All Forum Posts by: Kah M.

The very next day after this post, her brother was shocked (he's ok) and it sprung her into allowing the electrician into her house the same day. Did a full safety assessment and there was nothing wrong but loose terminals in that outlet.

@John K. @Roy N.

Thanks for the advice! I'll make an appointment for 10 days out tomorrow

My tenant has been having a couple of electrical problems. The first one took a day to resolve. The second one, I've been trying to resolve for the past few weeks but the tenant has been uncooperative. I'm trying to get the electrician to fix the outlet and do a safety assessment. The tenant demands to have it fixed (as it is her right), and won't pick up/return calls when the electrician tires to call her to set up an appointment. 

I also gave the tenant the electricians phone number via my PM but he says he never got a call from the tenant. Any ideas on whats going on? I'm thinking to just make an appointment for her tomorrow and get it over with.

I say neither. You can get better quality local mentors for free (or local REI club dues). The gurus might be fine but I've done well with just reading books, the BP podcast/forum, networking, and local real estate investing classes.

@Jennifer Lee@Ned Carey It's my fear he's going to screw up the relationship (he has a poor reputation with contractors). My contract with my PM say I may not directly contact my tenants so I don't even have the guys name. All I know is he does great work and the middleman wants him all to himself and his properties. I have a big job coming up on an empty property so I plan to get his info at that time. It's just frustrating and weird.  

@Jeff Rabinowitz Thanks for your advice! I took your advice about the profile!

I occasionally get referrals for repairmen. An informal REI network I'm a member of used to be very good about giving referrals however they've been tightfisted lately in mentioning who works for them. Understandable that good contractors are hard to find and some of the REI investors started acting as middlemen.

One of these "middlemen" REI is difficult to deal with. From a couple of repairmen I work with, I've heard he promises he'll pay them $X but then after the work is done, tries to negotiate a lower price. Of course, these repairmen refuse to work with him again.

Recently, he recommended an awesome handyman who was prompt, reasonably priced, and got the work done. The tenants were happy with him because he worked around their schedule and he also got everything done ahead of schedule with pictures. However, the middleman refuses to give me his name or contact info because he wants him "exclusively." Although the final price was reasonable, the estimate was a bit lower. I didn't mind paying but the middleman made a big deal about it. 

I fear he's going to mess up with this repairman and he'll be impossible for me to find. 

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

Originally posted by @Annette Hibbler:

Hi Karim,

I'm a licensed Realtor in Southeast Michigan.  I primarily focus in Livingston & Oakland with parts of Washtenaw counties.  Sometimes I get the heads up on "off market" deals in areas like Ypsi & Livonia.  Ypsilanti is a pretty strong rental market, better tenants than Detroit, for sure.  Depends on what side of Ypsilanti you're in, some are considerably better than others. Rentals there range from $900/mo to $1100/mo. I know of an investor who's in the midst of off loading a large number of rented property in Ypsi.  They are going for $45K each. But I'm sure he'd negotiate if you offered to purchase more than one.  If you're interested, I'd be happy to share this information.

 Thank you for letting me know! I wish I had the knowledge to take out loans and purchase several properties at once but I'm not ready for that just yet. I have good credit and no debt but I expect my personal income to drop soon (going back to school) which may make getting financing difficult. I'm here to learn if there is any way to resolve this problem

You want an experienced property manager. So much can go wrong and you want someone on the ground. I recommend the book "Rich Dad's Advisors: The ABC's of Property Management: What You Need to know to Maximize Your Money Now"

You can probably find it at your local library.

It's a great book geared more towards Multi-Family homes so some of the interview requests are overboard (like a list of all properties, resumes of all employees handling your property, etc.) But this book is wonderful at giving you questions, answers, and reasonable expectations from your property managers and your responsibilities as a property owner.

I would also recommend not allowing them to do repairs without your permission. Have a team of HVAC, electricians, plumbers, handymen. Property managers in my experience charge above market value for repairs (I guess that's where the money really is for them). Also ask how long they typically keep tenants on the property.  

Also get in touch with a CPA before you go. You would want your house owned by an LLC before you go.

I love my field of work. I make money but I never want to rely on a job for survival. I'm covering half of my expenses already with my real estate salary so I'll probably be "escaping the rat race" sooner or later

No such thing. That's the risk of business and the importance of having reserves