All Forum Posts by: Michelle Fenn

Personally I charge a $500.00 per pet non-refundable pet fee.    My RE/MAX office charges 250.00 non-refundable fee plus $25/month for small dogs/cats and $35/month for large dogs.    Neither deters an applicant. 

I use Zillow Rental Manager which also brings along Hotpads & Trulia.  I also use Facebook.   Drives me crazy that most applicants only message to stay anonymous. 

Never Craigslist, my legit listing have been highjacked multiple times.   When they do, I create a listing on Craigslist that explains the previous listing is fraudulent and report the thief to the the state attorney general.  

Supply is low and there is demand for those with jobs and working from home.  Shelter in Place has pointed out the need for more space, or at least a home office with a door that you can close.  

I had one last year.  I offered the foreclosed homeowner cash for keys.   Got her out of the house and most of her stuff gone, asked for the keys on the doorstep.   Only to find out she did not have a key for her own home.   Had been an open door policy there for many years.  LOL

In the Cleveland area the properties are assessed every 3 years for value. Sure looks like the average increase or decrease for the city is applied to the existing value. Every year between Jan and end of March you may dispute the property value. If the home was purchased in an arms length transaction they will reduce the property value to the sales price. If the purchase was a distressed sale you will have to provide comps and pictures and make a case. In REO sales it is usually not worth the hassle, fix it up and flip it. The Board consists of three persons from the city you are requesting the tax reduction from, and they are there to protect the interests of the city and school board as property taxes are the main source of funds. They show up with your comps, their comps and Zillow data. We have a number of cities on the east side of Cleveland that tax like New Jersey so you need to become adept in the dispute process.

I guess I unofficially retired in 2009 after my husband passed away, I was holding a key employee insurance policy check and the stock market was tanking.   I purchased distressed properties with the money to renovate, hold and rent.   I was fortunate that my brother owned a contracting business and referred me to his friends that were new home builders.    They become my crews for the next 5 years because I could pay on Friday.   By 2010, the guys that use to work for the large companies found me.   An estimator for one of those firms convinced me that there was Opportunity for female  General Contracting firms.  He got me bonded and within 3 months my company was an EDGE Contractor and we were working on public projects, an anatomy lab for NEOUCOM, a Rat Reasearch Lab, Incubator Building for Micron Electronics and the Sound System for the MAC at Kent State, a Starbucks, the Auburn Science Center and Residence Hall for Kent, Track and Field house for City of Cleveland and a Soccer pavilion for the city of Barberton.    That was in a period of three years.    Before my husbands death I owned a computer consulting  business that sold and supported Computer Aided Design Systems for Architects and engineers.   

Interesting experience, everyone assumed that it was my husbands business, and I had to explain working 12 hours a day was how I grieved. We built a business but it was not my passion. My partner and estimator moved back home to Cincinnati to take care of Mom and a disabled brother. I closed down the business. I use to kid that they only let me out of the office to sign contracts. The GC is the last person to get paid on a public job and I did the prevailing wage paperwork for every subcontractor I hired. I got a real estate license and started to flip houses first for investors then as part of an LLC with a commercial loan broker. I have a hard time retiring, I do not need to work, my investments from the last crash provide me a comfortable living and 1031 exchange opportunities. I now help with the property management group in my current brokerage. Most fun I had was volunteering at Habitat for Humanity. After 25 years of fixing computer problems it was great to be able to do something that that you could point to and say that I did that, and improve others lives. Maybe it was a nod to my husband, he was an Architect and there are numerous examples to his talent throughout Summit County.

Entrepreneurs don't retire we just do new and interesting things, because we want to, not because we have to. 

Anyone have the latest update an Zillow's experiment in limited markets to flip homes.     I think Las Vegas was a test market.   I have not seen anything new on it for months. 

As a realtor it drives me crazy when I have to work with the agent on the other side of the sale that won't pick up the phone and have a conversation, they think everything can be done with Dotloop and a text message.  

Putting the house up for sale can be effective especially if it a SFH and sells to an owner occupant. In my state an owner occupant purchase is not subject to leases. I am attempting to contact our closed courts to get an emergency eviction to allow the property to transfer.

I am a real estate agent and work in the property management group at our brokerage. I will not even list our rentals on the MLS. It is so critically important to pick the right tenant I will not allow another agent place a tenant to obtain a quick commission.