All Forum Posts by: Ken Gurta

Hello, I am an investor in Georgia wanting to purchase land located in Maine. I need a realtor who is familiar with Hiram, Maine as well as the surrounding areas. There is a tract of land there that I would like to put an offer on. I would like a realtor to represent me. If you are a realtor licensed to work in Maine, or know someone that is,please contact me. Thank you, Ken

@Jason Bott,

I have 2 rentals. one is a 4 bdr, 2 1/2 bath traditional 2 story. The other is a 3 bdr, 2 bath ranch. My primary is a 3 bdr 3 bath split foyer or Bi level. There are 2 finished rooms on the lower level. I plan on having my handy man build a closet in the larger of the 2 rooms to make my house a 4 bdr.

I plan on acquiring 2-3 properties in the next year. My reason for shopping for new insurance is that my insurance company (major company that starts with an A) has raised the premium on my primary significantly due to their measurements. I am now paying more than I was with my last company. Their measurements are way off. 

I have no problem with my insurance on the rentals. One premium  was raised $39.00, but it's not worth arguing over. 

I feel that it is time to shop for new homeowners insurance for my properties. Which company are you using and why? My homes are near Atlanta, Ga.

My advice to newbies is to treat the eviction process as a final exam. Do all of your homework. When showing up in court, have copies of any e mails or other documents to prove your case. Bring a spreadsheet that shows the payment history of the tenant. Bring everything that you can think of.

I had a difficult eviction around 2 years ago. My tenant was the only tenant that showed up with an attorney. The attorney interrogated me on the stand for approximately 30 minutes. I was fully prepared for that, but it was a nerve racking experience for sure. I won my case even before I was allowed to call my first witness.

If you are a person who is worried about how you will perform while being grilled by an attorney, then you might want to hire one to represent you. Most tenants in court that day did not have an attorney, but you never know if yours will. 

Good luck to everyone in the B.P. community. If an eviction is something you have to do, consider it an education. I know I learned a lot through mine.

Only provide what you need to in order to get the tenant to move in. Make sure that you take pictures of every appliance, have them listed in the lease as part of the house, and keep receipts or invoices. A good tenant will respect your property. A bad tenant that you may have to evict will not.

I had a tenant that asked to remove my over the range microwave in order to install hers. (red flag) She was supposed to leave mine in the attic. She also asked me to leave a new Toro self propelled lawn mower to cut the grass. (another red flag). After evicting her for falling behind on rent, I found that she had stolen the microwave and poured sugar in the lawn mower's gas tank. I paid to get the lawn mower repaired, but was unable to recover the cost of the microwave even after bringing invoices to court. She was a professional scam artist and found an opportunity to steal due to my failure to have pictures.

The most important thing is to do your own screening. The tenant I listed above had a realtor who "assured" me that he had already done the background and credit checks. (HUGE red flag). Always do them yourself.  That was a costly education for me.                                                                                                                                                                       I will provide a refrigerator if a tenant requests it, but I have never provided a washer and dryer. Most people have those in my area.

I would like to meet you when you come to Atlanta. Head up '85 north to exit 120.

I just ordered my ticket!

Thanks Maxwell. I will be there!

Hello everyone! I am interested in attending A REI meeting to meet other investors and get ideas. I am open to most areas in the Atlanta areas, but would prefer anything in Gwinnett county or surrounding areas. If you know of any meetings in the near future, please message me or send me a colleague request. Thank you. Ken

Josh, I was in your situation a few years ago. I had trouble refinancing because of a low Fico score. The first thing I did to improve my score was to get a copy of my report from Annualcreditreport.com. I then disputed anything that was derogatory, even if it was a legitimate balance or statement. The creditors had 30 days to provide information to the credit bureaus in order to substantiate the negative items I had disputed. 2 items were removed from my report, one that was legit and one that had been paid off years before.

I Knew that I had to also change some bad behaviors on my part. So, I signed up for credit monitoring, followed all of the advice, paid all of my bills on time, and waited. It took around 2 years to get a fair to good score. I still use credit monitoring today to help make sure that there are no new surprises to my credit report.

If all of the negative items on your report are over 5 years old, I am not sure that I would pay them off unless a lender required you to do so. While having an account paid in full will improve your score, You will probably need up to 2 years of good behaviors to get your score where you want it anyway. Those items will fall off at 7 years. Pay off anything that is less than 5 years old.

Good luck on your progress!