All Forum Posts by: Jonathan R McLaughlin

@John Underwood only thing I would tweak to the good advice you gave is that "break even" at this point is a potential pitfall for her. She needs to lower the rent to what it will rent for....the market doesn't care about her expenses...

drop the rent hard, not gradually. Do it now when the best tenants (the folks with their stuff together) are looking for the next month. Towards the end of the month you are going to get less prepared tenants. Thats not awful but its better to go now.

Pay for facebook ads when you go on facebook, pay for premium ads when you go on zillow. I bet your PM didn't do this to "minimize your expenses" Oy.

Apartments.com is a bit of a scam now for premium but it works--if you are going to do it do each unit as separate properties.

FYI 1250 rent on buying for 135 a unit is promising, but doesn't guarantee cash flow positive at all. And you answered another question that your mortgage is "under 3750". True expenses are PITI then maintenance and capex reserves and vacancy--which you are already being hit with. Really doesn't matter for this conversation but I was left in a little doubt about the cash flow.

All the expenses above, even taken together, are less than half a month of vacancy, so I'd be agressive. You can raise rents at some point, pet fees maybe other stuff but its hard to crawl out from under multiple vacant months. 

So, get it stable, then get it good.

@Hannah Simpson hi Hannah-definitely part of the learning process, good for you. 
how do you know you can successfully flip the place if you don’t know what the bank is asking?

All they want to know is what you are planning to do, how much you think it costs and how much you think it will be worth when done. 

Kindly meant, but if you can’t put this together to some degree of accuracy you should t be flipping

quote: The city building department determined that the guest house was technically never approved for occupancy

There is no such thing as "technically not approved". There is just "not approved". He built and operated an illegal unit. He did it knowingly. His behavior was just as unscrupulous as the professional tenants, just not as dramatic. 

@Scott E. so, she is a criminal lets make that clear.

But the real risk in question was building and renting an illegal unit. 

He didn't follow the law--deliberately it seems--and so he wasn't entitled to the protection of the law.

I would blame him before I blame CA

prior to foreclosure you don't own it

You got to the right action eventually, which was to swap it out when you couldn’t get it repaired quickly.

Big takeaway is big box warranties are useless (a scam really) ESPECIALLY for landlords.

I wouldn’t deal with them, local company for repairs and/or replacement, every time.

citi-data and niche are awesome for online

links to local papers to scan for news--you will get a sense of the general momentum

locally, restaurants and servers deal with the public every day. A simple "whats it like here?" can tell you a lot.

Drive there during the day and just hang out and look for a bit

For temporary savings what are the odds of a caretaker gig? Living in a house or cottage next to a big house, taking care of it. Lots of no -rented second homes out there…get insured/bonded and you might be surprised..

Hey, used to work boats too. Congrats. I remember a captain who had 3 rental properties I thought he was amazing. He (and his spouse) were certainly the exception though :)

Gotta think Ft. Lauderdale has seen this before. Talk to some local bank officers, talk to some marina offices to network. talk to a couple of owners might be a good private finance deal for them. hell find a captain like the one I mentioned :)

You’ll be in the 1% of folks with their stuff together to do this.