All Forum Posts by: Erica Nagle

thanks all for your input! One thing I should clarify is that this is a flip not a buy and hold. Does that change anyone's opinion?

Absolutely go after them! Even if you don't get paid you can at least ruin their credit.

I'd like to add that I don't think all realtors are bad! There are good ones out there, it's just hard to find one when you need them for investment purposes. Time is of the essence (meaning you may need to see a property ASAP and you can't get a hold of them or they are busy) and they have to not care about submitting embarrassing offers. 

I keep going back and forth on what we should do so I wanted to through this out there for thoughts. 

Situation:

Multi-family with radiators in each room. They are in fairly good shape but could use a paint job. The boilers need to be replaced so we are replacing the main units no matter what. 

Dilema:

Keep the radiators or put in new system? 

Here's why I think maybe keep them: They have character and may add character to the finished product. If they all work, this is a significant money saver not replacing them.

Here's why I think we should get rid of them (as I've been told by others):

1) Can sell them/scrap them for pretty good $$...true or false?

2) The building codes don't allow them...true or false? I highly doubt this because I was told this by and HVAC guy.

3) They probably don't work and it would be more expensive to fix them than just replacing the whole system....true or false?

What have others done when they have a property with radiators for heat?

It's hard to know if they are really working on your behalf. Yes they will say they are and they are probably doing okay for you but you never know if you are getting the absolute best deal/service you could be getting. 

I've decided to get my realtor's license because I'm just tired of dealing with realtors. They say they are investor friendly but they are not and clearly they are not smart because they'd make a lot more $$ if they were. 

Ask lots of questions, there are no dumb questions! If you get weird looks or feel judged just brush it off. You need to know all of the ins and outs!

Agree with everyone else here...never pay realtor fees when you are buying. If you are using a realtor to rent then that is a different story. Have you signed anything with this realtor? If you haven't and they are asking for money from you then run. If you have signed something then you may be SOL but it's a good lesson for next time! 

Update! 

I wanted to provide an update on this situation because it's a great outcome and I hope others (at least in Massachusetts) will take this route. I decided not to just let the tenant off the hook. I followed the advise from Rob Beland and filed a 14 day quit and had a constable serve the papers to her. 

This was a super easy process. I googled Constable, clicked on the first one I found and followed the process. I was able to download the simple form, fill it out and email it back and it was served later that same day! It cost me a whole $40. It's best to have a Constable deliver the form because it's the only way to prove with 100% certainty to a judge when the paper was delivered. Even if they aren't there, the period still starts when it's delivered. 

Additionally we went to the condo to survey any damage (tenant was at work) to see where we stand on damages. Luckily the place was in great condition but even if it wasn't I felt confident that I at least knew how to ruin this chic's credit. I also listed the property for rent again with a real estate company and it's already rented for August 1st for $200 more a month that she was paying! 

We weren't out of the woods yet. What if she did all sorts of damage when she moved out? How to protect against that? Well the 14 day quit period luckily ended on the 27th. This gave me leverage to ensure she didn't do damages on the way out. I asked her when she planned to move and she said the 31st. Way too risky for me with new tenants moving in the next day. 

So I informed her that she had 3 options. 

1) She could wait until the 31st to move out, not pay July rent (she never paid) and I would start the eviction process on the 27th. It would show that she was evicted when other landlords looked up her history and additionally I would be suing her for the July rent which would go on her credit report. 

2) She could pay July rent, move out the 31st and I'll assess damages and refund her deposit minus damages. This was the same/normal process for a tenant moving out. 

3) She could move out on the 27th and I'll keep her deposit as July rent and will sue her for any additional damages. 

She chose option 3. Even if she doesn't follow through I have legal recourse. If all works out I'll lose no money and actually get more rent going forward. 

I encourage everyone to find out what the legal options are and follow the process. I understand I got lucky because she didn't cause damage and she doesn't have any kids or excuse as to why she has to stay but it's worth trying no matter what the situation!

@Rob Beland...Thank you so much for your help and advice in this whole situation! You've saved me lots of stress and probably lost $$ if I hadn't had any leverage over her!

Okay I have to admit I'm disappointed in those advising you to pay him off or give him cash for keys. We as landlords need to band together and stop this kind of crap from happening. Unfortunately the laws cater to the least likely scenario trying to protect those that may have lost their job and have kids that will starve or freeze if you kick them out and this allows a-holes like this dude to take complete advantage of you and the system. I say fight this and like Rob Beland said, why do you need a lawyer? So far he owes you under $5,000 so you could take him to small claims court. That's not the first item of business tho. Have you served him the 14 day (or maybe it's shorter since he's so far behind) to quit paperwork? If you haven't, do it ASAP. If he doesn't move out after the 14 days then you simply go to the courthouse and file the next step which leads to a Sheriff serving them with an eviction notice. Follow the process from there and you'll likely end up with a company that specializes in evictions taking his stuff out of your house. You can also ruin his credit by filing something (anyone help me out her) that will show his debt to you on his credit report. Anytime he tries to get a loan they will see that he owes you several thousand. It is scary that you could lose he place if he doesn't pay you have time. You have to not pay the mortgage for at least 3 months to get to the pre-foreclosure point. Then you have until the auction date to catch up on the mortgage. This is usually a few more months. That will give you time to get his *** out. Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this! I have a situation where my tenant hasn't paid rent this month...$3,000. I've started the process. It took me a phone call to a constable (google them) and a fee of $40 to have papers 'served'. This is the only for sure way that you can prove in court when the document was served. Now she's down to 5 days to get out and if she's not out I'll be ready with the next step where the Sheriff comes knocking . Please don't give in. Nothing will ever change if we don't fight these battles. We work hard for what we have no one should be able to take from us.

We've been told by a potential contractor (we'll likely GC ourselves) that forced hot air is cheaper to put in than forced hot water baseboard. This seems off so us so I wanted to check what everyone else thinks. The system would be brand new. There are existing radiators but we don't know if those can be used so let's say we can't reuse those. Anyone have any thoughts?

Calling in a loan? Please elaborate 

We are currently waiting for our first fix and flip deal to close so we can start work. It's a short sale that was supposed to be approved by the bank but of course there's always more crap and waiting on the bank. Honestly why is it so difficult for the banks to get a simple approval and letter out? Don't answer that, I've worked for large companies and know why getting anything done is next to impossible. 

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to ask how we can go about growing our rental portfolio. We currently have 3 rentals, all cash flowing and I want to use the equity in these to buy more property. I keep hearing about reusing equity/cash you currently have in existing properties to buy more. How do I do this? We have a good amount of equity but how do you get at it? Is this a refinance? A home equity line of credit? I figured we can't get a loan to buy anymore because we don't have a regular income. 

Do we have to wait until our first flip is done (and maybe more) so that we have cash or can we leverage existing equity? Thanks in advance!