All Forum Posts by: Scott Mac

Is this what you want to offer to your renters going forward into the future until the end of service life of these units?

If the lease sets forth how to clean these units with a special cleaner it seems charging the renter for the damage would be a possible move.

If no mention was made of any type of special cleaner in the lease - that seems like an error on your part and would be a cost that you would have to bear.

if you are charging the renter how old the units are makes a difference.

If for instance the service life is 10 years and they are 5 years old, it seems reasonable to charge their security deposit 50% of the costs of replacing the damaged units.

Here is the HUD Service Life list if you are interested:

https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/EUL_FOR_CNA_E_TOOL.PDF 

Good Luck!

Maybe learn to DIY some of the things yourself.

Have you thought about trading the fiveplex for a Class B duplex in a Class B neighborhood and move into one of the units and rent out the other??

Just my 2 cents.

I'm sorry if you think of this as hateful.

But it's really not, it's just an observation of the truth.

These things seem to be a Regular phenomenon that I have noticed.

I am not the only one who has noticed these things.

@James Wise The owner of Holton Wise Property Management (a very large very well respected property management firm in Ohio) has tons of examples of this on video on his website.

This video for example shows the things that are left behind, and at 5.0 minutes into the video you can actually see an example of the red gauze curtains. These are still hanging in the window, on most I am seeing they are knocked down on one end, or on the floor in a heap with a curtain rod as if they'd just been pulled down and thrown there.

This is not And Ohio phenomenon, I see this all over.

If you limit yourself to Class B or Class A areas it just doesn't seem to happen.

People seem to take their stuff with them when they move.

There is no hate in my posts. I have hate for no one.

This is simply an observation or something that is important to understand when you are in this business- because when you go to turn certain units you may run into this big extra cost.

And you can see in the video renters who do not clean this out themselves, the owners may have to pay thousands of dollars to have these units cleaned up for the next renter- and that includes time lost for days off the market which equals rent lost.

It has nothing to do with hate, and everything to do with being able to recognize an extra cost that could possibly pop up on certain turns.

And if you still think there's some type of hate in this post, I think you were just reading it incorrectly. Because there is no hate intended only helpfulness . 

Here is the link I was talking about: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se6TqN545Bs

Good Luck!

Maybe print out a list of homeless shelters that are nearby along with printing out a map and handing it to the people you see camped out there . 

And at the same time tell them you're going to be painting the building in a few days they need to be out of there by Wednesday - or something like that . 

Good Luck!

What's upstairs that's bowing those studs out like that?

Elephants?

Also look into if you're going to have to bring the whole house up to code if you do this, I mean electricity and insulation, and everything else that they require in brand new homes.

Good Luck!

You could look at some of your close competitors who have already done this type of renovation and find out what kind of rent they are getting.

The problem is you never know how long the time on market is for that rent or if they're actually going to get that rent it could just be the asking price and then they lower it or something over time.

Good Luck!

Something I have noticed. 

People who we would consider poor, seem to accumulate an enormous amount of small objects.

Then when they move they just abandon all of this small object collection, that we call debris.

Going into a house and finding clothing and all sorts of things strewn all about the house in piles on the floor often covered in filth seems to be a normal way of moving.

They acquire things but don't put very much desire into keeping them when they move. Maybe because they're handed so many things for free they don't have much skin in the game or something I don't know.

The other thing I notice and this goes from East Coast to west coast northern border to southern border is the poor have an affinity for red or black gauze like curtains.

When they move they do not take these gauze like curtains with them, and they always seem to be falling down off of the windows or on the floor beneath the windows like they were torn down or something. But they seem to leave these behind too a lot of times.

Are these red and black curtains a gang symbol for the people inside the house maybe, or outside the house maybe, I don't know. But they do not seem to value them when they leave.

You can see them back up with an incredibly large moving truck and start putting things in the truck, so it does not seem to be a problem of not being able to get them out of the house.

They seem to just leave them behind. Always red or black.

How Is Grandma's house coming- any news?

Deal shark swimming through the dark cold waters.

Looking for its next meal.

Deal shark doesn't look for a particular water area to feed in- deal shark looks for a particular type of meal.

Deal sharks can eat its meal in any water he finds it in.

The question simply becomes does deal shark want to manage the property in that neighborhood given the fact that most of your renters will come from about a mile and a half at most away.

That is why crime is an important aspect of this. If most of your potential renters renters view the area as a crime area, desirability will be lower and they may move a mile and a half in the other direction from where they are now with less crime. Forcing rents to lower in your area.

The Big Three to watch out for are rape, robbery and murder.

And you're bio you say you want to fix up your town, vs being a landlord And putting the shark bite on the renters for the rent every month. If this is done on a larger scale it is called gentrification.

If your area is really bad, and your town is rather small, you might want to talk to your city council type people, and ask for citywide tax abatements on property taxes for people who fix up run down homes- perhaps for something like 7 years, or even 10 years if that's what it takes to get the job done.

Just my 2 cents.

Nice suit...

I don't know what you do for a living, but you could try burning the candle at both ends.

(one end of the candle) Move into a cheaper way of living if possible, such as rent a room from someone who you have commonality with in some way.

(the other end of the candle) While at the same time picking up a second job. Trying to find something that pays well where the work is easy for you.

Something as simple as handing out golf clubs at the local putt putt golf, or possibly being a waiter at a very high priced restaurant and taking home good tips.

So what I'm getting at is Cash is King. Maybe try to solve that dragon at your door while you have some time opportunity to do it. 

Nobody ever went into a deal saying -- I have too much cash.

Good Luck!