All Forum Posts by: Gerald K.

Welcome @Andre M.

Nice to see another local join the BP community. Check out the learn tab up above. Lots of good info. BP is a great place to network and learn from the experience of others. See you around the forums.

Rust Belt: Parts of the northeastern and midwestern US that are characterized by declining industry, aging factories, and a falling population. Steel-producing cities in Pennsylvania and Ohio are at its center.

Maybe that's why the prices are so low. Does that sound like a place you want to live, even temporarily, to invest?

Not a good way for a tenant to start off with the Landlord. If you have no signed rental agreement, you probably want to move on to the next tenant as soon as possible. You don't want to lose good tenants while you're waiting for a no show. Why did you collect a security deposit? Was it to be used as a holding deposit? Is there an agreement for that? You would have to abide by what was agreed upon, but if he didn't follow through, it would seem he broke that agreement and you can move on with the next qualified tenant.

Im not sure what your situation is, but everytime I hear someone inherited tenants it gets me going. When you purchase a property and it has tenants, the first thing you need to do - while your considering the purchase, is to ask for rental agreements (lease or month-to-month), if there's a security deposit, last month rent, pet fee, etc. And ask for proof that payments have been made on time and in full. Then, you need to do your own screening including calling previous landlords. Quite often, sellers are in a bad situation and they want to dump the problem on you. Not saying that's your situation, but it seems to happen.

Here's the BP guide to screening tenants:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/01/27/tenant-screening/

If this was a long term tenant in good standing that just had a one time problem and was upfront telling you about it, and saying they will also be paying the late fees, and telling you when to expect it - meaning you didn't have to call them asking where the rent is, and you have some security such as a last months rent, I would be less concerned. But with a new tenant, that just moved in, that just agreed to the payment schedule and amount, I would probably post a 3-day notice to pay or quit. You could wait until the 10th before moving forward with an eviction. If they come up with the rent plus late fees on the 10th, you can accept it and that ends everything. if the payment is a partial payment, you could accept it and repost a 3-day notice for the remaining amount. Do you have an eviction lawyer? It might be a good time to find one. It doesn't hurt to have everything in place just in case. It's possible the tenant spent to much during the holidays and just needs to catch back up, but rent should be the first priority. This time of year most people don't like to move and it's probably harder to find a new tenant.

@Brandon Turner

Thanks for bringing that to our attention. Those baseboard heaters are kind of out of sight, out of mind, while they run in the background. Not like forced air heating that you hear coming on and off, so I can see how those could get missed. The other big ones are water heaters, refrigerators, and running toilets.

So basically, you're hoping for appreciation and learning property managment. What would you do if the market declines in the next two years? You need to think about alternate exit strategies, such as renting for a significantly longer period. Does it still make sense?

I like C for some of the same reasons Jon Klaus mentioned, but under two conditions based on Shannon Ashby's concerns. Buy them one at a time. Get one in operation, then buy the next, etc. Or, make a deal with the seller so that I could buy them as a package deal, but hold off on payments until I have them in operation.

Hi @Suzie Remilien

We're in Kirkland. Welcome to BP. Lots of information and knowledgable people here. Check out the learn tab up above for various categories.

You mentioned an interest in mortgage notes. There was a good Podcast a while back from Jeff Brown on note investing that you may be interested in. You can listen to it here: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/05/09/bp-podcast-017-mentors-retirement-jeff-brown/

See you around the forums.

We bought a Hubzu property before. Well, it wasn't actually "on" Hubzu at the time because they moved it over to the MLS. I worked with a realtor on it. As I recall, we had to use their purchase and sales agreement paperwork and there were some frustrations working with them. If they are in India, that explains a lot. It was the first time for my realtor so there was some confusion. There's also some extra fees and I believe daily charges if you don't close on the specified date. It was also around the end of year and since a lot of people were on vacations and banks were closed more than usual, I think we went past that date but they exended the date so there were no exra charges.

This seems to happen now and then for me also. I wonder if anyone can chime in on this. Since you brought this up, I think I'm going to work out a process for handling this - maybe create a change of move-in date form with an applicable service fee to cover additional admistrative costs. If they're moving in on a new date, I would definitely update the rental agreement so those days are paid for - even though those vacant days would have gone unpaid - they would have to pay to live somewhere else anyway. Also, not sure, but if they move in before the rental agreement date and there was some kind of accident or somethng, there could be some liability concerns there. You should also raise the question about the utilities. And you are right. You need to take time to do the walk through, explain your procedures, where the utility shut offs are, etc. If you have to make another trip to do that, it's just more time spent doing something you would not have had to do. All things to think about.