All Forum Posts by: Mike F.

If you want to eliminate tenants with young children, removing the bathtub is a perfect way to do so without getting into trouble 

There are about a gazzion electric heater covers painted with the same paint the walls are painted with in homes across America, nothing special about painting them.

You Tube,Twitter, MTV, Instagram, Paris Hilton,Kim Kardashian, Gangsta Rappers, Robin Leach...

Think about the worst parts of all of those, think about the superfluous nature that they all promote. Image over substance, flash over values...

Personally, that's the guy I want to use AND more importantly I want to be able to afford to use him!

The guy is either very good at what he does and got there understanding how to run his business and values his time and therefore will value mine, or...he's in debt up to his ears! LOL

If you want an interesting exercise about people's cars. Do a drive by to a condo complex or townhome complex and look at the cars in the parking lot. Get an overall feel for what is parked there, now make a judgement about the income levels based on the cars, then do a search on zillow or the MLS for the property values at this location. First few times I did this I was waaaaaaaaaaay off on over valuing what I guessed the properties were valued at. I was in the beginning always thinking the properties were higher valued based on the average of the cars. The property values that would come back would be making me think there should be older cars, bad cars, not all the nice ones. Doing this a few times really changed my perceptions. It's amazing how nice of cars people drive versus where they live! A lot out of wack in my opinion.

Not sure if I agree that entrepreneurs don't act like consumers. 

I consume a lot of nice things, Rolex watches, sports cars, nice TVs and electronics, nice vacations.  I've always lived that lifestyle since I started working at 16 years old, but it's always been in proportion to income and networth.

I see no reason for people to live like a miser, eating cat food and keeping the hosue at 50 degrees in the winter while having millions in the bank!

Just live proportionately to your income and networth, always spend less than you make, but enjoy the ride along the way folks, you're going to be dead a long, long time.  

NICE.

You can do anything you want until you're held accountable for it by a judge.

 Judges frown upon landlords abusing tenants security deposits for things that are wear and tear versus damages. If you have a clause in your lease that says a tenant must have the carpets professional cleaned and they don't do it, many landlords will simply ding the security deposit for the cost of the cleaning.How long was the tenant living there? How much are you deducting? Much of this will simply never be questioned, unless you have a tenant that challenges it and you have to go before the judge.

We allow small dogs that don't violate city breed ordinances. We will be selective with new tenants and their dogs, somebody with a brand new puppy doesn't appeal to us as somebody with a 3 year old dog. There will be additional pet security deposits, a pet addendum and additional pet rent.

But cats? NO, never, no exceptions. 

All I need to do to be reminded never to allow cats is think back : Cats have made me hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years from destroying houses that they had to sell at severe discounts that we've bought  and turned into rentals. I've been through the long, nasty expensive processes of reconing a cat urined property many times, I love cats for making us so much money destroying the value of these properties we picked up at a bargain, but we won't let one in a rental for any amount of money. We want those cats out there working for us peeing and spraying their urine, destroying other people's homes.