All Forum Posts by: Sam Leon

I would have a talk with them individually before making a decision.

You don't have to approach them to talk about rent increase. Approach them to ask about what they like and don't like about where they are renting. Make no promises but let them know you are interested in keeping the place up and and may consider improvements. You walk about knowing what you might need fixing and how likely they are going to stay or leave.

You could implement a rent increase but offer an incentive at a reduced rate if they sign a one year lease.

Also the tenants will talk to each other, especially during an ownership change. I would be very careful if you are not raising the same for everyone - i.e. raising a lot for the ones you don't want to keep and keep same rent for those you want to keep.

It's like stock investing..."BUY LOW, SELL HIGH". The trick is predicting the lows and highs LOL.

Or another broker once told me, there is "NO SUCH THING AS BAD STOCKS! THERE IS ONLY BAD TIMING!"

Sounds good, but words are just words.

If you hire your own plumbers/electricians/carpenters/roofers...you are acting as a GC.

GC does more than outsourcing and mark up, they schedule and stage the jobs that subs do, they handle the permits and they are basically your QA/QC. That's why if you use a GC you need someone you trust and can manage the job for you, not an absentee GC who just hands out keys to the subs.

Miami has the biggest red bubble!

I see more and more of this in listings:

"BANK OWNED PROPERTY SOLD AS IS WITHOUT REPAIR OR WARRANTY. LISTING AGENT HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF PROPERTY HISTORY, NO DISCLOSURES OR ASSOCIATION DOCS SUPPLIED. BUYER/BUYER'S AGENT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR VERIFYING HOA FEES, IF ANY, COMMUNITY RULES, SQ FT, LOT SIZE, ROOM DIMENSIONS AND TAXES. AT CLOSING, IT IS SUBJECT TO A WEB TECH FEE AND MAY ALSO BE SUBJECT TO A BUYER'S PREMIUM. SELLER WILL NOT ALLOW WATER TO BE ACTIVATED FOR ANY REASON."

What does "WATER TO BE ACTIVATED" mean?

Does it mean turning on water service? As in the main valve that feeds the water to the rest of the house?

If I convince a neighbor to let me use his hosebib, and I drag a garden hose across to a hosebib of the subject house, and hook it up...turn on the neighbor's hosebib, and thus filled the supply system of the subject house with water pressure, is that considered "ACTIVATING"?

Nat, first you need to compile a list of the violations and look at them comprehensively.

How did you come about these violations? Is that from a report of your inspection, or is it a compilation of open permits?

Could there be uncovered violations you are not aware of? Usually the violations that have been covered up are not going to be known, until you try to fix other known ones.

I would get someone to go to the city/county and order a set of plans and existing permits, both approved and outstanding, and look through them, and compare that with what your inspection show.

A shed, a fenced in easement, fence posts spaced too far apart for new hurricane codes, overgrown landscape...etc are easy to fix.

Plumbing, electrical and structural violations are more serious and could cost a lot to fix, depending on their nature. Call up code enforcement and ask them about these violations (if they are known to them), then perhaps hire a specialized inspector to just go in and give you a specific report on all these violations - nature, solution, estimates...with pictures.

Also, "Miami" is very vague. There is a world of difference between the level of enforcement between City of Miami Beach, City of Miami and unincorporated Miami-Dade County.

Also it is VERY difficult to find good reliable subs in Miami, many fly by night pretenders and if you are not supervising their work, they cut corners and you end up with really sloppy work. Make sure you have a good GC you trust if you are not the GC yourself.

Bottom line, is this a business transaction or are you helping out a "friend"?

He/She is either a tenant or not...I am confused by you not calling this person a "real tenant". Tenant under same roof or tenant under different roof, still tenants.

If he/she is someone you know and you want to make exceptions then you are not treating this person as a real tenant and this a business arrangement.

Beware this monthly lease being restructured into weekly...soon it may be a daily lease.

At a minimum I would want a signed check for the move in fee complete, not partial, dated for the day he/she gets paid, and add in the late fee, because it's late, already.

There is another thread discussing if landlords do anything special for their tenants during the holidays - or any special day.

I thought it might be nice to have a "universal one size fits all" greeting card we can send to tenants.

In the front can be something generic, or something specific for the occasion.

On the inside we can cover many different situations and we just check off all that apply.

What do you think?

LOL that's great!

I found that creating a split personality helps in some cases when dealing with tenants. I often refer to myself in the third person when I need to be more "business like".

For example I had a guy who is the mechanic where I take my car for repairs and he is a tenant. So I am a "client" and a "landlord". If he's checking out my car and tell me "in passing" his rent is going to be late I will whisper to him "just between you and me I wouldn't tell Sam the landlord that he's going to freak out and evict your ***, don't mess with him, I'm scare of the guy too, but don't tell him that..." it seems to make things easier for them.

by the way, last year I lost out on two deals by being too inquisitive and transparent up front.

One REO deal had contract signed with FNMA, and I ordered a survey because a neighbor's fence did a zigzag and I wanted to know why...didn't have to could have waited since it was cash. I somehow OKed the surveyor to give a copy to everyone, my agent, LA, closing co...and prompted the closing agent to notice a discrepancy in the original legal description which amounts to a typo, but they cancelled the closing and FNMA had to reforeclose.

Another short sale I was the buyer they wanted, even had a verbal was waiting for it to get signed, then I noticed they had fenced in a strip of land about a 12' wide across the back that is supposed to be part of an alley, but the fence had been there for 20 years and no one noticed or complained. I noticed because I read the legal description and traced it. So I called and asked "what's going on with the fence in the back do you know you fenced in part of the alley and also the utility easement to the east you fenced that in I didn't see a permit for that either..." They said they would check into it and two hours later they said they signed with someone ear. I learned my lessons LOL.