All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Bartlett

Hey Scott thanks for reaching out:

We have confirmed that there is external water coming into the property - but do not think that we need to replace the exterior wall. I have been recommended by a local contracting company to install a sump pump 8.5 ft down to get water away from the property - at around $8-$9K. Does that sound accurate to you? They are charging $5200 just to dig the hole! I feel like it is pretty extreme and am curious if we can get away with just putting asphalt sealer around the edges of the property to get through the winter?

The property slopes slightly to the North, and has a pretty dramatic drop in grade on the N side of the property for about 4 ft.

Let me know what you think!

The past couple of weeks have been... educational... I am a new landlord, just purchased and occupy a 4plex. Tenants in one of my units were gone for a week and came back to standing water in two of their bedrooms. We got the water shut off, home warranty company called, plumbers deployed, and water mitigation company put to work. Home insurance company was put to work, and contractors were lined up to do the repairs. Long story short, copper piping replaced with 40 feet of pex piping, two feet of drywall/insulation removed from 3 out of 4 walls in two bedrooms (where we discovered more nails that were put into section of piping from when previous owners installed trim during a reno), and things have been progressing.

The water mitigation company has now expressed concerns that moisture may be seeping into the wood strut wall foundation from the outside (their numbers of saturation went up during a rain storm). I ran a hose under a window on the wall where numbers went up for an hour and they are coming back tonight to take another reading. If they come back with confirmation that water can hit the walls from the outside - what should I do? Is it as simple as putting asphalt sealer along the base of that wall and calling it a day? Or are we talking digging out a trench around the perimeter of the property to spray foam and dig French drains? Things have escalated from a simple leak to a huge project and I'm starting to feel like we are in pretty deep...

Any insight is appreciated.

Throwing my name and info out there as well! Wife and I just moved up from Oklahoma City and purchased a 4plex in NE Anchorage in August. We also have a SFH in OKC - looking at buying a duplex in the Spring. My wife is a realtor with Keller Williams here in Anchorage! Looking for any excuse to get together and talk RE whenever people are free!

I agree with building it into the rent. In the 4plex I own I pay all utilities, water/sewer, trash, and gas - and I added internet. Tenants pay electric. I charge a flat rate that is built into the rent and tenants love it because of the simplicity on their end - all they do is pay rent and their utilities are there.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I went ahead and addressed the issue - rather than jumping straight to a threat towards eviction with a notice to comply, I sent a simple text message first asking them to get the car off the grass, and to get the other vehicle moved within two weeks. The car was moved 30 minutes later and I came to find out they are selling their third vehicle anyway. They said if it wasn't sold by the date I specified they would find a new place to park it. Maybe new at this landlord thing, but I guess it boils down to simply not being afraid to just talk to tenants. Communication is the key to success!

Thanks again, I appreciate everyone's willingness to weigh in on the situation.

I think it all depends on long term goals. I am always super hesitant to sell a property because even if you aren't cash flowing, you are still getting tax benefits and appreciation/equity that will benefit you long term - as long as the day to day bill are being covered you're still winning in some sense.

I do think you need to restructure to ensure your bills are being covered - because if this property is causing stress and no active benefit than taking the cash and running is the right answer. Re-financing doesn't make sense because it is still going to cost you ~$6-$8000 (not out of pocket, but still in the long run), and interest rates right now are climbing. Find a way to reduce your bills and minimize your risk and increase rents to turn it into a winner. Then find something like a HELOC to buy your next property.

I have been wrestling with this question myself. I own a property in OKC and currently live in Alaska. Ill be moving in three years to either Hawaii or Colorado - and I would love to find a way to manage them all without having to spend ~$900/mo between my 3 properties. The only advice I have gotten thus far is have a team in place to be boots on ground when you need them to be. If you can pay a realtor in the area to show your property for a couple hundred bucks if you've done your background checks, marketing, screening, etc. yourself, then all that lacks is the personal touch which you can overcome with a good team.

I haven't decided if I am comfortable enough to do this yet myself... but I am curious what other advice you get!

A question for the masses:

I own/occupy a 4Plex in Anchorage and am still trying to figure out how to talk to tenants - and what medium to use. In the lease I have with my tenants, we stipulate that each unit is authorized 2 vehicles per unit. The last week of August, one of my tenants bought an RV and parked it on the driveway (they already have a Hyundai and a jeep). Because they said they didn't have anywhere to store it and had a plan (they were just waiting for a spot to open up at the facility), I gave them a week to move it.  I came back from a trip three weeks later, and it was still there. I knocked on their door and told them that I would have to have it towed if it wasn't moved by the next day. They moved it that night - just parked it down the street where it currently remains.

Fast forward to last Saturday - the same tenants purchase another vehicle! They park one of their original vehicles behind their RV down the street to respect the 2 car per unit policy. At 5:30 AM on Sunday, their car alarm goes off and wakes everyone in the cul-de-sac up. As we drive by it on our way to run errand later in the day, we find the back window had been shattered. We informed the tenants that their jeep had been broken into and let them know we could help if they needed anything. They brought the jeep back on the property, parked their new bronco behind it, and parked their Hyundai half on the pavement and half on the lawn.

My question is: how long should I wait before bringing it up? I don't want to be heartless - they just had a car broken into. But at the same time, none of this would have happened if they would have planned ahead and found storage for both the vehicles they knew they didn't have room for anyway. I have another unit filled by three siblings, and we told them they couldn't have a third car - so how long should I give these guys before bringing up that it needs to be moved without souring the rapport I have with these guys? And if/when I do - should that just be a face to face conversation or a formal notice that they were instructed to move their car?

I also have a lender that refinanced my first property with only 5% equity in the property. He works in all 50 states so let me know if you're interested!

Mike definitely a good tip - I appreciate it.

ROI is a great tool that many investors look at, but at the end of the day it doesn't pay any bills, so maximizing my cash flow is always my number one priority. With my most recent purchase - I literally put $0 into it and will be making $1500/mo when I move out of it so my ROI is incredible... but at the end of the day it is still only a drop in a barrel towards my end goal. I know it gets easier to allocate funds as portfolio expands and cash flow increases. Making only $1700/mo isn't enough to make large strides in a short amount of time which I've always looked at it as an "all or none" scenario towards one end or the other (debt or expansion). Splitting it feels like it would grind my progress to a halt.

Warren Buffets approach is snowballing your earnings towards the debt with the highest interest rate (since you're paying the most for it), and then, once paid off, re-rolling that freed up money towards your next debt. In my situation, my lowest earner is also my highest interest rate, but I also happen to owe less than half of what I owe on my best earner - which puts me in the grey area that has me reaching out. I like the idea of staggering loans as I continue to acquire.

Thanks for the input - greatly appreciated.