All Forum Posts by: Shera Gregory

Sorry -- I don't know about that one. I do know that some folks who are doing deals as far south as Petersburg are coming to the ones I mentioned. Shera

Hi @John Nisewonger -- there are a couple of excellent clubs in the Richmond area. Both of these generally meet in public locations in the West End which might take some time to get to, but these do draw folks from the entire area. Neither of these pushes things to buy -- both are intent on networking and providing good presentations to help local investors. One is the Richmond REIA and another is Richmond RING. The RING group has a Facebook page. The REIA group is at http://www.meetup.com/rvareia/ The RING meetings are set up on meeup.com too. If you try to join RING be sure to list what you BRING to the group, not just what you are looking to get out of it yourself. Even with just one rental that is some experience to share with others who have not gotten that far in their RE investing. Best of luck!!

You can (and should) require that all those who will live in the home who are over the age of 18 will have to sign the lease and fill out an application. And you can explain that this means that each person is responsible for the rent even if one or more of the other individuals move out. Someone else may be able to chime in about what this means for how you review the applications. It would seem kind of extreme to expect that each person has the financial status to be able to afford the entire rent on their own. But they need to know that this is a legal agreement that all parties have to sign.

Interesting points. So .. for the sake of this discussion, let's assume that it is OK for me to act as a property manager. What is the proper way to handle the deposit funds?

I have a checkbook control Roth IRA in which I recently purchased a small single family home for long term rentals. For my non-IRA rentals I have a separate savings account to hold all the rental deposits since you are not supposed to co-mingle deposits with other funds. For the SDIRA I have a checking account for the LLC which I set up at a different bank from all my other checking just to prevent any accidental transfers between accounts that might cause a problem. So -- my question is about the deposit for the house owned in the SDIRA. Should this go into the LLC that the SDIRA owns or should be it be held outside of the IRA?

Hi -- you need to check the local requirements before doing anything. In general Virginia is a "landlord-friendly" state, but even so there are rules you have to follow. I did an eviction last year in Chesterfield County and I needed a court order before doing a lock-out. The government webpage for the locality where the property is located should give you some direction. In my case the evictions were handled by the sheriff's office. I had to go to court twice to get the paperwork done.

I would agree that option C makes the most sense if you are flipping several properties per year. You didn't mention the source of the furniture to come up with the $2 to 3K estimate. A couple of years ago we had to furnish my husband's new office space and I was amazed at what we were able to purchase via craigslist over just one weekend in the Richmond area. If you stage it yourself with reasonably priced items and then decide not to continue that route you at least have the option to sell it off easily. Best of luck! My house is hitting the centennial mark this year (Woodland Heights).

Hi Son .. welcome to BP and as a fellow Richmond investor .. welcome! I have been investing in real estate for about 16 years in the Richmond area and until recently only purchased off the MLS. This month I bought two properties from a local wholeseller and it never crossed my mind to think about criminal records, etc. I was just looking at the deal and whether it made sense. So there is certainly opportunity for you! Check out the Richmond REIA group on meetup.com. Maybe we will cross paths there or elsewhere!

First point is to be sure that you do NOT give any money outside of escrow. I am not trying to analyze the full deal and maybe someone else will chime in. But I want to make sure that is clear. Do not provide any funds up front unless it is a small earnest money deposit. Be be sure that his emotional state is not taking over your analysis of the deal.

Now that Craigslist has a map feature in the housing section you can get a quick overview there of what other places are renting for that are close to your property. That might be what you used already for rental comps but I thought I would mention it just in case.