All Forum Posts by: Tracey B.

My leases state that rent is due on or before the first or a $50 late fee applies to payments received 2nd thru the 5th and on the 6th day I file in rent court. Never had an issue with tenants paying on the first until recently when one of my tenants was suspended from her $9/hr job for 2 weeks. Other than her, all tenants pay on time and on rare occassion I had one or 2 of them pay a day late, they always include the late fee. Great thing because they do direct deposit into an account I set up. This seems to me to be the best way to do it because it lets tenants know its due on the first and that they have to pay a late fee if they want to pay during this 5 day grace period. This has been upheld by the courts even though state law says late fee cannot exceed 5%.

Andrew,
I have lots of spanish tenants and they always have family over too. If they pay on time and don't bother anyone then leave them alone, but make sure there's no loitering or illegal activity going on. One of my tenants lets her sister come over to do the laundry. It hasnt really been an issue with the bills but if I notice it is getting high I will let her know. She used to run the a/c all day and ran up the electric so I simply sent a letter saying to turn a/c off when you leave or you may be charged extra for utilities and she stopped.

Katrina, I am curious, who is the buyer and how are they going to pay you for the flip? Do you know the lending guidelines on financing a home that was just purchased? Do you know what seasoning means? As I stated before, as a newbie looking at deals in that price range, I am fearful for you. You mention transactional funding, but that is only a day which mans you would have to be doing a simultaneous close. I think you need to reevaluate your strategy and have a backup plan in case your buyer backs out or their financing doesn't work out. And, in order for a low ball offer to even be considered, you would have to be showing proof of funds and be an all cash deal. Do you have hard money lenders lined up that you can go to if the offer is approved. Do you know the hard money lenders guidelines because right now they have low ltvs, jut some things for you to think about.

Katrina, numbers mean everything. For example, if your goal was to rent the house out and you paid $180k for it and it was worth 300k, how much rent do you really think you will be able to get for the property? If you plan to rehab such property, what are the days on market for similar type properties and what are they selling for? You would be stuck with high payments until the property sells which could take 9 months, it really all depends on your investment strategy and since you are in the baltimore area, you would be better off getting lower priced homes that could be rented out at a profit if you are stuck with them. I think you should determine what your exit strategy would be, do you have buyers lined up, how will you pay for the deal, until you have answers to such things, you should not be making offers.

Section 8 is just payment methods, tenants are people and must be screened. Here are the big issues with section 8, you must talk to these people in addition to your regular standards and see why they want to move. A lot of them have issues with previous landlords and they will have issues with you. I make it a point not to rent to people who are bad mouthing their landlord because they will be a problem. If they dont have any previous rental issues and they pass my other screening requirements then great. Just never accept someone just because they are section 8. Make sure you screen heavily.

Katrina, I am in MD too. I am concerned about the homes you are bidding on. If you are a newbie, why are you offering on 200k homes? There are tons of properties for 100k and less that are excellent deals. And, if your offer were to be accepted, how will you close? What is your exit strategy? Before you go submitting offers, make sure you have your funding or exit strategy in place so you don't get blacklisted by realtors. Any licensed realtor can submit a hud offer for you. I recommend you always try to deal with the listing agent whenever possible as they have the best insight on how to get your offer accepted, but make sure you can close.

Mark, I recommend you use him a few times and see how things work out. I have a few guys I have been using for years and they eventually started their own business but in the beginning I just wrote up a standard one page contract that they were independent contractor and were doing a one time job and what the job and pay was, had them sign it and if under $600 I pay in cash, if over $600 I pay via check and 1099 them at the end of the year.

Wow I had the same issue with Dish. They caused significant damage to the top floor of my duplex. When I called them they said they would not speak to me at all and that any complaints would have to be filed by the renter. Since I have all the renters info, if I have to file a complaint against them I will. I paid my handyman $40 to spray w bleach and repaint. If I incur any more costs, I will be going after them.

start by going to local re club and meeting the major players that are actively buying, find out what they want and get it for them; collect a fee for finding deals and get all the knowledge you can on areas and whats a good deal and whats not; you will have to find the deals which means you will have to try different marketing methods to get sellers calling you; as you do this and are learning from these guys, you will eventually learn how to do a deal yourself at which point the sky is the limit

Lisa I rehabbed one condo. The repair costs were very low which was great, but I learned some things during the sale. One thing was the lender of your buyer will require a form be filled out that details how many units are rented vs owned. Lenders have requirements that if there are too many rentals in the condo, they will not loan on it. The place I rehabbed seemed to have a lot of rentals but the loan went through fine. Also, I had to get some condo booklet which costs $175 that details the rules of the community. There was some stranger rule where I had to get one within a few days of closing or they would make you get another one, something weird like that, but everything worked out fine. I didn't ask the condo association for any permission to do anything, I just bought the condo, rehabbed it and put in on the market.