All Forum Posts by: Luciano A.

If you normally allow pets and this dog is not a dangerous dog on list of breeds then charge them a refundable $250-$500 deposit for the pet and per month increase in rent. If they had pet for more than a week without saying something I would charge them a prorated fee or one extra month of pet fee. As mentioned before collecting a one time fee sounds great but the tenant thinks that fee gives them permission to allow pet to pee and you wont charge them or for any minor damages the pet does. 

With refundable deposit they will work harder to manage their pets in hopes to get their money back after move out.

Not charging a late fee the first time in doable. Not charging late fee after that will tell tenant they can get away with it and you will let them pass since they only pay a small portion. If the rent agreed upon is $900 and their share is $100 but they pay it late then they are not meeting their obligations under the lease. 

Keep it simple and consistent especially if you have other properties. Dont want to get sued under Fair Housing Act for picking and choosing who will pay late fee and who wont. 

@Cody N. I invest in Houston. What is your strategy when buying? Do you use all cash, hard money or some sort of line of credit when you do the initial purchase. 

Also when you do your walk through and introduce yourself as representing the buyer and not as the buyer will help. You would be surprised how much info you can get about the condition of the property, the way it is run from tenants. This can be additional bargaining chip. 

Here is my thoughts on this matter. It is not uncommon for an investor to ask buyers if they are serious to put in a contract with say $100-$150 option fee to get chance to look at the property. This helps to weed out the tire kickers and only have serious buyer as to reduce the inconvenience of the tenants as well as in this case to not alarm the tenants as change of ownership can be stressful. 

Now if you know your market you will quickly know if the price alone is within reason. I would put in contract for $10k under asking to see how the seller responds. Then if he agrees pay the option and earnest money and schedule a date to view interior. I would get a contractor who is licensed but works more with homeowners rather than investors as they tend to have higher prices. Do you walk through and see if the deal makes sense. If you know anything about contracting you can get idea of what contractor would charge that works with investors.

If you feel the rehab is more than you want to pay try to come back and renegotiate price. After all seller is from outside the area so a written estimate from your contractor would be hard for him to argue with. Just bring up the large ticket items to try and negotiate the pricing. 

Last piece of advise....he is an international investor. I would caution doing any type of owner finance, land contract etc given what would happen if he dies, gets arrested overseas. How will you sale a property in the future with his lien. You will have a clouded title. 

Borrow money from family or a friend and give them first position lien or just use bank. 

This is still a sellers market so you have to find sellers who need out not just a seller looking to sale his investment property to move up in his investments. 

Best of luck 

@Jeremy Mangen Congrats on getting into your first investment. Dont be in a hurry to get somewhere fast. Learn to love the process and enjoy the journey. With that said here is what I would do if I was in your shoes.

Start putting money into your property to fix it up so it can become rent ready with hopes that city doesnt come knocking. 

Then I would use the savings from renting towards the consumer debt. Dont worry about paying off your home. Your tenants will help do that in long run.

Second while you are working and paying off your debt go to a small local property management company and ask if they would consider hiring you for peanuts maybe a few evenings or weekend work. You can shadow the people in their job capacity to learn all the moving parts. 

As long as you keep learning about RE and running numbers to analyse properties just to learn how to find good deals then you are moving and gaining traction. 

By this time next year you will be on your way to get into another property. I dont have my RE license and with today's technology you can find out what many agents have. You can always contact the sellers agents directly to get deals. Having your license does not open all doors. I get what's called pocket listings from different agents all the time. They know I will close so they bring me deals. 

best of luck 

At end of the day it is your GF choice if she wants to use her old condo the way she wants. You are smart to step in to help advise but that is the best you can do unless you both are contributing to your household expenses and the difference she has to pay towards the condo will create shortage in your household. 

The other thing to consider.... if she rents to them when its time to do taxes, she I dont think can claim as an investment or might cause problems. I remember many moons ago when I was doing my own taxes that the IRS asks if you are getting current market rents.

An OPTION Help them out by having the aunt co-sign on another apartment cheaper and you all can give them $300 per month for say 2-3 months so they can get settled in but dont sacrifice your livelihood to help someone else out. Charity starts at home.  

I agree. Since rents are below market I think from the feedback from a handful of tenants was they were expecting a rent increase under new management. If we just off set water/sewer and upgrade the exterior and make property more attractive the current tenants would be ok in a $30-$40 bump. Anything more than that I think would not justify and we will get higher move outs. I plan on implementing the utilities into the rent price after we turn over a unit. We went from Quickbooks to Rentec since we own less than 100 total units (SFR,Multi and commercial) the price was reasonable but didnt do much research as I let our office choose software but they do have ability for us to do the utility split so again thanks for that insight.

What software do you use and or recommend?

@Cody L. Thanks for that knowledge. I never bothered to ask my accounting person to check property management software that we use. This will save us in the long run. I am glad I asked fellow investors on here versus signing a 1-2 year contract with a RUB company. Again thank you for the feedback. I think since these tenants we will inherit but are on month to month will inform of our intent to add this fee as a flat fee so that we can pass the cost onto them versus absorb. If you come across any deals that is too small for you to bother with please keep me in mind. 

@Account Closed Thanks. Good suggestions. I think with the feedback going to keep in house versus paying outside company to do such calculations.