All Forum Posts by: Mark A.

@Carlisle Edens who did you use and how did it turn out?  Were you able to flip the property?

@Erik Sklar thanks for your response. I am looking for someone to help me find a deal, take a look at a property for me and ultimately negotiate a closing for me. Of course, that sounds to be an “agent” through and through, but up in NY/NJ buyers agents will not make you sign into an exclusivity contract for a set period of time like that. This agent is telling me he cannot do that for me unless I sign his contract - which is a year long (obviously if I sign I would negotiate the time period). I’m wondering if he is just playing by the rules (the S.C. rules) or if he is trying to ensure he locks me down with him - I think he realizes that I could potentially buy a few properties from him in a relatively short amount of time. Thanks again. Mark

I am looking to purchase real estate in Columbia SC.  I am an out of state investor.  I contacted an agent and explained to him what type of properties I would like, where i would like to purchase etc.  

Shortly thereafter he sends me an exclusivity contract.  I’ve worked with other agents in NJ and have never signed one of these before (nor even heard of anyone other than a seller signing such a document).  He is now saying that he cannot represent me in a transaction or even walk into a home unless i have signed the contract.

Is this something special in SC?

I’d appreciate any advice anyone can give me.

Mark 

@Maria K. (Sorry the link didn’t work before) 

Anyone else that wants to chime in regarding property managers i’d love to hear about them.

Best,

Mark

Hi @Maria K. 

I likewise would like to know what property management company you went with and your experience with them.

Thanks,

Mark

Thank you everyone for the great advice throughout this thread. I am obviously learning and appreciate all your help!

Mark Poulton I appreciate the information, and that is very good to know. I would say that I am inclined not to take these tenants based purely on what you and everyone else above has said re credit score. I will however say that the validity of the lease terms will never be questioned until some form of legal proceeding takes place, e.g. Eviction. Me possessing the money would still entice someone to continue to pay, and if you get a judgment against the tenants for rent owed (through eviction), the money you are holding could be used to immediately satisfy the judgment - at least I believe that to be true. Disclaimer - I am an attorney, but I do not practice in the landlord/tenant/real estate area. So take what I am saying with a grain of salt. However, I am a litigator and therefore have experience with judgments and the like. And again, I appreciate everyone's input on this.

Well essentially what I'm trying to do is use this large cash reserve they supposedly have to reduce risk of not paying rent. And I wouldn't have them pay 8 months upfront per se. They would still be required to pay monthly rent it would just be reduced by the total down payment. I.e. A down payment of $23,200, and monthly rent of $1933.00 for 24 months. Seems to reduce burden on them each month and provide me more security because they have skin in the game up until the end.

We are thinking about renting our 3 bedroom apartment to a family (2 parents and a 20 year old child).  The family just sold their house and received approx $200k from the sale.  Seems like they moved out due to financial difficulties.  The wife makes $20k per year and the husband just started a new sales job based on commission.  So he has not much to show for his earnings at this point.  Their credit scores are both subpar - in the 600s.  

The rent is $2900 per month for the apartment - is obviously in a nice area and can attract nice tenants.  The family asked to sign a 2 year lease at the advertised price, which i thought was a positive sign.  

The apartment is continuing to show, but i was wondering what your thoughts would be on the following plan:  I would ask for 8 months rent up front and reduce the rent payments accordingly for the 24 month term.  Essentially, asking them to put a large down payment down because of their low credit scores and the fact that they have a large amount of cash supposedly sitting there from the house sale.  Does anyone have any experience doing something like this? What would you recommend?  Pass on this tenant even if they agree to something like I'm thinking?

Thanks in advance for any advice/help.  

Mark

@ Llewelyn A. @ Ben leybovich I appreciate all of your responses, as well as everyone else that has chimed into to this discussion. Although I cannot claim to understand all the intracacies of IRR at this point, I do understand that COC is just one of the metrics used to calculate IRR. As far as I understand it, if you aren't getting COC return, you need to get some form of appreciation in order to make your IRR positive. Please, correct me if I'm wrong. Assuming that my assumption is correct, I guess my question has evolved into being a bit less defined - when do YOU consider Prices to be inflated and appreciation to be overly speculative? Are you looking at all at the COC returns in determining that? I'm assuming you are looking at the trends of property values in some respect and interest rates. But can't COC returns speak to something about the fact that prices may be too high? This is probably a much more complex question than I am making it out to be, but nevertheless I ask away! Again, thanks for all your time and effort being put into this thread. As you can see, I am trying to absorb as much as possible!