All Forum Posts by: Steve S.

Vinyl plank man! I can't speak enough about this type of product. Look to see if you can get a commercial mid-grade product and you'll be happy for years. Few issues with the product, easy to install and if you ever have to repair/replace a damaged plank it's soooooooo easy!

Where I'm located there's a governmental board that sets limits on rental increases with the same tenant. It's not that much either.. approx. 1-2% per year. So if you keep rates the same for 5 years and then say you're going to increase the rent you still can only do so by a max of what the board says, unless you meet other criteria.

It's a bit of a bother but it's also a good system as you can easily train your tenants. I simply state that I WILL increase my rent by 1% every year with out exception. For some tenants this "increase" is simply put onto the lease agreement and I give them a discount so long as they pay on the 1st and in full. Turns into a win/win situation in my opinion.

In your situation, you say that the rent has to go up to at least 75% of what market value is... but what is that in relationship to what they're paying? Someone on a fixed income may have a hard time paying that steep of an increase all at once, when the lease is due. Perhaps 3-4 months prior to the lease becoming due you should sit down and have a discussion with this tenant and explain the situation and work out a solution. 

@Alec McGinn

From reading the posts I think there's two options. If you're buying hoping for turnkey an inspection can be very helpful to know what costs you can expect.

If you're buying and planning to renovate or if you buying "off market" you already are assuming there's work needed to be done and will price it in accordingly.

This is my view point.  A home inspection may cost approx. $500. Let's say you buy a house for 100K . That's less than 1% of the total cost! If you're okay tipping 10% or more for a meal at a restaurant why would you NOT spend even 1% to have another set of eyes look into your business to see if it will be profitable?

In my last property I purchased this is the range of issues I found.

1) The shower & tub faucet the water was too hot, (the current tenant has 2 kids and this could result in a burn!)

2) The kitchen sink was vented improperly

3) There are no working smoke detectors

4) No GFCI's installed in the bathroom

5) water lines in the bathroom sink are switched.. and on and on and on..

The point being some of the issues are minor. Others are safety hazards. As a landlord your MAIN job is to provide safe housing for someone. So while it's good to know about all the structural issues the property may have we must also not forget to look for health and safety issues.

What if someone in one of your properties got really sick due to mold or was hurt because of another issue in the property. Stating that you are unaware of the issue is simply confirming negligence and due diligence on your part. If that ever goes to court you are going to WISH you had paid the $500 or even $1000 to have someone else put it down on paper what was and wasn't present at the time of purchase.

You know I really love this post for so many reason. 

1) It's evident there's two people that are networking together a bit for success... awesome!!

2) I love the back story! This isn't about someone trying to do something with no money for a down payment. They actually did this thing called "work" and didn't expect it would be all laid out for them.

Congrats @Steven Kwan! I really wish you all the success in the world! You should be proud of achievements.

Every second I get to spend with my kids.... course technically it's my #1 investment REI isn't even a close second.

5% of rent for month to month maintenance and 10% for CAP ex. I self manage. If there's not a big expense one year where I don't use the funds from the cap ex acct. I will roll it over to the next year but usually will spend it at max every 3 years to make sure the place is always on the up and up and it helps with tax deductions.

I don't like white cabinets in a kitchen.. I find they "yellow' out if a tenant cooks a lot with oils and they get dirty really easily! If you're going with dark and stainless appliances you may want to look at something like a light charcoal grey.

I wouldn't paint the counter tops either. There's some really cool things that can be done with epoxy resins. For one of my units I'm thinking I'm going to try to cover it with an epoxy resin to make it really POP!

1) Love gold and silver coins so if you ever want to chat coins send me a message!

2) there are some great pod casts on here and some great videos etc. I really like some of the stuff Brandon Turner says on here when he does his webinars. It's very simply and straight forward. There are some parallels between coins and REI. The biggest being "you make your money on the buy"... If you have specific questions I say you should make a thread and ask it out to the BP community there's a lot of great minds that are willing to help!

Great thing about this web site... if you post a few questions you're likely to get a few answers.... Need help start a thread ... or continue the discussion on this thread.... lots of people here willing to help... all you need to do is start with a question..

@Account Closed you have a dangling participle as a question it's either makes no sense or leaves the reader to self interpret what you mean by the word "that" 

Please understand my only reason for bringing this up is because I want to fully answer your question but I don't exactly understand what you're asking. Feel free to send me a message and I can walk you through the steps and answer any/all of your questions... As right now my answer would be " I use a calculator or do some quick mental math" but I don't think that's the answer you're looking for either.