All Forum Posts by: Nancy P.

My son is our PM while we are in Germany on a W-2 job.  He has scouted and renovated four properties for us in just under two years.  He's 27,  5'11", and 135 lbs.   Cannot grow a beard.  He caught a lot of flak at first from agents, lawyers, contractors, potential tenants.  Our Realtor is about 42 but looks ten years younger.  She taught him to respond to the "holy crap you're a BABY!" type comments by just giving the person THE STARE.  You keep your mouth neutral but you just look hard at the person who said it.  Same look you give the person who says ANYTHING inappropriate.  For a good 5-10 seconds.  Then go back to whatever you were saying.  Shuts it down 95% of the time,  and they apologize even about a third of the time.  Because it really IS inappropriate,  people just need to be reminded.

Well,  we had none more than ten miles from home- and then we moved 4200 miles to Germany for the W2 job.  Have bought four properties since moving here with help of property manager (son) and trusted agent.  Two of the four are in neighborhoods we were already invested in.

@JoeVillaneuve:

What if the appreciation is more like 2-5%? Because that is what is more common in the Midwest 100K SFH scenario.

I think the math is just too complicated for many on here, there are models to use that aren't provided by BP. (Search for Internal Rate of Return on here for examples of what I mean.) REI is an entirely different animal in high appreciation areas. I agree with Johann Jells...stay the course.

Other reasons I have denied Section 8 in addition to ones listed by others.  It's easy to find a good reason to deny if you want. 

1.  Ownership of a dog breed that would have nullified my insurance.

2.  Wanted to bring 3 boys to an 1050 sf 2 br place,  in violation of local codes for minimum s.f. per resident.

3.  Smoked.

4. Threatened me with a lawsuit before ever even meeting me/seeing the place.  FTS.

Great job.  Prices seem to have surged from when I left Cypress.  Just wanted to add---we bought three foreclosures fixed up by Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.  In two of the properties there was no padding under the cheap carpet.  Paint MUST have been watered down as literally a child's balloon marred the paint.  We were so happy they were "Fixed up"  that we didn't look closely.  No more.

I had a wonderful Section 8 tenant. She'd had a baby at 17 but worked and was going to nursing school. Then she hooked up with a real loser, moved him in, quit her job and school, stopped managing her diabetes. She denied he was living there. I didn't want her to lose her Section 8 but I didn't renew her lease. (Classic enabling move, I am an ACOA.) On the day she moved out, I gave her the entire deposit back despite the carpet being ruined. (It was an FHA rehab and very low quality carpet).. Her daughter at this point was 7, they'd been there 4 years. It was almost midnight when they were finished. The daughter, no doubt coached, said "You are the reason I have to change schools". I leaned over, looked her in the eye, gently touched her arm, and said: "I'm so sorry, but your mommy is the reason you can't live here anymore." As I was leaving, the tenant chased me down the driveway...at this point it's after midnight. I stopped and she said in front of her daughter "Mrs. P is right. I made bad choices and they led to this. It's not her fault we have to leave". I thanked her, hugged her, went home. She went on to have another baby with the loser, and never finish school AFAIK...we have friends in common so I know a little about her. I thought that revelation that night would turn her around. But no. People make stupid choices, and I do feel bad FOR them but work hard not to enable them. That helps no one.

We are in Germany for a few years for the W-2 job,  we have a ventless stacked w/d.  It stores the water in a container that must be emptied every 3rd load or so.  Clothes usually are a bit damp when they come out,  I hang things on a dryer rack for an hour or two and then they are fully dry. They have been around for at least 20 years in Europe.

We own 2 500 s.f. units in the U.S. and they both have stacked w/d in a closet.  In our area not having w/d on site dries up at least half the tenant pool.