All Forum Posts by: M Marie M.

I've been using Cozy for say 10 months and I've had an issue. In March I went to inspect my Florida property and took all my tenant's meyer lemons and said I'd credit them. So I put a credit on their account, but the next month I got the full rent and a $30 or $40 credit was just sitting there. I contacted Cozy and they said it was up to the tenant to claim the credit, something the tenant (for whatever reason) was not claiming. Then I increased the rent a few months later, and just to make sure I asked the tenant to make sure that they had the same amount on their side. I can't remember if the increase was smooth or not but the credit amount changed. In the end I put an extra charge on just to get rid of the credit and now it is fine.

My tenants like Cozy over my mother/property manager coming over to pick up the rent.

@Lynn Hill-Torres you have my sympathies.

I have a house, a very small house in Baltimore, currently getting fixed up and I would have loved if it were $10-15K to fix. It's estimated north of $50k. 

Family entanglements can be hard. I tried to hire a normal company to put up a fence on my Florida property but my mom/property manager hired my dad to do it, back in August. Well half of the fence is up and the contractors (hired sometime in October) for the Baltimore house will probably get done renovating the house before dad finishes putting up the whole fence at the Florida house. My dad does have a legit business that's as old as me, but because I grew up in the business I know his customer service is crap. I have childhood memories of dealing with my dad's angry customers.... and now I'm one of them. I got mom to agree to let me hire a non-family owned (got lot's of family members with business) fencing company come spring if he doesn't finish the job by the end of the year. I'll have to keep reminding her and maybe dad will finish out of pride. Every time I threaten to hire a non-family member, he finishes the job. Why do I keep using my dad's business? Because eventually.........eventually he gets the job done at the lowest financial price (parts + free labor), but it costs a lot emotionally.

So my advice is to end this business with your brother. No hard feelings but it's just not working for you, because it looks like it is just not working for you, and there is no more money. I'm sorry that things didn't work out as you'd hope. 

@Jung-woong Han I bought my house via AJ Billig, I'm still getting it renovated so I can only talk about the process.

For one, $15K is the starting price. It would be good luck to get it for the starting price. I paid about $9K above the starting bid. It really depends on who shows up. Decide before you go what your limit is because you could get caught up in the emotions of wanting to win and accidentally spend way more than makes sense.

The cashier's check, I explained to the bank what I was doing and it was in my name so I when I lost an auction (I lost a few) I could redeposit it. I don't like carrying around a lot of cash.

Learn about the closing process for auctions. Luckily this wasn't my first property. I had some trouble finding a title company but the auctioneer's office recommended a lawyer who I communicated with via email. Also, I got no hand holding from anyone. Got title insurance just in case. 

Thanks @Wayne Brooks. It sounds like it is not even worth the effort to even think about it.

and @Chris Welch I posted this in the Orlando forum.... which is in Florida. Orlando seems to be the catch all for Central Florida including Lake Co, and there must be a zillion Lake Counties all over the dang place.

So its very difficult to find a gift my dad likes, but I hit pay dirt last year when I paid my parent's property taxes on a lot next to their house that my dad has used for his business. So this year I went to pay the property taxes again, but using the search function I discovered my dad had another lot in another part of town..... and I paid the taxes on that too ($25).

It seemed my dad never really paid any property tax on time for several years and there were tax sales. Same for my uncle who has an adjoining lot next to my dad's seemingly abandoned lot. He too has failed to pay taxes in a timely manner and still retained his lot. Additional side note- my uncle and dad are no longer on speaking terms for reasons unknown.

It says "CER SOLD" for every other year going back to 1998 and "REDEEMED" other years. I guess they pony up when they might lose their lots. But looking at the County Clerk's site, it looks like my dad did lose a property to a tax sale in 2013 for failure to pay from 2009-2011.

I have no interest in buying or obtaining my uncle or my dad's parcels for a variety of reasons (one being their spat) or anyone's property but I am curious how do Marion County Tax sales work. I last bothered with a tax sale in DC for the interest. Is it the same with Marion County and how do you find out what the interest rate will be? The County Clerk's website gave a range.

Okay, I was able to post. It appears Washington D.C. is a sub forum (won't show up on a search for D.C.) of "Local Real Estate Networking and Recommendations" which is between Kentucky and Louisiana . 

Sigh, still feeling like a second class citizen in America. If DC is a sub forum while States and Canada are parent forums under Local Real Estate representation and statehood have a snowball's chance in hell.

The following post is kind of old because I couldn't figure out how to post here. It hasn't become law yet, as my Councilman McDuffie is still moving it through the process. Knowing the Council something like this will probably pass. The Council means well but they keep passing laws that in time hurt the people they claim to help.

This is just a small thing for D.C. house hackers. I saw on my neighborhood blog regarding proposed legislation regarding screening for residential properties.

See the announcement below from Ward 5 Councilmember McDuffie.

Does this “ban to box” bill impact Bates area landlords who rent out their basements?

See this response from Nolan Treadway of CM McDuffie’s office:

Owner-occupied units are EXEMPT from this law. As long as the owner lives on the property and the entire property is less than 4 units, this legislation would not apply.

And now you know.

Trio of Bills Will “Ban the Box” in Housing; Legalize Surrogacy Agreements; and Recognize Gender Identity on Death Certificates

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, November 30, 2016 Contact: Nolan Treadway, INFO REDACTED FOR POSTING PURPOSES Washington, DC – Today, the Committee on the Judiciary of the D.C. Council voted unanimously to send three bills to the full Council.

Fair Criminal Record Screening for Housing Act of 2016 [B21-0706]
This bill – often called “Ban the Box for Housing” – prohibits housing providers from considering prior arrests that did not result in convictions when evaluating an applicant for tenancy. The bill also prohibits a housing provider from making an applicant disclose a pending criminal accusation or criminal conviction prior to making a conditional offer for housing. And after extending a conditional offer for housing, a housing provider must provide an applicant with the eligibility criteria used in deciding whether to rent or lease and may only consider certain pending criminal accusations and criminal convictions that have occurred in the past seven years. After a conditional offer is made, it may only be withdrawn if the housing provider determines that the withdrawal or adverse action achieves a substantial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory interest. Finally, the bill provides that complaints alleging violations of the law can be filed with the Office of Human Rights.

Sorry for the long delay I had been having an email exchange with someone at BP about this.

My browser is Firefox. I could try this on Safari when I get home.

Ah. Tried to post a topic and once again Washington DC is missing from the pull down list. It is not at the bottom. When I leave the "select a forum" field empty it won't post without a chosen forum. I went into the DC forum and then tried hitting the "Start Discussion" button and it does not connect to the DC forum.

Maybe it is my browser.

Thanks Russell.