All Forum Posts by: Jonathan G.

Good question and helpful answers. I've seen prepaid items such as taxes and interest rolled into loan on initial good faith estimates (about 4K) for refinance. I wonder if any loan officer commission $$ for doing that.

Do you think the apartments would be marketable sitting over the most popular bar in town? Your tenants would ideally be the bars employees.

I would not supply a mower under any condition.  

After 4 repair bids/attempts, I went with AAA repair.  Fixed the built in LG Microwave for just over $100.  There was a lot of time spent taking it apart so that is what made the repair costly.  Turns out, this was a difficult job from the beginning due to access issues. 

Company #1: showed up and stated it would be a lot of work to get to the area needed to service. Renter provided tech with my number and tech said he would give me a call with price estimate. Ultimately, they did not get back in touch with me. I reached out twice as a follow up with no luck. Not sure what happened or what company's thought process was. 

Company #2.  Told me the day of the anticipated repair that "sorry, our dispatcher did not realize we did not repair LG built-in. Another 2 days wasted. 

Company #3: the actual manufacturer. Too expensive.  Actually over $200 and did not even include parts since it was a rental.  I was in touch with LG multiple times during the process but it was just too expensive. SMH

Company #4. AAA repair.  Fast. Quick. Reliable.  I will use again.  I hope someone finds this information helpful.  

JG

we own on a 4/3 SFH rental in Hermitage and that market seems to be strong for rentals.

Sounds like you may want the deal more than they want to clean prior to sell.  Perhaps the seller knows that. Factor in removal costs and close the deal. 

we have a similar situation. Current renters in SFH paying $1800 in a market that would support somewhere around $2300 per month. I had decided to propose a $100 increase with a six-month lease and then another $100 at the end of that second six-month lease to bring it up to $2000 per month which was still below market but the renters have been in for many years and were overall really good tenants. Fortunately for us, they informed us before I send out the new terms that they were planning on downsizing which was a bit fortuitous because now we are going to put it on the market at $2300/month this spring. My biggest regret is that we did not increase the rent more over the last eight years and we have been leaving thousands of dollars on the table every year unnecessarily. One of the biggest learning lessons I have gained from being a member of this board. My prior philosophy had been since they are really good renters I would not want to jeopardize losing them by proposing a rent increase but in the end that's not worth losing up to 4-5k every year. My prior philosophy was flawed and it has cost me a lot of money. Moving forward I will keep my low maintenance long-term renters just below market but certainly not that much below .

sounds interesting 

contractor quality work and price is always variable and it's often difficult to predict who's going to do what. One thing that I have found in regards to identifying contractors that I continue to work with are those that will return my call after the job is  supposedly complete. Essentially I don't expect the work to be perfect initially but I do expect them to come back and get it the way I like it. Often a bad contractor will just ignore your calls and I pretty much weed those guys out .  I have contractors that I use often that mostly get it right the first time but they always return to get it the way that I want it to be if it's wrong. Those are the ones I stick with.  Also I make it a rule to never pay the final bill until I'm completely satisfied.  Although not true with my regular contractors, with some of the newer guys I've hired, once they have your money, good luck . They will swear up-and-down that they will come back after you pay them but rarely is that the case. Hang onto that final 25-50% until the job is complete the way you want it. 

I had an out of state application offer an additional 100/month over my asking price of 2k per month AND pay a full year in advance.  Credit checked out as did income verification however it seemed to good to be true that a single female with 2 pets needed a 3 story home with a finished basement. In the end, I chose equally qualified tenants without pets but turning down a potential check for over 27 grand was VERY hard for me but the offer just seemed to good to be true  . In the end, I got alternative tenants at the same price (2100/month) who pay the traditionally  monthly way for a 1yr lease with no pets so I'm sure the hardwoods will fare much better.