All Forum Posts by: Jon Penton

Thank you folks for your input! I brought it up today to my BIL/Landlord and he will discuss it with his business partner. See you all around BP!

@Theresa Harris Indeed, I think you are right! I’ll share with him my observations first thing I the morning. Thank you for your response!

@Lauren Kormylo - wow, that puts some urgency on the matter - thank you for your response!

@Scott Mac Thank you for your response - I will certainly tell him first thing in the morning. I hope I’m wrong, that everyone and their dogs are on the lease, but I’m sure he’d appreciate me looking out for his interests.

Hey Folks! So I rent the upstairs of a two-story triplex from my brother-in-law, and I’ve been very involved with assisting him in managing properties before, though that isn’t a role I currently fill.

He just signed a lease with a new set of tenants, and as far as I can tell, it was with two ladies, only, and their two cats. His policy is for every adult who will be living in his property to submit an application - which, upon their signature and submission, authorizes him to do background checks, criminal and rental history, credit check, etc. I know every time a potential tenant asks if a fellow adult, who won’t be paying rent, but would live there, needs to submit an application, he tells them “Yes, Absolutely”.

It seems the two ladies have two adult men living there in addition to two large dogs not on the lease.

A.) I have half a mind to just keep to myself, and let things play out however they do. They seem like decent people and I don’t want to cause trouble for them.

B.) I feel obligated to inform my brother in law/landlord of my observations and leave it in his hands.

If you were the landlord in this situation, would you want to know? Or is it just annoying to get that kind of snitching (I’ll call it what most cynical minds would call it) from tenants on other tenants?

I plan to be a landlord myself, so I’m also looking to gain a bit of wisdom to carry with me into the future.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and any input you provide - feel free to speak as plain and bluntly as you please!

@Michael Ealy I’m a real estate photographer - loved the video! The lighting, color, transition between rooms, even the slowmo fans 👌🏼 Did you do that yourself?

@Scott Mac It would seem that the OP’s primary goal is to create 1 thing: a profitable Deal.

His vehicle is not his mission. His vehicle is problem areas, that can benefit the community by being gentrified and made safer than before.

I’m not so certain that he’s leaning too heavily into “fixing people”, with that in mind, his strategy proposal still has my attention.

@Stuart Fox Hope you’re doing well! My brother in law, Ashton Smith, has about 50 rental properties in the Sherman/Denison Tx area. He’s been an investor here for several years and could probably point you in the right direction or what/who to avoid.

For about 6 months last year he managed another investor’s additional 50 properties while they were traveling abroad, and I assisted him during that 6 month period. Let me know if you’d like to reach out to him via email or phone. Otherwise, best of luck on your search. I’ll be following the thread with interest!

@Luke Haug @Brent Coombs Thank you gentlemen. I shared this with my wife and we realized that we actually know a loan officer who we have a good relationship with, so thats a starting point but I know I need to have a couple backup relationships as well that I should start developing. I didn't realize that savings accounts got better than .02% so that's why I wasn't really considering it. Thank you for opening my eyes to that option, I'll begin combing through local banks and what they offer as well as online banks. @Brent Coombs would you say that the way to determine if a bank is going to offer me a favorable loan/rate is to just talk to them when inquiring about their savings account rates and communicate my intentions for the near future? Or maybe just talk to local investors and what their experiences/recommendations are? Yes, I did have a misconception of how an add value play would affect my HELOC, so thank you for clearing that up! Finally, that is really good advice about savings history. My father-in-law had abt 5k saved up but it was just stuffed in a mattress (not literally) and I guess bc he didn't have an account that showed history banks wouldn't loan to him, so he gave my wife the money so she could "gift" it back to him and there be a record of it. That is the kind of squirly stuff I would like to avoid.

Bigger Pockets Nation! After about 3 months of listening to Bigger Pockets Podcast, taking furious notes and reading through many forums as I have questions, I'm ready to make my first post! My wife and I just had a baby, and ended up using most of our savings during the process. We are revisiting our budget, and as I try to tell every dollar where it must go, I come up with a query regarding our savings. I've read through Rich Dad Poor Dad for the second time now and I'm heartily convinced that as I rebuild our savings, I dont want to just put it in an envelope or safe, or a bank account where it's just going to sit. I want to put it somewhere each pay period (I'm going to be putting away about $300+/month) where it can GROW, but when I'm ready to use it, maybe as a downpayment, or as my "skin in the game" in a partnership deal, I won't be facing a penalty for withdrawing that cash? I do have a roth IRA with about 6k in it, and something else I can think of is we have a home that we could put the money into making some value-adding improvements (kitchen and updated interior trim mainly) and maybe then use a HELOC or something of that nature. The sole purpose/intended use of this savings would be for real estate, that a portion of it can be used as purchasing power and a portion of it kept as reserves for vacancy, capital expenditures, holding costs, etc. So, my main question, as the post title states: Where would you suggest someone plug their savings into, where it can grow in the short term with the intention of liquidating or accessing it within a year or two and not getting penalized? Or can it grow and the penalty be minimal? To clarify I'm not looking for magical agressive growth, just something better than cash sitting in a safe or a traditional savings account. Thanks for your time and wisdom, and if there is anything I can help you with, just let me know! Location: Denison/Sherman, Texas