All Forum Posts by: Sterling Chapman

@Jamie Atkinson and @Maya Torres

Also worth noting, the tenant smoking the weed pays on time every month and the lady complaining pays late every month so....

@Maya Torres I had the same thing happen at one of my 4plexes. An old lady called and complained about her unit smelling like weed. I already knew the collage kids next door smoked in the unit (I smelled it before I bought the place). I simply told them the lady was complaining and asked them to go outside or be more discrete. They were actually thankful I gave them a heads up. Most people that are breaking the law would rather know if it’s drawing attention. They would have rather me told them something then the old lady call the cops. All that being said I do have no smoking policies on all of my new tenants, especially in my nicer units. That particular 4plex is pretty low rent and not all that nice to begin with and they have already been smoking weed in it for a year and half when I bought it so I’m not making a fuss. Good luck!

@Bud Gaffney I would raise in $100 increments and explain that it’s still below market rent, if they move out then you can get the market rent on the new tenants. Good luck!

@Marty G. I manage my 18 units myself (mostly duplexes and 4plexes) for all the reasons you just described. And I use cozy to do it, they are great! I also have a maintenance man, paint and sheet rocker and plumber on standby that I call frequently so I’m not fixing anything myself. If I were to stay at 18 units and not pick up other pursuits besides those 18 and my normal full time job (which does require me to travel) I would keep it the way it is. I find it to be totally manageable and I do not have confidence that any PM company would do it as efficiently or with the since of urgency that I have. Nor do I think the roll they would play would be worth the couple thousand dollars a month I would pay them. All that being said, I have another 8 units under contract, I just started a weekly real estate podcast and I would like to start pursuing larger syndication deals. I am starting to feel stretched then and am debating weather to hire people and bring the management in house (I like because I would have more control) or outsource PM. Not sure how much this helped but good luck!

@Jeff Byrne great plan and great market! I can tell you from personal experience that every member of my family and all of my friends initially responded to my goals, plans and dreams of real estate investing the exact same way. I can also tell you that 2 years and 20 properties later that every member of my family and all of my friends are lines up to give me there money and begging to get into my deals. Get some deals under your belt and they will come around. Good luck, don’t let it get you down and be so good they can’t ignore you!

@Mindy Jensen great show concept! Looking forward to it.

@Anthony Cancel great question! I ran into the same issue after buying my second single family rent house at 15% down and running out of money. There are a few different ways you can get around this and keep growing. Since that happened a year and a half ago I have gotten 16 more units and will close on another 8-12 by the end of the month. The first thing I did was found some off market beat up duplexes that were undervalued and in need of repair. I tied them up and brought in a private money lender and parter to fix them up. I did a cash out refi once they were fixed up and paid everyone off. Ended up with $400k worth of duplexes cash flowing a couple grand a month for nothing down on that one. After that I could an older guy that was looking to retire but didn’t want to take the tax hit of selling his portfolio all at once since he had been 1031ing for years so he seller financed them to me at a very low down payment. Then I got a partner that put up the down payment for a couple 4plexes and duplexes. It’s a win win, he gets a great return on his money and I get cash flowing rentals for no money down. Hopefully one of those strategies will work for you. Good luck!

@Edwin Campos 1. Read every book and listened to every podcast I could find about REI

2. Saved up money for the down payment on a SFR

3. Evaluated several hundred and looked at close to a hundred house

4. Bought one, fixed it up(not a lot of work at all, couple grand tops) and rented it out. Then immediately did it again with a second house.

5. One I had a little confidence from the first two rentals going well I found a couple of off market duplexes that needed a ton of work. Got them tied up and brought in a partner that had investor money and construction experience. Once renovated I did a cash out refinance to buy out the partner and pay off invested and ended up with 4 units worth $400k cash flowing a couple grand a month with almost no money in the deal.

Good luck! I’m sure you will do great!

@Jalen Chanthaboury I think collage gets a bad wrap these days and though I certainly don’t think you have to have a collage degree to be successful in 2019 and a collage Degree should not be a substitute for continuing your financial and emotional education out side of school; that being said there are benefits and I certainly would not say that it hurts or holds you back in any way. Look, I want to be an entrepreneur and I want to own my own business and invest in real estate and an institutional education is not a DIRECT prerequisite for any of those things but it helps. Let me explain, when I ask other people to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars with me, I assure you the degree in Finance and Masters in Buisness Administration that I have make it a lot easier for them to write that check and feel comfortable that I know a thing or two about how money works and that I probably at the very least a basic working knowledge of accounting, business laws, finance and marketing. Also many people view a degree as someone’s ability and willingness to follow though on a commitment! Could you learn more with a YouTube subscription and a library card? Probably but that don’t really say anything about your integrity when it comes to follow through, commitment and finishing what you started which are characteristics people look for. Another issue worth noting on the topic is it’s been real easy for me to buy and finance the 18 rentals I’ve acquired over the last 18 months with my 6 figure salary form my corporate job that I probably wouldn’t have without my degrees. Also, I have a network of successful professionals to invest in my deals that I met in collage. Now all that being said I would not go getting in a bunch of student loan debt that it’s gonna take years to pay off. I’m just saying that it shouldn’t be viewed as either or, one can greatly assist and expedite the other. Good luck and I’m sure you will do great either way!

@Jessica Krueger Financial freedom and being able to do what I want with my time