All Forum Posts by: Shazia Chiu

Heber is where we escaped to! Cheaper than PC, just an hour to SLC and 40ish minutes to Provo, and absolutely gorgeous. The Heber Valley still gets a bit of inversion, but we moved about seven miles out in the mountains, and we've seen no inversion at 7500 feet elevation :)

@Larry Spradling I'm sorry you're going through this--what an awful situation. It seems like it might be best to start fresh by hiring a new property manager, getting a third-party opinion on the home's value, and finding reputable help for determining what you can rent it out for. It may very well be the right decision to sell the house and view this experience as a hard lesson that you've learned, but it's possible there are other options too. It sounds like you need some fresh eyes and experienced help for fully evaluating the situation. Again, I'm sorry you're in this frustrating spot, and I hope things start to look up soon! 

This is pretty deplorable, regardless of who is at fault. I don't know anything about Morris or his company, but as someone who has invested out of state extensively, I find it hard to believe that he didn't have *some* inkling of the shady things going on back there. My husband and I are in contact with our out-of-state property managers and contractors on (at the very least) a weekly basis...I guess Morris' argument is that he was hoodwinked by Oceanpointe along with all of his investors. It'll be interesting to see how everything unfolds; I feel bad for all the people affected by this mess. 

Hey @Rick Antezana, like Antoine said she'll need to get signed on with a brokerage, but it doesn't have to be one of the big names. I'm affiliated with a smaller brokerage in my area that charges a flat fee per transaction. I still have full access to the MLS (so I can scroll through listings to my heart's content!) but I can also help buyers/sellers if I wish. I imagine the same kinds of boutique brokerages exist in WA.

Did she go through a course to prepare for her licensing test? If so, she can probably reach out to the course instructors to nail down her next steps. 

Good luck! 

@Chad Davis that is kind of you to say :) we are excited to come and learn from everyone at the meet up! 

As others have said, it depends on the market and the tenant's expectations. We provide them in some of our units but not all of them.

Admittedly, I like having fewer appliances to worry about when possible. Just a week ago a tenant called me saying the dryer was smoking so we had someone out to look at it. Turns out that it was just steam and we paid $100 for nothing, haha. That's the landlord life for you :) 

As the owner I think I'd want access to the background checks. If the PM wants to withhold sensitive information like SSNs then he can easily redact that, but I don't really see a strong argument for why that is necessary. I imagine that most tenants go into the background check process knowing that the information will be shared with all stakeholders, especially the property owner. 

This sounds awesome! @Taylor Chiu and I will try to attend the April meetup :) Thanks for organizing this. 

@Charlie Granados I'm not sure what options are available to you in Long Island, but for my first house hack we bought a duplex (lived in one side and rented out the other). For our second house hack we purchased a fourplex. I have a client who bought a single family home for his first house hack and rented out the additional rooms in the house. There are quite a few ways to pull it off depending on what you're looking for. :) 

EDIT: Just realized your comment was posted quite a few days back, haha. Hopefully you still see this and find it helpful! 

I'll add my vote to the others; time is a big advantage. I was 21-year-old student when my husband and I bought our first property and everything snowballed from there. Now at 26 I think it would have been cool if we'd started when I was 18! Haha. Some other advantages I've observed from starting out young:

• Having a higher tolerance for risk
• Not being completely set in your ways of thinking, i.e. being willing to take unconventional approaches to common challenges
• Being in a position to not only learn from others who are ahead of you in age/experience, but to have ample time to implement what you've learned from those people and to iterate upon it
• Being able to build a solid career in tandem with your investments and using that career to bolster your network, find new investing opportunities and to build partnerships with others

I think it's exciting to get in the game early! I'm sure you'll learn a lot and have some great experiences.