All Forum Posts by: Stephen Glover

@Justin J Morello as @Sarah Stamper mentioned- get to some meet ups!  Build your network of investors, your team of professionals, and leverage relationships.  Deals are all around you in Richmond!  I'm glad to be a resource to get you in front of some good professionals as needed.  Fortunately, in my line of work I get to meet some great people in RE.

@Greg Dickerson nailed it.  @John Delacruz  Develop local relationships.  More relationships, more deals, more money available.  Good luck!

This is an awesome event!!! Highly recommend for investors in Richmond.  Loaded with information.

@Taylor L. thanks for the mention.  @Ryan Grant I'm going to shoot you an email to see where you're at with your current project.  I run all my numbers for a GC to do the job for me so I can focus on the management company.  Hopefully things are going smoothly for you- that home had a lot of quirks.  If you're looking for a guy who has a lot of connections with GC's in Richmond, go to Taylor's upcoming meet up.  Likely some good connections for you and your business partner there.

@Taylor L. I first learned how to estimate rehab by hiring Pete on 4-5 houses. Excellent resource, product, and a great guy.  This meetup will surely have a ton of real value for everyone who attends.  Highly recommend.

Going forward, make sure everything is in writing.  If she tells you about a request verbally, recap the conversation in an email to her along with your solution.  When you fix it, confirm the fix in an email.  When she goes to place a tenant assertion with city, you'll have an accurate timeline and everything in writing showing you were immediately responsive, considerate, etc. If you did act fairly, you'll collect all your rent from the city.  If you have no documentation, you'll have a harder time in court.

Listen to her, approach it as if you want to help, not from an adverse standpoint.  Let her know it seems like she is unhappy living there, and you want to find a solution.  Offer her the opportunity to break the lease early, but she will be responsible for rent and utilities until a new tenant is placed or until her lease ends.  You could set a 60 day cap on it if she is concerned and if you are confident you'll get it leased (going into Spring, leasing is simple).  Set a move out date from there, get it all in writing.  This is actually a great way to deal with turnover... zero vacancy and low turn costs.

If she wants to stay and still gives you a hard time, follow the process as written in the lease to provide a notice of non-renewal just before the notice period expires. Keep recapping conversations in writing.

Don't offer to pay any bills until seeing the next bill in the same season AFTER the repair was made.  If there is a significant difference, it might be worth giving a credit.  Often you, and the tenant, will see there is no significant difference in price after the repair.

NEVER offer to reduce or eliminate rent unless you'd be willing to do that for all of your tenants when they ask you.  Fair Housing 101, whether it applies to you or not, not worth it.

I'm in Richmond too, let me know if I can be a resource!

@Corey Shimmel Welcome!  You're fortunate to be in a great city for RE investing.  Many great people too.  Let us know how we can help.

@Andria Kobylinski Still too early for me personally, but know folks who are swarming there.  It's a great time for investors that are okay with dealing in that area, and the values should skyrocket, but I just don't want to deal with it when there are so many other opportunities.  Chesterfield announced world's biggest water/surf park yesterday too.  Crazy.  It sounds like our investments anywhere in Richmond will be great :)

If you have the patience to wait for the neighborhood (and the teeth to deal with it now) then go for it.  If not, keep buying up the rest of Richmond and you likely won't be upset about "missing out" on the Manchester wave.  There's crazy RE announcements all over the city lately.

@Linda S. @Kalen Jordan  Yes, a good property manager would certainly know, but we aren't able to state what is safe or not safe, or "good" or "bad" areas.  A good manager would advise on average rents, returns, maintenance costs, or eviction rates in a particular submarket.  A good investor would pick up on what the PM is saying. :)

@Linda S. so true about RVA.  So very true.