All Forum Posts by: Randy E.

@Daniel O., thanks for the cold, emotionless honesty.

I could pick and choose a few decisions to nitpick, but you're not looking for that, don't need that, and it seems to me like needless piling on.

The one thing I will comment on is the idea of a landlord feeling like he must/should generate consistent cashflow on a fully mortgaged property, especially when the mortgages in question are 20-year or less. As someone who got into REI with little cash, I avoided investments that paired a very long mortgage with an estimated rent that provided minimum ($100-$300) monthly cashflow. I knew that one bad tenant and/or one extended expensive turnover could ruin that meager cashflow for a year or even two.

I think situations like that are better suited for investors with extremely well-paying w2 jobs and/or other forms of income. Quite simply, I would have been putting myself in grave danger of failure at REI had I done that. I realized that, and avoided that situation.

On your end, it appears you didn't quite accept that sometimes ... there are problems associated with being a landlord.  Costly problems.  Not criticizing you, because you were in a different situation than I was.  While you may lose money, you won't lose "everything" as I might have in the same situation.  I was forced to take a deep look at all possibilities and account for them.  Like you before, now that I don't have to take as long a look, I sometimes don't.  I understand.

It still sucks for you.  Well, not too much, because you now own 8 properties that are all worth more than you paid (except maybe one) and adding all the cashflow together, you probably don't actually lose money each month.  But yes, it could have turned out even better with a few different decisions.

Thanks for sharing, and good luck in the future.

I have been so super incredible successful in my REI career that I have earned net of 1.7 trillion dollars in only 6 years. I then realized I wanted to share my knowledge to help other people become successful in REI. I thought of traveling from city to city, hosting hundreds of people in small convention halls (who would pay a nominal fee, natch) but I don't want to travel constantly. Instead, I decided to spend 11 hours a day disseminating my vast wisdom here on BP, and save you all the fees associated with attending my traveling school of REI.

Benjamin, your estimates seem like par for the course for cold-called quotes, but they are high for what experienced rehabbers should be able to negotiate with subs they use repeatedly.  Maybe in some parts of the country, NYC, LA, Denver, etc, those are reasonable prices.  If a local sub quoted me any of those prices, I'd call someone else.

Tremendous information, @Chris Mason!

 I'm curious too because I am in a similar bind.  Hopefully, it will be soon.

@Matthew Bailey, NC is an "attorney state," meaning any title search must be initiated by a lawyer.  Therefore, instead of searching for a specific title company, you should focus on hiring an attorney first.  The attorney will then hire the title company to perform the search.

 Allison,

Not all people (tenants) are bad.  Look at it from the other side.  Not all landlord requests are unreasonable.  

Your friend has a nice place to live, paying less than market rate, and her place is so nice that her boyfriend who lives in a more upscale neighborhood would rather spend his time with her than ask her to visit him.  That's all good.

The o/o landlord isn't happy with the amount of visitors to his home.  He thought he was renting a part of his personal home to a grad student who would spend most of her time working part time, going to class, and studying -- a nice quiet young lady who wouldn't have time for all the shenanigans that younger students or working young people get into.  Instead, he got a tenant whose apartment seems like a revolving door of visitors, day and night.  How would you feel if you were in the landlord's place?

It's easy to put yourself in your friend's place.  She's your friend and you want to understand her plight.  The landlord is just a big ol' meany trying to hurt your innocent hardworking friend.  But, try to put yourself in the landlord's place.  How would you feel?

Instead of debating the finer points of what constitutes a "visit", it would be better to have a heart-to-heart with the landlord, who is almost a roommate with a separate entrance.  Understand the owner/occupant landlord's point of view, agree to modify the heavy visitation rotation, and everyone (tenant and landlord and boyfriend and frequently-visiting-family) gets to live out the lease happily ever after.

My opinion is both side misunderstood the other side, and communication was not optimal.  Have a pleasant face-to-face between tenant and landlord, and I think this can be a non-issue.

Two years of saving every dime I could and ensuring my credit score was as high as I could get it. While all along taking the REI game seriously and learning as much as I could about it.

Understand, to be a Real Estate INVESTOR, you first need money to invest. You can listen to the get-rich-quick schemes. You can listen to the get-rich-off-other-people's-money schemes. And you can listen to the stick-your-head-in-the-sand-and-hope-for-the-best-while-you-charge-$10,000-to-your-credit-card-for-a-course-from-a-REI-guru schemes.

The one that works best is save some money and have a good credit score.  Do anything else and you're doing little more than buying a lottery ticket and wishing on a star.  I hear all the time from people who want to be RE investors, but they don't have money, have bad credit, and don't have the patience to learn a little.  In fact, I heard from a relative of a relative this past weekend, who very urgently wanted to discuss with me the possibilities learning from me and possibly "partnering" on a RE deal.  We talked for a while, and I asked him to call me back when he was alone and we could have the time to talk in more detail, or maybe meet up and really get into it.  Five days and no call back.  

The bottom line is, most people are not serious about this. Most people think they want more money in their lives, they get the idea that REI is a way to get more money in their lives, they get infatuated with the idea for a while, they do nothing serious to forward the act of actually INVESTING in RE, then they move on and forget they ever really "seriously" considered REI.

@sherrod, if you're really serious, start by saving money. A few thousand at least. If you think that will take too long and you don't have the patience ... you're not serious. Go to your library and check out a couple of books on Real Estate Investing or General Contracting. You don't need recommendations from people here -- everyone here will have different books that influenced them. If you don't want to go to the library, hunt for a couple of books and spend a couple of weeks reading them for one hour every night, maybe you aren't really serious. If you think you want to find a shortcut that will allow you to make $$$$ without spending any of your own money, nor spending any effort/time reading and learning about REI, you're not serious.

If you're actually serious, go forth and conquer and prosper.  

Good luck!

@Kendall Vrana, he's a bum who was afraid because his life is terrible and going downward.  His tone was probably less anger than frustration, but it's easy for someone else to mistake the two.

I've been in the same boat, as far as waiting too late to get a trusted source to handle some work and having to rely upon that questionable resource.  That means more oversight from you, worse communication skills, lessor tradesman skills, and overpriced billing.  I won't be gouged, but I'll pay a little extra, because ultimately I know it was my fault for what is happening now.  Also, never allow a handyman to begin work without getting a quote from him, even if it's only a verbal quote.  He may not be able to quote you before seeing the problem in person, but he should be able to give you a ballpark figure at that point.  Oh, and when you're dealing with someone you don't know, try not to ever say anything like "we're really in a bind and have to get this done NOW!!!!!"  When dealing with a shady handyman, that's like blood in the water for sharks.

In the future, you can best prevent this by not waiting till the last minute to take care of such repairs.  But you already know this.

If this kook calls or texts again, ignore him and don't answer the call or respond to the texts.  I doubt he'll vandalize the place.  Unless he lives very close to it, he'll probably consider it "too much work and too much gas" to travel there just to throw a rock through a window.

 My first guess is it is overpriced.  As mentioned already, that's a HIGH rent price for the overall area.  

I know you're not looking for Monday Morning Quarterbacking, but why did you choose Statesville?  I drive by the exits to Statesville several times a year on the way to other cities, but have only stopped in the area four or five times over 20 years.  There's not much there, and it's always struck me as economically depressed, and as a city definitely not on the uptake.  I'm just curious why an OOS investor would choose to buy a $180,000 condo in such a small out-of-the-way town.  Not criticizing, just curious.

Oh, and to answer the question in your thread title: You should be nervous.  If you can sell and come close to breaking even, I would do so immediately.