All Forum Posts by: Jim Shepard

I always go ahead and paint the garage while doing the rest of the house. The prospective tenants always remark about how much nicer the garage looks than the other rentals in the area. It helps separate from the other rentals. With the above being said, if you aren't going to charge any additional rent to your current tenant, I'd wait until next turnover. Save the $600 for now. DIY for $100 in paint and a few hours time.

I would never take all the rent upfront for several reasons. 1. Is it drug money instead of "money from a house sale"? Many drug dealers with no verifiable income and credit will do this to entice landlords. You don't your rental turned into a meth house! 2. Why would they be willing to trust someone they don't know with a year's worth of rent money? 3. They turn out to be a bad tenant and now you can't get them out. My "spidey" senses go on hyper when someone offers this. If it's too good to be true it probably is...

Inspection concessions are very common, if not normal in our area. I try to be reasonable when going back to sellers. I just closed on a house in the end of January. I didn't list all of the petty items or items I knew about when I made the offer on the house. It came down to 3 items. Mold in the crawl space ($1200), no expansion tank on newly installed water heater ($300) & bad electrical box ($1500). The box was a Federal Pacific breaker box that was recalled due to being a fire hazard (look for orange breakers). I wasn't aware of any of these items until my inspector pointed them out. I went back to the seller and asked for half. I should also mention I thought the roof needed replaced at a cost of $4000 but should be good for another 10 years. That's why I thought it would be reasonable to split it instead of asking for all. The way I look at concession items is I'm not getting the house I bid on in the condition I thought it was in.

I'd let her do it for a couple of months to get you past the slow season. If she wants the m2m let her know that after the 2 months are up, she'll have to sign a 1 year lease to remain.

Congratulations to the whole BP crew for a job well done! I can't tell you how much I have benefitted from the information contained in the forums. Hopefully I have contributed a little too.😎

If I could give you 10 votes I would! Finishing up a new rental and have half of the outlets to change tomorrow. I will be the first one at Home Depot tomorrow morning! I will be the one jumping up and down yelling "Please let me have these outlet covers"!

I don't think it is that unusual. Part of my loan requirement years ago for a strip center I was building was a life insurance policy with the bank as beneficiary. Your policy is deductible because it is a requirement of the loan. Any excess funds that aren't used to pay off your debt will be returned to your estate. I looked at it this way. I needed additional life ins anyway & I got it at a 40% discount after taxes.

I would not communicate with the tenant for two reasons. One, she is not going to be happy that she is being thrown out by the sheriff. If you give her notice she could take it out on your rental unit. Ever see concrete in a toilet? Two, if you communicate the wrong thing to her, she might be able to go back to court to get additional time. She has screwed you out of several months rent. It's payback time seeing her stuff thrown to the curb!

I can understand your perspective of this purchase. Your husband's uncle pays off his debt and you get a property at a good discount. Sounds great in theory but thinking of it from a business view her are the problems I see: 1. Let's say the uncle is able to pay the rent for 3 years and then gets sick. Guess who's not getting a rent payment? Are you willing to evict him if necessary? Probably not. Will you be able to make the payments / taxes / insurance etc. if you aren't receiving a rent payment? 2. Are other relatives going to say you took advantage of the uncle? Will it be worth it when you go to a family get together and have to face the relatives saying this? 3. Let's say a few years down the road you need the money out of the house. What are you going to do with the uncle then? Always have an exit plan! 4. What if the uncle decides to help another relative and let him stay at his house? Will you be ok with this? Best advice I can give you is not to mix business with family. Friends for that matter too. Read thru BP on this subject. I remember a very sad discussion where a BP member just had to evict 2 family members. Family that hadn't paid rent in a year and a half. This BP member could no longer make the payment on the house without the rent. How was he related to the relatives was one of the questions someone asked? It was his parents! Don't put you and your husband into this situation.

Since the water heater was only 4 years old, I would give the manufacturer a call to see if they will take care of the damage. I would think they should be responsible for the damage but then again I'm not an attorney. Might want to get an attorney involved if they don't take care of it. Take pics and save that tank!