All Forum Posts by: Justin Schaefer

So now I'm posing this as a supplemental question to the original. What could happen if he were just never to have called this applicant back? Could the non-returning of phone calls be viewed as a fair housing violation?

@David Bowles what about telling her that she has to switch over to automated ACH payments every month. Set the due date to the 5th, to make it a nice easy day, and see what happens. If she doesn't have the money there and set to go on time, she's gonna get with fees from you AND the bank. It's some incentive to have that money there on time.

@Marci Stein what about thanking her for being an awesome tenant, but also firmly explaining that you had already advertised the unit at the higher price, and had a taker. Maybe tell her that you're business has got to move on now, but say that you would love to have her stay, and if she is going to stay, that that is now what the price is going to be.

And on a separate note, yes that was fear. Don't do that again, LOL!

Thanks for your help Ham, I'm going to drop him a line tomorrow.

@Redgy then you did everything you could on your end.  It's time for a new agent. The writing is on the wall I'd say.  Best of luck to you!

@Redgy Saint-Germain when I talk to realtors I say to them, "I am a real estate investor.  I'm looking for something very specific in an agent, and I want you to know right away that if, after I explain to you what I'm looking for, you are not interested in working me... that is perfectly OK, we will part ways as friends, and your honesty and openness is appreciated either way...."  Then I break into a schpeal about looking for someone who is willing to work with me very regularly, write lots of deal, some of them low ball, with the understanding that we will only have a few of them be excepted and they won't be as high of dollar deals as those from regular customers, but we are going for the "bulk" here.  

It sounds like your current realtor doesn't get that, and it might be time to look for a truly "investor friendly" realtor.  It won't be hard to fine one, they're everywhere.  Just remember, this isn't for everyone.  That's OK.  Thank them for their time, and move on.  You've got bigger things in mind. Best of luck!

@Peter Torres if you are basing your calculations on what the owner is telling you for income and expenses, I would suggest making your offer contingent upon viewing of their schedule E (like someone said earlier, you can tell them it's OK to black out their personal info except their name, and their other properties) and verification of the tenants leases.  You should have your realtor or attorney come up with the exact verbiage to use there, but you will want proof of these numbers before going to closing.  I also like to use rentometer or data from my agent to determine what market rent could be for units I'm interested in so I can make some projections of what my income will look like as the tenant's leases come up for renewal or they decide to leave.  

@Chris Monello it would behoove you to get a pro membership here on BP because you can listen to the webinar archive then and get a very clear instructions on how to do your numbers.  You'd also have unlimited access to the BP calculators which are awesome!  This deal could generate you a very small amount of cash flow if you put down at least 20%.  Putting $120K down on a duplex seems quite excessive.  On the other hand, you also probably don't know what the current owners situation is.  You could always send in a low ball offer and see what happens.  They could bite.  I would strongly encourage you to go pro and play with the numbers on this one to see what you can afford to offer them, and then offer a bit below that so you have some wiggle room if they do bite.  Best of luck to you!