All Forum Posts by: Robert Henrikson

to Lynnette E

Congrats on the baby  !

No sleeping is a "Badge of Honor" that nobody enjoys getting, but is honored by all that have been there.

some of us didn't learn after 2 babies and had to have 3 ! And some like Jacob Fitzgerald had to have 7 . 

I know you've heard it before but , Before you know it they are 15 and wanting to sleep all day , or 18 and going off to college, and they don't want anything to do with you , unless they need a new phone ! 

Anyway , let's all be safe out there (:  

My hobby used to be "working on my rentals" , fixing dishwashers, washing machines, and plunging the occasional toilet. 

But after being in the business for a few years , my hobbies are :

Boating

Waterskiing 

Snow Skiing

Boating

Watching Formula 1 

Looking for a new boat

did I mention working on my daughters cars 

ow and Boating ! 

and getting frustrated in the stock market !!!

Woops , It was late , I meant to say we are in the " Customer Service Business" not public relations 

To Anthony, and John  

First of all start with the basics , LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION  (mine is a hot area of Seattle called Ballard )

Second, like others have said on here we landlords are in the  "Public Relations Business" every interaction with your tenants is crucial. If they call at 10PM on a Friday night with water problems .....and you knock on there door at 11pm on a Friday night , they will appreciate you . If you say " I can't get a guy out there till Tuesday , live with it "   They will remember it ! Some landlords actually ignore calls , watch out Karma is out there . 

Like I said when I have a vacancy I check market rents , with all the rental sites it's pretty easy, for us , and for the perspective tenants. I just had a vacancy as a matter of fact, June 30th , and filled it today, July 23rd. The unit was vacant for less than a month, while I put in all new flooring, a top on the line vinyl planking (looks like hardwood) , a complete paintjob , including Kit and Bath and replaced the base in the unit. And with this covid thing , vacancy rates are rising, so I went in pretty cheap, only $40 more per month than before. The reason I did that was because I watch the comps on Zillow / Craigslist and Apartments.com and 2 months ago my daughter moved to an area close to my apartments. So I had been watching my market for 3 months, every day. And I was seeing 1br units still on the market after 60 days, and some longer !!! and this is a very desirable area of Seattle .  How long does it take to make up a missed month's rent ?? just because I want to hold out for another $20 - $40 per month ? At $1395 vs $1450   a month , it takes a long time to make up for that $55 you MAY get , 23 months ! That is almost 2 years !! and by then I've raised the rent and am closer to market. 

But hey when it comes time to sell that all goes out the window. You want your rents as high as you can get them. So have all your accounting records ready to go a year before you want to sell, go get a loan ,  and make that gem shine !!!

Hi, I have

a 13 year tenant, that is actually living in one of my units for the second time, she moved for 2 years then moved back.

a 15 year tenant 

a 16 year tenant 

a 17 year tenant  

a 23 year tenant 

and I had a 25 year tenant until she had to move 

I'm all about keeping tenants for a long time , less turnover = less headaches = more $$$ 

So when it was time to raise the rent , annually, I figured my increase in costs and what the market would bear , and kind of split the difference, now when I did have a vacancy I went in and did as much as I could afford to do as far a remodeling and rented it at market rent. 

That's what I did , for 42 years and counting (:

Or you can do as "I have heard" and make your requirements for rental so high that almost nobody can meet them , then if someone with a pet comes along you can point to a specific criteria ( say FICO score was less than 760 ) and say "I'm sorry you didn't meet the "criteria for rental"  (I live in Seattle, where we have to set out a "criteria for rental" and if a tenant meets all the criteria , YOU MUST RENT TO THEM , first come first serve , City of Seattle rental ordinance ) 

  As an Investor in Real Estate for over 40 years , I find it sad that I am now working on my exit strategy from the Seattle market. I can see the writing on the wall with our overly left city counsel, don't get me wrong they have done a lot of good , but when one council member starts thinking that a rent boycott is a good idea ??? It's time to get out of Dodge.

Jermaine Chad Ingram, 

Hi and welcome to the forum, I see you have 1 investment , just curious how many times YOU have had a tenant move in with no animals, then a year later they have 3 rescue dogs peeing all over the place , and I mean all over the place , the only place that was DRY was the area under the litter boxes, so much so that you have take up the underlayment on most of the floor and have it replaced , cost $3500, replace the flooring another $3,000. Then have the tenant hide behind one of those free tenant lawyers , and say it was there when I moved in. Or a tenant that slipped in a ^%*%  rabbit !! It chewed EVERY piece of trim / door / base in the whole house. Cost to replace all the millwork $5,000.  After a couple of these experiences over my 40+ years in Real Estate, I prefer "NO ANIMALS" 

It's MY property and I do have a right to say what goes on inside MY walls .

Not looking for a fight , just getting old 

In the last 30 days, I've noticed a lot more sales coming at 95% to 98% of asking price  than I have in last 5 years , and more "Back on Markets" than I have seen in last couple of years as well. Banks are definitely tightening up. Some people saying if you don't have a 700 credit score don't bother even trying. I'll let you know how bad it is in about a month, looking for a $200K commercial loan to do some improvements. 

THIS IS WHAT CAN HAPPEN !!!

https://www.king5.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/washington-state-eviction-moratorium-landlords-upset-everett-tenants/281-367bbb4e-dd70-48e3-8acd-509dcd6ca270

Here is a local story of a Landlord from Everett (45 minutes north of Seattle) whose tenants are abusing the property, and because of the eviction moratorium cannot get the tenants out, even with lawyers !! It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see where they could go with more legislation. 

I really feel for our first time landlords , scrimping and saving money to get that first rental property, operating at negative cash flow , just to own a piece of the AMERICAN DREAM. To get my first apartment I borrowed part of the down payment $10K, went to bank for the rest of my down payment $60K AND used seller financing for the balance $400K, I was $400 a month negative cash flow !!! AND didn't go positive cash flow for 4 years. If this had happened back then I'd have lost the property. 

  As a Lifelong Seattle resident, 60 years now. and as a long time owner of Seattle properties, over 40 years, I'm contemplating my EXIT STRATEGY, have been since I got Real Estate Tax bill this year , they have almost doubled since 2017  for my in city (BALLARD) properties, 

My Best to all you struggling landlords trying for the American Dream out there !!

And my thoughts and prayers to everyone in these troubling times 

Stay Safe 

Edward and the others are correct, this is not an eviction, they cannot deny access to the unit , if they want to be present that is fine , they CAN stand OUTSIDE the door if they don't trust the workers , but they cannot deny entry to you or the workers . for the other people following this, not from Seattle, it's ready to snow in Seattle tonight , and temps tomorrow are going to be in the low 30's , so if they want to hang around outside , LET THEM .