upstate NY it takes 3 - 4 months to get someone evicted and it's a stressful situation to begin with. I ended up trying to do the cash for keys, offered them a set amount, offered to forgive the rent they never paid and gave them 2 weeks to move out. They took it, and then dragged it out for another 3 months, kept promising they were moving out and found. place and yada yada but never ended up leaving. I of course (always recommend this) had my lawyer working on the eviction the entire time as I knew they were not trustworthy due to their lack of paying rent and lack of any remorse. So I didn't end up losing any more money than what was owed but it added about 2x the amount of stress with false hope and promises that never ended up happening. I did eventually get them evicted and thankfully they didnt trash my property (though they left a lot of trash that cost me $500 to get rid of but o well).

The other time this happened was a tenant I moved in who had a good job at a hospital, the hospital had a program where they paid the security deposit and first months rent. The tenant was responsible for the other 11 months of the lease rent and paid two months and then stopped. Following up with mass amounts of excuse and ghosting so I ended up starting the eviction process per usual. I offered the same terms as the previous one and they were very happy with it and made the usual promises. Move out time came and they hadn't even started looking for a place etc etc. 2 weeks out from the court date for the eviction they upped and moved and didn't even request the funds (not that I would have given it to them anyways because they were 2 months past the agreed upon move out date). Thankfully the tenant above let us know that they saw them packing a haul so we went in, all was good and non damaged and empty. Spoke to our lawyer, posted the necessary documents to confirm it was abandoned property and went on to have it cleaned and a Section 8 tenant moved in.

My question is, I hear everyone talk about cash for keys, cash for keys, cash for keys. But so far I have found it to be an emotionally exhaustive process and have had zero luck. I have only tried it twice so just wondering what the more experienced investors think of this, or is this just something that people talk about to try and make a real estate investing negative seem not so bad? 

REMINDER: Even when you make a deal with a non paying tenant to always continue the legal process in tandem. Never trust that someone who doesn't keep a promise on paying their lease contract will also keep their word on leaving. It's a game and they have probably won it in the past. 

I agree with Brook, if you can do your own money (Heloc, cash etc.) I think it is best. However, if you dont have access to that a DSCR loan, fix and flip or fix and hold loan are good. The only reason I dont suggest those right away is because if it's your first prop they wont give you great rates or percentages.

 Love to hear of someone who used it as intended. It truly has some great people on it and id love to see more people start to accept vouchers! Make sure you find some people in your local area who have done it as each areas Sec 8 team is different. Some like mine are easy to work with but some are just awful and it's important to take that into consideration! 

 Very very solid point. I have not had to experience someone losing their voucher before and im sure it will be a NIGHTMARE. I try not to focus to much on the what could happens because there are so many but so glad you said this because it wasnt even a thought in my mind and will be a big thing to deal with when (not if) it happens!

Love it. Sadly what I have found is that the slum lords with the neglected properties get the same amount monthly as my nicer properties. However, I feel better about it and I hope that my tenants will take better care of them when they are there. Plus the FMR and Section 8 payment is way more than my carrying costs, spec since I buy multi families, so Its not like its decimating my monthly gross by taking care of some place. Plus it helps with appraisals.