All Forum Posts by: Richard Weinberg

Yes. I bought a better one, $300 i think, and ran it multiple times to mitigate the home from heavy cigarette smoke. I also had to use allot of soap, water, paint, furnace cleaning and much more.

Good luck!

@Terry Ellis

I would encourage you to visit a YouTube channel and read a book by Michael Zuber called “one rental at a time”.

He is in multi family and very open about what he’s learned over the last 20 years.

Also, my wife and I are where you are and we started real a rental estate portfolio just a few years ago and are doing well....but timing is big in this business and its easy to get in and challenging to get out if required.

Be cautious and good luck.

@John Beasley

Can you post an update on how it’s going with your Sober living house?

I am speaking with a big organization that develops Sober living homes and this seems like a good thing to do or shall I say, the right thing to do.....in addition to a smart rental thing to do. Your shared experienced of what’s gone well, what has not gone well and the learnings, would be appreciated.

Thanks.

@Brandy Carter

Brandy, follow Nathan’s advice closely.

I, like all of you, attempt to be very open to every applicant but when I go as far as to take an application and they pay a small fee and take a half hour to complete that application, there are laws as to how you communicate the results of a denied application due to credit. Properly denying a applicant is just as important as handling the application, due diligence and lease for an approved applicant. Be sure you know your state and federal laws and stay compliant.

Good luck.

@Michael Moskos

Let me share a brief story… On the third rental house we acquired it happened to be a brand new house from a builder that was finishing a subdivision so we got a pretty decent deal...we didn’t steal it....got a good deal… We literally gave the tenant a front load washer and dryer from another personal home we had just acquired and the tenant offered to install it herself. I was busy and agreed. Experienced landlords know where this is going. After they hooked up the dryer wrong and destroyed it it was now up to me to put a new washer and dryer in there or lose a tenant.

No tenants will not be eligible to do any type of installation of anything like that on our properties. Good luck!

@Matt Berklacy

I have purchased several homes on auction.com and a few on other foreclosure and auction sites. Your third assumption is correct. It’s a cash sale to auction.com and they are simply looking for proof of funds. They negotiate virtually nothing after you make the final winning bid that clears the reserve. You need to do your own due diligence before you bid as best you can so you have a comfort zone that you’re doing the right thing.... it’s no different than buying the gift bag at a country restaurant...you won’t know what’s in the bag unless you try and check it out. This process for online sales at auction.com is quite different than visiting the courthouse steps or elsewhere with Auction.com and I recommend that you do due diligence to understand the particular state and local laws if you visit a courthouse or some other place to bid at a live setting. The rules and laws are not the same. Good luck!

@Tim Porsche

Yesterday a crew of roughly 6 removed the popcorn from a 2000 sq ft mid- 1970 era future rental. It was popcorn at 8 am and no popcorn at 5 pm. When they complete the prep, reprime and paint I will have about $4000 invested into the ceilings but about 50 years of neglect and poor repair scars will be gone. Do I like the price, no. Do I like the project, yes. The popcorn was up 50 years. Maybe the clean ceilings will give me a few good decades.

We won’t rent what we won’t live in. I look forward to spending a night in this house, looking at the new ceilings.

Hope that helps.

@Garfield Thompson

Do not invest it in real estate.

I am only a modest size buy and hold landlord and in the 10 years I have been carefully buying, refreshing, renting and holding there have been surprises. If you invest your $5000 and have no reserves, you can’t do anything to address the surprises. Wait until you can save enough to complete your purchase rehab, market the property and rent it with 6 months in cash reserves and then you will be happier, sleep better and make more money.

In the meantime, consider investing a couple hundred dollars in a training course from credible realtors and you tubers that have inexpensive, quality, market driven training programs like Michael Zuber of www.onerentalatatime.com or www.meetKevin.com. These guys love what they do and if they were really only training for money, they would charge a lot more. David Green right here on BiggerPockets has a few great books and there is an arsenal of great YouTube videos from David and others right here on BiggerPockets.com as well. Also, become a YouTube junkie, like me and you can have fun and learn a lot...while you learn and save.

Good luck!

@Jason Weeks

My thoughts are unfortunately darker than to suggest Zillow has become complacent and is offering bad data references.... I actually think that both Zillow and RrdFin have a new agenda as they have both entered into the purchasing and selling of real estate so that have a vested interest in reducing their acquisition costs.

I contact Zillow 3 or 4 times when they mysteriously reduced the Zestimste on one of my properties by about $40,000 and they never replied to me. In the past they were more attentive and followed up when I contacted them.

Thanks and good luck!

@Toria Posey

Try www.ezlandlordforms.com

I have been a customer for 6 or 8 years. They offer state specific leases and tenant application processing tools but their cool feature is they integrate the approved application and home content into the lease.

I think you will find starting out you need to also find your State and county landlords pocket guides and cheat sheets so you understand what your state rules are so you are in legal compliance at all times. Today’s tenants know the rules. Magistrate’s in any future evictions will exploit any lease imperfections to benefit the tenant and today’s competitors are very professional refits so they will exploit your lack of professionalism if you demonstrate it.

Ezlandlords has competitors and I would like to see them integrate new services or be acquired by a fintech but I just transitioned tenants in one of my out of state properties and between Zillow, Ezlandlords and a for rent sign, I had the bases covered.

Good luck!