All Forum Posts by: Peter M.

@Beau Pearson Well yes but only as long as the listing is up. So if you find a tenant by week 2, you only pay $20. Its tax deductible as advertising and i have found it works better than Facebook, Craigslist, or apartments.com. unless you want to list on the MLS through a realtor but then you're paying a lot more for getting the lease signed.

@Hamlet J. If its a new system and working properly why not? There are different types of systems that have varying maintenance requirements so you have to factor that in. And you might want to consider some type of environmental inspection in case the old system contaminated the soil but with some due diligence you can make sure you're not buying a lemon. The process for treating sewage is pretty much the same from a single family septic tank all the way to a municipal treatment system, the only difference is the mechanics and size of the pumps.

@Andrew Brown You could also look into RE crowd funding. For me the benefit of RE over the stock market is that you can have an impact on returns. Stock market, crowd funding, and turn key are all the same in my opinion-youre paying someone else to do the work so your returns will always be lower unless you find that penny stock unicorn.

@Joshua Loranger Depends on the situation really. I have m2m, 1 yr, 2 yr and everything in between. Like @Nathan G.i have provisions in my lease that incentivize tenants to not leave early. And remember, a lot of PM companies charge a fee to resign a tenant which is why owners want longer leases in addition to less turnover. But if you self manage you can do what is in your best interest.

@Beau Pearson One of my tenants pays through zillow and it does take a while for it to hit your bank account but other than that I like it. Their application is very basic but I like that tenants can pay one fee and apply as many times as they want in a month. If someone looks promising i make them fill out my application and submit more paystubs. You get some tire kickers but the quality of tenant I get from zillow are worth the $10/week. It was great when it was free but they wised up. I also used to use smartmove but now that its all included with zillow so I will probably only use smartmove if I get an applicant from somewhere else. Plus you get the actual credit score with zillow and just a "tenant rating" on smartmove. But I never go by the score alone anyway so it never mattered. All in all I'm a fan

@Cathy Malmrose They are supposed to abide the existing lease. But there is nothing stopping the tenants from agreeing to sign a new lease. The new owner or PM may use questionable or outright illegal tactics to compel tenants to sign a new lease.

@Hanan K. What are the agency laws in California? It can be complicated since it was the same broker doing both ends of the deal. You may have a valid complaint with NAR or the California state board. Wont really help you with performing on the contract but you may be awarded damages if they find in your favor. Im not really familiar with the process but I know it exists and might make up the difference or some of it.

@Dhiraj Chhabra Or use the section121 exclusion and you get to keep 250k or 500k if married filing jointly in profit tax free.

@Bukki Fabiyi Yes a HELOC would be taking equity out of your home or you could get a line on existing rental property. But since this doesn't apply to your situation you would have to come up with the down-payment to get your first one. Im not sure if a US Bank would use foreign property as collateral but i doubt it.. Or partner with someone if you bring them the deal and do the management.

@Hanan Kim I agree with all the previous posters. Best you can hope for is they ask for repairs or concessions in which case you could just refuse and hope they back out but your options are pretty limited unless you can find a mistake made in the contract that would render it invalid or unenforceable. I've seen it before where agents forgot to fill out dates or get the right signatures and if one party doesn't agree to correct it, the deal stalls and eventually times out.