All Forum Posts by: Sherry Norman

Fred,

It sounds like the situation you had was due to the tenant's income increasing during the term of the lease.  The Housing Authority can't break the lease during its own term b/c it's a legally binding contract.  So the rent you were due remained the same but the portion of rent that the tenant was responsible for increased.  In your case, it seems that unfortunately the tenant didn't comply.  Sorry to hear about your bad experience.

Chris,

Just to give an idea of what it costs to be reglazed by a pro in northern NJ, I'm in Morris County and a local reglazer (Mine Hill) quoted me $6 SF.  I have every wall baby blue up to the ceiling so it'd up being fairly expensive for me at that price.

As other posters have mentioned, there is a lot of prep work and noxious chemicals are involved.  Probably why it's so expensive to get done.

Edward,

Let me begin this reply by saying I know nothing about Kansas LL/T law, but I am familiar w/those laws in Pa and NJ, so the following should not be construed as legal advice.  

In regards to the pre-existing lease w/your tenant, the penalties for late payment you refer to are common.  They are usually added to the amount due and owing if and when the tenant finally pays the rent.  They are an additional remedy to the LL to make up for not getting the rent on time, and not a mechanism to relieve the tenant of the duty to pay the rent on time.   Usually eviction is still something a LL can avail himself of if the rent is not paid when due.  A consultation with a lawyer might clear up the issue for you, and many times will only cost $25 or so for half an hour.  You can call your local bar referral service for a few names, and they'll tell you the cost.

Don't let a tenant who's not paying stay!

I spoke to a potential purchaser of a townhouse in EO who was put off by the fact that her daughter worked the night shift and would have to park her car a few blocks away when she returned from work, and it wouldn't necessarily have been safe for a female to walk alone at night.

Besides the safety/parking concerns, as Steve said the taxes are high, even in a state known for having the highest property taxes in the nation.

We have used Al Santoro of Esquire Title in Parsippany (Morris County) many times.  He is an atty. who owns his own title company.  The site won't allow me to post his phone but you can easily google it under his company name.

We like him b/c he calls back w/i a reasonable time when you phone him (although we do try not to call about petty things, so only when we really need to talk to him), which is to a shocking extent not the case w/other lawyers we have used.  Also very professional and knows his stuff.

But if, by "investor friendly" you mean an atty who does simultaneous or dual closings, I don't know if he does but I kind of doubt it.

Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of purchasing a house on short sale.  It is sided with natural cedar shakes.  Here in the damp-ish climate of NJ, the shakes turn an unattractive kind of black after years of weather exposure.  Also, in the back of the house, there are missing shakes.

I had intended to get the exterior painted in order to brighten up the appearance and blend in the new shakes I need to add in the rear.  However, a fellow flipper who has had this done in the past has informed me that getting cedar shakes painted ends up costing the same amount of money as re-siding the house.  (I assume this is b/c of all the texture in the shakes, maybe it takes a long time to get it all coated.)  Upshot is, in other words, I might as well spend the money and end up with a newly a re-sided house.

Either way, it's an expense I'd like to reduce.  So I'm asking if anyone out there has any experience with having cedar shakes painted, or any advice or clever ideas to avoid spending so much money to make the house presentable.

Thanks for the help.

LL=landlord

You register w/the town or city where property located, go to town hall & they'll supply you w/the form to fill out.  
This is NJ law so applies statewide.

As a fellow NJ LL, I would urge you to familiarize yourself ASAP with NJ's Anti-Eviction Act.  It enumerates a limited list of reasons a LL has at his disposal to evict tenants.  It cannot be done on a whim, for certain.

If you do have one of the enumerated reasons available, make sure you're registered as the LL of the property  the w/ the town where the property is located.  If you were to bring an eviction action, even w/ a legit reason, and you haven't registered, the judge will throw it out if the non-registration is brought to his attn., forcing you to register and bring the action a 2nd time.

I second the motion.

Some of the HGTV shows are laughably BS. Have you seen how Tarek almost always exceeds his target purchase price (which is itself way higher than any prudent investor I know would use), then exceeds his rehab budget not by, say 10-20%, but often by double. Then he and wife talk about how they need to over improve the kitchen or bath or whatever in order to compensate for some big deficiency in their house vs. the competition. Since when does that tactic work in real life? Then they have the product placement display where the name of the tile, granite, etc. store is prominently shown (is the flip getting the product for free?) At the end, even though they've created some BS drama by openly worrying about the competition which has sold for way less than their target ARV while having more SF, blah, blah,blah, somehow their house nearly always sets a new market high.