All Forum Posts by: Jose Clavijo

I have been an active investor in Fayetteville NC since 2018. I love the market. I have been fixing homes mainly for buy and hold. I am grateful for all my tenants. Many homes in the area have decades of deferred maintenance so there is always a goods opportunity out there. I bought a house last summer with a tenant paying $200/month so you can imagine the condition. Fayetteville is growing every year, most of my tenants came from out of state, all relocating to be close to their families, and running away from markets with high rental rates. 

Hi. I did this once and never again. When utilities are included tenants tend to carelessly use the service with no consideration since it is "Free" to them. If you must pay the bill i would include it in their monthly payment based on average consumption. 

It is up to you to decide. I found that limiting applications to No Pets allowed has increased my vacancy. Usually, prospect tenants that have pets understand that there will be additional fees or deposits involved and will sign a lease with a reasonable refundable or nonrefundable deposit and or additional pet rent. 

The agent should have explained the reason why he would rather work with a qualified or "pre -approved buyer". The buyer should let the agent know of all the details of the purchase so he can serve them better. In my early days as a realtor i would go out with any buyer that was "ready", i wasted time but also learned from the process. Today I have buyers pre-qualify with a lender i know and trust, he will give them great service and guide them step by step, at the end of the day we all want to close. 

From my experience buying a condo as an investment and renting it out is not a good idea. I have bought in different states and have had the same issues with HOAs. They just love out of state investors. If you are local it might be easier to be hands on, they will send you letters in the mail and will fine you......it is a headache. Would i buy again, no. But if I find a good deal i might buy if i can fix and flip. HOA fees will go up and don't forget special assessments that will lower your ROI.

If you are looking for long term tenants the best option might be to rent unfurnished. It really depends on where the property is located, there might be more short term tenants that are looking for temporary housing and are willing to pay a premium.

I have done several out of state rehabs. Some good some bad. I have worked with different contractors on several projects. It is very important to keep constant track of progress. I bought supplies and had them shipped to the house and the contractor would receive them. Ideally traveling before the end of the rehab ensures that they take acre of details that sometime the camera does not capture. Contractors are usually not good at taking detailed pics. I had someone that did the inspection for the lender provide me with detailed pics so i could let them know what required attention. Feel free to reach out if you would like specific details. I did around 8 this year. 

Many tenants prefer to live in single family homes. Once every detail that requires attention has been taken care of it is very easy to manage. if you slowly take care of all the big ticket items while occupying the property, you will see uninterrupted cash flow for years. There are always people that will rent for several reasons. I have tenants that move every 3-5 years and prefer not to own a property until they settle down when they retire. 

Apartment living is not for everybody, maintenance requests can be an issue, neighbors and in many cases just the option of having a backyard makes a huge difference. 

I had something very similar happen to me at a condo in Greenacres FL. I own the unit on the first floor and the water heater issue was on the second-floor unit. The owner of the unit upstairs didn't have insurance so she claimed that she couldn't pay for any damage to my unit since she was out of pocket on her repairs....... In this case, the easiest action to take is small claims court. I am no longer buying condos unless it was a super deal, I would avoid first-floor units because they do take all the water issues from old pipes, water heaters, A/Cs. When you have an issue like this the HOA will do nothing for you, their response is always to sue your neighbor and don't forget to pay the dues and assessments on time.

@Bryan Metz I read the same book before i started my long distance investment journey. It is not easy, you have to be mentally prepared. I did find a military town and have expanded to this market. I now feel comfortable there and i am having trouble looking for another market but will manage to do so soon. Creating a team you can work with takes time. I self manage so it can be challenging. Tenants have all been great, contractors….that is a different story. I started with SFH and now shifted to small multi families. I also tried following those 5 metrics and narrowed my search down to 2 areas. At the end the numbers made more sense in NC and have been there since 2018. Best of luck!

Best of luck!