All Forum Posts by: Sergey A. Petrov

As others mentioned, stay out of your tenant's domestic issues. They and only they can and need to figure out what happens with their household. Once they do, you can start taking action - either finding new tenants, re-qualifying each without the other, amending leases, and/or doing something else. 

It doesn't matter who you buy your mail list from. Guaranteed, at least 5% or more of the addresses will be outdated and will be returned undeliverable. Just the nature of the beast, no "issue" to fix.

Salem, OR can get expensive when it comes to repairs but even then some of the charges feel high. There might be more to it, I don't know... It also sounds like the property might be older and keeps requiring repairs. When you lived there, you either did little things yourself or ignored them. A freezer over-freezing probably would have had you adjusting the temperature settings and monitoring it for a few months. Your tenant will call the manager who will call an appliance repair person who would either repair or replace. A regraded gutter is the same thing - you probably weren't worried about some excess water dripping out of one of the gutter, maybe even cleaned the leaves and debris out of it every few weeks. Your tenant calls your manager who calls a gutter person who does a permanent fix. The fence, especially at $10k, sounds like they did put a new fence in! When/if happened to you, you'd probably do a temp fix instead of shelling out $10k...

My point is... Every time a property goes from owner occupied to tenant occupied, there is a million little things that the owner occupant has either "fixed" themselves or they were just ok living with it. Properties go through transition from owner occupied to tenant occupied and this is one of those. I suggest holding on to the property and zooming in on repairs. If I were you, I'd maybe even take a holistic approach and pay a home inspector a few hundred bucks to come make a list of all the little things. You can then have one contractor spend a day or two on the property taking care of the little things proactively instead of continuing to react at three times the cost. And who knows, maybe said inspector will find a lot of issues and it is just not worth addressing them all. At that point you make a decision... Put more money into it, sell it, or tell your manager to tell your tenants that minor issues which do not affect the habitability of the property will be added to the list of things to address at some point instead of being repaired immediately. You may lose your tenant (and your manager) at that point and that will be your opportunity to start fresh with a new set of expectations for all involved.

Keep your primary/first in place and see if you can get a second mortgage or a HELOC. that keeps your original low rate and unlocks some of the additional equity you are trying to pull out. I suspect the personal loan you had to take out comes with a substantial monthly payment as they are usually short term. This will drive your DTI up limiting your future financing options. You should pay it off with that second loan.

Yep. That looks like it needs some major additional attention. Sorry to hear about your troubles!

 BP is not a contractor search site. Eventually, if you stay on the site long enough you’ll build relationships. For now, you need to get on the phone, use whatever search method you prefer, and start calling and vetting contractors that specialize in whatever work you are looking to get done. Do your research, find 20 contractors, 10 will call you back, 5 will show up for a quote, 3 will submit proposals. You then get to review the quotes, the contracts, and get the job done. No other way around it unless you hire a property manager. That’s what they do. Learn the business you are in is the best advice you’ll get here. Or switch careers away from property management. Just blunt honesty here, nothing else. 

Under contract at $110k. Current value $150k. Take 10% for selling expenses and you are at $135k. A $25k gross profit without major efforts. Why not close, list, and sell for $150k? What am I missing?

This thread is hilarious. This is not a CA issue, this is a business issue. Unless you are in a sub D class property/ neighborhood, I can’t afford to fix broken AC or pay for pest control service is not a valid excuse. Even then… 

You have (had) a great tenant. The keys have been turned in, the tenant said they were done and you should work on your next steps. I’d probably go sooner than later to avoid “when I left everything was perfect. I don’t know why there are so many issues there now since we did not even keys or access to the property”

Enjoy every minute of it. Your kids should grow up, get educated, get jobs, and be able to sustain themselves. If they can't, you've failed as a parent (unless there are special needs, disabilities, etc.). There is nothing wrong with "providing" as all of us parents do but your life is your life. If you are enjoying it the way it is, keep doing the same thing until you tire of it. The subject and the contents of your post however lead me to believe you are thinking that, maybe, you have put your time in and want to spend more time "enjoying".

Unrelated to real estate, but ask any financial advisor if you should fund your kids' college fund or your retirement account first!