All Forum Posts by: Sam Hopkins

@Brig Murdock my property manager tells me I over improve my places and font squeeze tenants fIr hIgh rent. The thing is, my stuff rents on average in three days and people stay. Whenever I hear other landlords crying, it’s because their places are from 1960 and some crazy rent. If you make your place a little cheaper and better than everyone else’s you’ll make it back by eliminating vacancies.

What tips do you have to make your tenant not destroy things or help them able to pay their rent? For instance when I buy a new rental I: 1. Remove anything that is hanging. 2. Take down all curtain rods and replace with mini blinds to stop them from nailing sheets or ripping it down. 3. I purchase a plunger and toilet brush. 4. I put door mats at every entrance to protect the floors. 5. I replace all lightbulbs with LED. 6. I purchase 12 HVAC air filters. 7. I replace any bad, leaky wIndows.

@Ronald Morris he’s investing $35,000 and making a 42% return each year ($15,000 in rent). His $35,000 isn’t gone, it’s just now illiquid.

@Teho Kim I live by the idea of not being greedy. So many people stress cash flow but don’t forget the bigger picture of once you execute this deal someone else (renter) is buying you a house AND giving you $70 a month. Let me repeat that: you sign the paperwork and someone else just bought you a house. THAT’S AN INCREDIBLE DEAL.

@Larry Spradling I would get an accountant now that you have rentals. I have a bookkeeper and an accountant because life gets crazy with rentals and depreciation.

@Geo Johnson I do rehab to rental. I only do them in a one mile (probably less) radius of my house. I can walk to all my rentals (14). I hire only contractors that live in my town. Doing rehab sucks at first, but after you settle on standard paint colors, flooring, appliances, etc it becomes better. By using only contractors here, they get work done fast and we all know each other. It’s like Mayberry. If all of this was not possible, it would suck. Oh, I also use a property manager. I don’t know how people do that stuff on their own. That’s a huge time suck. Of my 14 properties, only one was turnkey. Man was that nice. If you do rehab at a place that is 10-20 miles away from your house, you’ll be sad. You’ll have to drive that a few times a day to meet contractors. Today I was at my current one six different times. You’ll find you have to go for stupid stuff too, like getting ready to order fridge and you forgot to measure the opening.

@Matthew Rayl I would definitely not do this. You don’t want two people squatting there who aren’t on the lease when stuff hits the fan. YOU SHOULD NEVER RENT WITH PETS. Three dogs to three people? They will be scratching and peeing all over the place. You will never get their smell out of that place. Then, you are stuck only renting in the future to people with pets. People are bad enough with their pets in the house they own. I can’t imagine what three guys with three dogs in a rental would do.

@Benjamin Williams you’ll hear a lot of people say don’t do it. That may or may not be true. It depends on what your degree is in. Are you going for a law degree or a degree in marine biology? See what I am getting at? Lots of kids pick degrees that are fun. But fun degrees mean bad paying jobs. Then you’ll have student loans for a stupid degree. Now if you are going for a law degree, then it would be stupid to drop out as you will make money from that degree. Remember, you are investing in a degree. Pick a bad degree and you get a horrible return. Pick a good degree and you get a great return.

@Mike Flint you may not know this, but a lot of lawyers use online services like biz filings.com. They just charge you something over the online company’s fee for their time.

That looks like a great project to take on for a rental. It is small and there can only be so many problems. If something needs to be replaced, it won't cost much. It does look like there's a roof leak. Also, you might want to see if you can call the upstairs rooms bedrooms. I think they need to have so many square feet of 7-8' ceilings.