All Forum Posts by: Sharon Rosendahl

@Marc Izquierdo Since they can partially pay I would just add a bill on top of their rent. I have two houses that include W/S/G and I just include the amount in the rent. No one has gone overboard on the water so the bill stays the same. Can you build a flat rate into the rent with an overage fee? At least that way you would get most of your money if they just pay the rent.

Get yourself an attorney. Different states have different laws. Be aware that in many of them, there are laws specific to domestic violence and how you deal with the victim. The attorney should also be able to advise you on how to retake possession of the unit and how to deal with the tenant's possessions. In some places, doing this wrong could mean a lawsuit so make sure you understand what you can do. Inherited tenants can be a pain.

I like using a broker since they have access to lots of different types of policies. My broker handles my personal home, cars, and motorcycles. She also handles my business policies including my umbrella. She is great at keeping all my ducks in a row and can spot a problem since she handles all of my policies. She can shop for the best insurance company for me to use for each type of insurance rather than being locked into a single company as an agent usually is. 

I use Cozy. I have float so don't mind the payment deposit lag. You can pay a fee and get it quicker. I also use the document storage, create listings (although I have never rented through their ads but use the format on other listings). I use their credit and background check but don't find it as good as the one I had used previously. At this point, it is convenient so I keep using it. My big thing is it invoices/receipts my tenants and allows them to pay for free with ACH and I also don't pay to receive ACH. Free is good when you are small. Some day I'm sure I'll need to move up to something bigger and badder and more expensive but for now it works.

I use Cozy. It is free. My tenants can ACH rent payments. I can enter credits if I need to. I can add additional charges if I need to. It doesn't do a lot and I know that some of the bigger systems do so much more but I like free and for now it works for me. I keep my accounting in Wave which is a free accounting system. Again, some day, I'll need something more complex but for now, it works for me. If you only have a few units, economizing is a good idea. 

I asked Cozy if I could deny partial rent automatically. They told me they can't do this right now but are thinking of adding it in an upgrade since it comes up a lot. So as of now, you tenant can still just pay you part of the rent no matter what the amount due is.

The only thing I can think of is to manually adjust their rent amount every month. I'm not sure you can do that. Ask Cozy, they have been good about answering my questions. Maybe they have a way to do this.

Sometimes it is a matter of figuring out what you need to pay to make the property cash flow. Offer that amount. It may be that they will reject the offer. That is fine, move on to the next one and keep doing that until you find someone who will sell at a price that works for you. It could be, that area just doesn't have what you need and you will need to look somewhere else. It could be, people have over priced and are willing to lower their price. It might be that the place will sell to someone who didn't really analyze the numbers or someone who buys for appreciation and has enough money they aren't worried about their current return.

Rent out your spare room. This way you aren't stretching yourself with additional debt nor additional work. Unless you have a lot of spare money, real estate investment requires a lot of work and with your health conditions that may not be a good thing for you right now. If you need more money then rent out your room and sleep in the loft. I have a friend who rents all 3 rooms in her house and lives in an unfinished basement. This allows her to live for free.

Small, local banks can be able to bend more than a bigger institution. I talked to one about a difficult property and while they would have made the loan it wasn't profitable for me. Another local bank also would make the loan on that property as a business loan to me with part of the payment being accounted for by the rent I would receive. Again, wasn't profitable but you don't need profit, you just need to break even. 

If your mom has income such as social security can she pay you rent? It will take time to find a bank etc but if you could purchase it as an investment with her as the tenant maybe someone would be willing to finance a part of it. It is a very small amount of money. 

You need to request a delay. It happens all the time. I have a deal I'm waiting to close, I'm on the third extension. First one because they hadn't gotten the appraisal back, then couldn't because because they were waiting on something else, now they say they have it all but can't get everything wrapped up in time. Original date was 9/3 then 9/9 and now 9/11 although they say they will be ready 9/10 but added the day for just in case. This is also a small dollar deal as it is a vacant building lot in a low cost area. While I had plans to reinvest the money I don't do things without having my ducks in a row so have only scheduled to look at some houses. Delays happen all the time and can be disappointing but not necessarily that bad.

It would be a poor idea for someone without training to think a gun will cure their problems. I have always thought C was pretty much blue collar, lower income, smaller houses, maybe slightly run down but not that bad. But yeah, F would be that bad. I guess I wouldn't buy anywhere I didn't feel generally safe. I've lived in some pretty crappy places and some of those I would never own in. 

I am female so am cautious whenever I'm out and about. I try to travel by day in iffy areas (although walking through downtown Seattle in the winter it can still be dark on the way to the office, glad I don't work there anymore). I also always carry pepper spray. I keep it in a coat pocket or somewhere that is a quick grab. Make sure you are aware of wind direction since it would suck to get a face full of that. 

I know people who carry personal sirens. Even if you are in an area where people don't care, it will still call attention which will be unwanted by your assailant. My daughter works in downtown Portland, OR. Her work sponsored a self defense class. The instructor recommended a tactical flashlight. Not really considered a weapon but it can light your way, has emergency flasher and enough pointy things on the edge that if the assailant is already close to you, you can poke them in the face which may allow you to get away. This assumes you have the potential to run somewhere safer. If the area is that bad then that may not help.

Being aware is critical. Whenever I've felt uncomfortable I leave or get somewhere safer like a store or office building.

I guess I don't feel that my life is worth a few bucks. So I don't invest in anything worse than C level where lots of really nice but lower income families live.