All Forum Posts by: Roy Gutierrez

Hi guys,

The renter that left my property just asked for an itemized list of deductions, I told him that I won't be returning any of his money after he left me with a flea infestation in the house that is still not under control after 3 1/2 weeks. I just want to make sure that I'm covered well , these are some of the stuff that I want to deduct :

- I've had to vacuum for fleas about 15 times so far (takes me at least an hour each time), I will for sure be north of 30 vacuums if not more when this is over and done, if I try to hire a cleaning lady for this no cleaning lady will come for a $40 job, so I'm thinking of charging him $30 per vacuum. If I'm losing money for performing my trade (computer programmer) can I charge my trade's rate for this?

- Materials it's no problem, I have the receipts

- I put the house for sale, also thought of maybe doing a short term rental but any thought of that went out the window with the infestation, even for the house sale of course this delayed me since I was consumed with this problem,  but regardless if it's for sale or not, if it delayed me a month that would normally have been available to rent, can I deduct the month rent I lost from their deposit? For example, their last day was 7/31, usually I would be renting the house again by 9/1 so if I was re-renting the house can I say that in theory (even though I'm selling but still delayed even that because of the infestation) you have delayed me so I have lost rent, I will deduct that from the deposit?

- My time researching, going to buy stuff to beat this, basically my personal/business plans for October went out the window because of this issue.

- What about issues that could take 1+ months to figure out the final number? (because the infestation could still be going on), I will absolutely will not rent this if I don't have 1 full month of 0 fleas, even if you don't see any they could come back if there are eggs waiting to hatch.

I appreciate your input, thank you!

Hi @Jose Rueda

Thank you for the suggestions, learning a lot about different products, looking into them, today tried 2 products Vet's + Best Flea + Tick, one for the yard and one for the inside, we'll see how that works, tomorrow planning to use diatomaceous earth on the hard to reach places. I gave in and will bomb the house and garage with Zodiac in a couple of days, thinking how I'm going to treat the crawl space which is probably loaded with them.

Thanks again.

Hi guys,

I'm not sure how many of you guys have gone thru a flea infestation but it's NASTY! One of my renter's lease was ending, 3 years never missed a payment, 3 young adults, one of the people leaving the house had a tough time finding a place and I had short term rented my own home so I thought I can kill 2 birds with one stone, move to the rental and save money because I don't have to rent another place and I also can start fixing the rental house to sell it.  I negotiated with this renter if he let me go in the house a couple of days before the last day of the lease then I will let him stay for free for a month while he looks for another place. 

Once I moved in (along with 2 relatives that are visiting) I realized that they had 2 cats instead of 1, ok fine, we are living together now no problem it's about to end. After a couple of days I start noticing the cats scratching themselves, I start to wonder if they have something, day 3, I have some bites on my ankles but I thought somehow I got those things working in the yard. Got tired of all the cat hair so I mentioned to the renter that the cats have to go so I can start cleaning to start showing the house, so he sends them off, the next day my cousin says that he's seen 2 fleas, so I start realizing that I have a flea problem, tell the renter that I'm calling Orkin to get rid of the fleas, Orkin comes out and sprays, 2 weeks later and scores of vacuuming I still have the devils, I'm not sure if the Orkin stuff is killing them because the only time I see them dead is when I kill them, I'm getting bit every day, everyday I'm worried that I will transport a flea or the eggs to my house or another of my properties, so I stopped going to my properties, I stopped going to friends, refuse to share rides or give rides, have bombed my car 2 times already as a precaution, I'm probably full of pesticide by now!

 A couple of days ago my cousin couldn't take it anymore and went back to Florida, he was supposed to stay for a couple of months and see the job market here, can't blame him, sleeping on a couch on the floor in a flea infested house. Today the renter finally moved most of his stuff (he found a place last week), he won't have to worry about the mess he's leaving behind (unless he's taking some fleas/eggs with him, which might be very possible because he doesn't seem to be to careful) but he's leaving me a heck of a mess, of course he's losing the deposit, sad thing is that I allowed them to use part of the deposit as part of the last month payment, so I could help the renter find a place quickly, trying to help the guy is probably going to bite me in the a**.  

I realize getting rid of the fleas is not going to be a short battle, I have ordered so many products and gadgets to try to put this to rest (preparing to put diatomaceous earth all around the house this morning plus spraying the backyard, plus fogging the garage) and eventually I will but I'm already losing time and money because this is consuming most of my time, I don't know how anyone can stand me because I'm in such a bad mood because of all this! My only consolation is that eventually it will be over! 

Thank you for listening and if you have a flea story do share!

Hi @Chris T.,

Thank you for the links! How many years lease do you do before you give them the option to buy? Do you charge more per month or a flat fee at the beginning of the lease? If at the end of the lease what if don't qualify for a loan?

Thank you!

Hello gang,

I have a 3 bedroom 1 bath house, great location close to a very desirable area but horrible location to get in and get out (right where cars get off from the highway), no AC and old furnace, going to replace the furnace and going to consider installing AC if it's cost effective, renters are leaving at the end of this month. I currently rent it for $1,100 but was thinking of selling it so I can invest in a higher end house, I bought it for $29K, put $45K, my realtor estimates I can sell it for $90K which is to low for me, I might be able to take 100K after closing costs and commissions so selling might not happen, I will probably just milk the cow for a long time or one other possible option is to turn it into a vacation rental (which I'm very experienced by now).

The renter leaving just came to me asking about Rent To Own, just started reading about it because I had no idea how that worked. So basically I'm thinking I can offer something like this:

The rent will be $1,450 for 3 years, if they make all payments I sell the house to them for $90K.

or

The rent will be $1,600 for 2 years, if they make all payments I sell the house to them for $90K

I still don't know what is the process/options to sell after the lease period, what is your experience for you guys doing Rent to Own?

Thank you,

Roy

Thank you very much @@Lara Krakowiecki, @Alvin Neal! 

Hi guys,

I'm interested in maybe buying a property near downtown Detroit, I know downtown is hot and the prices have skyrocketed, I'm looking at areas around/near downtown that are still decently priced and have the potential to be incorporated into the expanding boom from downtown. Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

@@Jennifer Streamer sent you a colleague request with the info, @@Geof Greeneisen I have to look at the 1031 exchange as well. Regarding the demand, a friend of mine that works for a flipper in the area told me the pricing has gone way up and he's looking to unload some of his long term rentals as well.

Hi @@Geof Greeneisen,

Yes, I have another fellow investor that is preparing to sell one of his properties as well, were your houses rented and just happened that the leases are ending?

Thanks!

Hi Ross,

This is something I'm considering but there's a big tree in front of the house so not sure if I have enough space or if I would have to take down the huge tree (another $2,000) but definitely something to consider.

I was hesitant to buy because of the parking but was a newbie and decided to take a chance (it was cheap price) and ended up rehabbing the entire first floor, renovations was about 48k, at that time I was thinking what a mistake to buy but was able to find good renters quickly and it's been 3 years of very little issues and getting my rent paid on time.

Thank you.