All Forum Posts by: P.J. Bremner

@Ian Kurela

I have a contractor that will be doing the rehabs for me, not sure if he needs any help but I was thinking something that might be of help to me and you can get quite a bit of experience for how rehabs are and what things cost.  I need someone to take pictures and maybe a video of the properties before the rehab, maybe once during and again after but before tenants move in.  This would be a great help to me so I can document everything (and help me keep tabs on things) and invaluable experience for you because you'll get to see the project before and after as well as see the numbers associated with it.  I'm under contract for 2 properties in the Lakewood area right now, they are both very close to each other.  Let me know if you're interested and we can set something up.  Thanks for reaching out!

Cleveland and surrounding suburbs for now, would probably expand out from there if I can't find enough deal flow.

So I'm currently in negotiations with my first couple of properties in Ohio and I'm looking to implement the BRRRR strategy. I have a couple great candidates for property management, an awesome contractor and a very knowledgable agent. The one piece of the puzzle I have yet to figure out just yet is the financing part. I'm purchasing these properties cash, rehab in cash and would like to pull the equity back out with cash out refi (unless there is a better way to do it?)

Can anyone with experience in Ohio investing chime in here? Should I look for a direct lender? Call a bunch of credit unions? Deal with brokers? I've got experience with each of these in my home state (southern California), but not exactly sure if things are different out that way when it comes to financing. Most of what I am looking at has an ARV of over $100k, so no, I don't need a lender to lend on that $40k turd (not that I wouldn't be open to it... just not for my first few properties). Thanks in advance!

@Henry LiChi

I have a tax lady that I have used for 5 years and my family has used her for 4 (I referred them to her) and she knows her stuff.  I use her for real estate and I also run an eCommerce business so she knows business in general with a specialty in real estate.  Her rates are very reasonable imo, I think I paid $750 last year for her to do returns on 4 rentals and 1 business plus some 1099 stuff from side hustles (I was a mortgage originator and real estate agent for a short time for giggles).  In the time that I have been working with her, she made partner and is now one of the big bosses : )   

PM me if you're interested, I don't like to plaster good contacts in an online forum.

@Peter K.

I've been doing this type of setup for nearly 5 years with several houses.  I used only month to month lease, $300 deposit per room.  Month to month is good because if the tenant sucks, you don't evict but simply don't renew their lease.  The way I pitch it to other people is, "I want you to make sure you're happy here, so I will have to work hard every month to make sure you stay here a long time.  If I have you sign a year lease, I don't have to work hard because you're trapped for a full year."  It's a great selling point for most people, even though your real motives are self-serving (being able to get them out without evicting).  I keep my deposit small because most people renting a room don't have that much cash, so I want to get the most people applying for the room and pick the best of the bunch.

Hope that helps, I'll be more than happy to share renting rooms if you have further questions.  Send me a colleague request and hit me up anytime you wish.  Best of luck!

*Edit* Very important tip!!!  It always worked out best for me to tell my tenants that I was the property manager.  The first 3 homes I bought and did this, it worked out just fine.  When I moved out, it was even better.  If you're the owner, then you have the power to make decisions.  More importantly, if you're the one making the decisions and the tenant doesn't like the decision, then you're a #### and the living situation can get real awkward real fast lol.  Just have a backup story ready.  Nobody even checked the title of the homes to see who the owner was, but if they ever did, I would tell them that I was part of the investment using my credit to help out and do the management, but ultimately my boss gave the money and had the control.  EzPz.

@Oren K.

Thank makes sense, I read it wrong.  Even better!  Do you know if they work in specific areas or is it a company that works nationwide?

@Jeremy Michiels

I would make sure they give you a clean title (either they run a title search or you do it if they don't) since it will be off-market and not regulated.

Other than that, just be aware of the obvious stuff like don't trust their numbers.  Get an agent to run comps, run your own comps, get your own bids for rehab, etc.  In my experience so far, most of them are not even close.

I meant to tag you in the previous post, not sure what happened there!

@Cheryle Patterson

I run a student housing business similar to yours.  While I don't have any advice regarding these trouble tenants installing wall AC units, I do want to commend you for putting your AC so low (great landlord, very reasonable)... I pay for utilities at my properties as well and the central AC is set to 74 - 76.  Anything lower and it could damage the system, at least out here in SoCal when it's 100+ outside.  I had an older condenser freeze up last year when a tenant set it to 68... I had to replace the whole system ($6,000 worth of work) and there wasn't anyone to pin it on so I had to eat the cost.  I think your best bet, as most others are stating, is to deal with it in the short term and correct the lease moving forward.

On a side note, do you have a solar system installed on this property?  I have solar on 50% of my properties and quickly getting that up to 100% due to the savings since we pay utilities.  Definitely worth checking out, but make sure you shop really hard for competitive pricing because most of the solar people out there are worse than used car salesman (I would know, I worked in the car business for nearly 10 years lol).

@Oren K.

Very interesting business model!  Yeah I can definitely see the value in a company that handles that for you assuming you keep the property long enough to recoup the cost (reminds me of the conversation most lenders have with their clients about paying points on a loan).