All Forum Posts by: Joel B.

Hi @Erin Schreiber,

I've been through your situation, so I want to encourage you to hang in there. You will make it through. I was forced to sell the house that I had and I highly recommend you avoid that path. I would definitely look into a cash-out refi so you can get the funds needed to pay off your ex. Keep control of the property if you can, you can definitely recover from this one.

The tools to use is a mortgage calculator. There are a bunch of free ones online. Contact the David Greene team (or whatever mortgage broker you would like to use) to find out what you might expect the interest rate to be on the new loan. That, along with the amount of the new loan (I'm guessing around $300k), will get you a new monthly mortgage number. That will give you a good idea of where you will be at coming out of the divorce.

The numbers you provided look good on paper. I think you can easily survive this one and come out stronger on the other end.

Is that the information you were looking for? If you're wanting to dive deeper into the numbers, use the Rental Property calculator in the Tools menu at the top.

Hope that helps. Blessings!

You will need to check with a real estate attorney to find out how to stop the eviction quickly. I would assume that getting the mortgage caught up would make the eviction go away, so start with a phone call to the mortgage company to see what it takes to get that done. You may have to be working on multiple items at once here to get the job fully done. It's very possible you can't stop the eviction, but rely on a real estate attorney for that advice and direction.

Sometimes, the department that handles land deeds will transfer the deed to a new name once they have a death certificate and/or a copy of an executed will. Not sure if you have access to those documents, but it's worth a call to the municipality to see what they need to get the transfer done. My guess would be that they need a court order, which is why you may have to open a probate case if one isn't already open.

Keep fightin' for your friend Zachary. You can only do your best, and you were indeed invited to the party pretty late. You got this!

@Tim Marshall,

When I hear dirt floor and working on cars, my biggest concern is the environmental issues you might run into in the future. If you have a mechanic in that garage for several years, think about how much oil, petrol, and other chemicals might seep into the ground. Then, if you want to turn around and sell the property, how much would environmental remediation cost you when that tenant leaves? The security deposit should cover most of your cost getting the unit back into rentable shape once your tenant left. If you're really doing a mechanic in a dirt floor garage, I would be tempted to do a much higher deposit due to the potential environmental impact you would have to deal with.

Hope that makes sense.

Hi @Zachary Wells,

First, I want to applaud you for having a desire to help your friend. Great job there. We need more of that in this world.

Okay, so you HAVE TO get the deed issue resolved. If her husband died, then the deed needs to be transferred to her name via the courts. That's usually handled in the probate process but is much easier if there is a will. If you need to catch up the mortgage to buy time for that to happen, do that for her. That will get the mortgage/bank happy for now, but I'm guessing the situation will simply come up again. They will have a much easier time if that deed is updated to reflect the new owner (her, I'm assuming), just be careful because ownership can be contested.

This is a great time to hire a probate attorney for assistance or to get your questions answered on getting the deed transferred. I would target that as your highest priority and make the bank happy to buy yourself some time.

Hope that helps. Blessings!

Hi @Matthew T.,

Personally, I would get the unit listed and rented out as soon as possible to someone else. Once that is done, use his deposit and rent money to cover what you lost, and the additional cost of, finding a new renter. For example, if you get it rented at the 1-month mark, you keep his first month rent and refund his deposit. I'm pretty sure a judge would side with that position.

You can legally hold him to the contract, but, since there's no need to pick a fight, use this method as a compromise so that he gets out of the lease, and you don't carry financial damages. This is obviously not the type of tenant you want (someone who seems to have lied to you), so I wouldn't try to keep him there. Let him go, but don't take the financial hit that he legally should carry.

I'm not an attorney, so you might want to run this by one. I don't know what the laws in your state are concerning this type of situation.

Hope that help. Blessings!

Hi @Tim Marshall,

A good rule of thumb for security deposits is one month's rent. If the monthly rent is $250, a security deposit of $250 is a good place to start at.

I would suggest you post additional details though on what you are doing with the garage as that would help people offer more specific suggestions. For example, if you're renting out space to a family member so they can park their car in the garage, maybe $75-$100. If you're renting out your garage for storage, perhaps $100-$175. If you turned your garage into a dwelling unit, I would go with $400-$800, depending on what rent is in your area.

Hope that helps. Blessings!

Hi @Nicholas Reynolds,

Great question! The most important part of the deal is the contract you setup at the beginning. You need to have all the terms laid out and agreed to by all parties. As part of the terms, you need to get agreement with the seller about this specific topic. Since you're taking over the mortgage, you need to have access to that online account. The key part is to put it in writing and EVERYONE signs it.

Now to get to the heart of your question. The best way to "take over" is to get the login information for the account, change the password, and then work on getting the email address changed to your email address. You can sometimes add an additional email address if they don't allow you to change the email address.

That online account is the doorway to the mortgage, so I would make sure (before signing a contract) that you are able to get access to the account and change the email address. If the mortgage holder is the same financial institution that the seller is using for other banking type accounts (checking/saving/etc), you are going to have a very difficult time doing this (if not impossible). If it's a third-party mortgage company, then your path should be pretty easy.

Once you have gained control of that online account, you change where the payments come out of (your account instead of seller's account) and you go from there. The mortgage holder doesn't care where the money is coming from, just that they are getting paid.

Hope that helps. Blessings!

Hi @Mike Jimenez,

I'm an IT Admin full time, so I'll toss in my opinion. At this point in time, it really doesn't matter what make/model/brand that you choose. They ALL have their own advantages and disadvantages. I personally own an HP at home. I buy Dell, Lenovo, and Acer for my company, but that's because those were the best deals at the time. I'm not brand loyal, so when I tell you that I like Dell, it doesn't mean that I'm married to it or recommend it. We just have a ton of Dell computers at my office and they do just fine. I've had plenty of Dell's fail, so take it with a grain of salt.

If you're trying to decide between PC and Mac, I would personally steer you towards PC. They cost less and it will be easier to find assistance/service since a lot more people know PCs. Take into consideration what software you want to run and see if there is a PC and/or Mac version. Quickbooks is great for accounting, but I have no experience with their Mac version. I DO know that Macs have less functionality with Microsoft Office apps, so if you're a heavy user of Microsoft products, stick with the PC.

The last thing to keep in mind is that if you choose Macs, understand you are going to pay more for EVERYTHING. They cost more at the start, accessories are more expensive, there are less accessories for Macs, and you're signing up to live in Apple's walled garden. All reasons that keep me away from them, but not reason enough to tell people to avoid them if that is what they like and are comfortable with.

Hope that helps. Blessings!

Hi @Allison Black,

Where is the property located? If you don't get a response here from folks, check with local realtors. They have numbers of inspectors that they like using. If you contact multiple realtors and find that many are using the same inspector, that hints at that inspector being good (or good at marketing). Check Redfin and Zillow for houses that recently closed. Asked the new homeowners who they used as an inspector and if they liked them.

Hope that helps. Blessings!

Hi @Maynard Mohanlall,

The biggest tip I can give you is to screen, screen, screen potential tenants. How great your success is or how terrible your issues are greatly depends on the quality of your tenants. Set your expectations up front (write them down) and make sure any potential tenant understands what you expect from them (on-time payment, good communication, etc.). The second tip is to make sure you do your inspections. Don't ignore your property because you think your tenants are good and quiet. Inspect every 3 months.

Hope that helps. Blessings!