All Forum Posts by: Tom C

Heather,

As you can see as a package you are borderline on using the 50% rule. Which means you need much further analysis. Are all of the utilities separate? When you say updated, does that mean they are currently able to be rented without an additional expenses? What about equity in the properties? What would be the terms of the lease option and owner financing? Is it less than what your monthly payment to a bank would be?

Now is the time to get your pen out and find those little gottca's that justifies going in with a much lower offer.

Just an update on this. Section 8 made him sign a contract stating that he would make $150 a month payments to me until paid in full. I expected him to go straight to Legal Aid, but so far it appears that he is going to live up to it.

I understand what you are saying Diane.. Trust me, I hate bogus calls but as John said, it comes with the job sometimes. I have been lucky so far and have been able to screen the issues on the phone before going over.

I have to say that I agree with you and Mike on this too. If I 50 units an I was getting these types of calls, yes I would have to find a way to recoup my time when it occured.

Tim's mention of getting them to cash flow quickly means much more then just the fact you are making money on them. It means they are occupied. There's nothing worse then busting your butt for weeks getting a house rehabbed only for someone to come in and vandalize the property again. You have to either get someone in them quick or make it look like someone is living there.

One house I worked on for a month and no one ever bothered it until I was almost finished and let my guard down. Luckily they only stole a few tools and my daughters CD player. It could have been much worse.

Diane,

I have to say that you eat that cost. In my opinion, you or a representive should have gone over to the house to validate the claim before calling out a service guy. If someone from your company would have gone over there to check it out first, you would have never called in a service guy.

Ken,

If you are not going to have to fork that money out for 5 to 7 years, I wouldn't even consider that in the rehab expense. Now if I am going to have to replace it within a 6 months to 2 years then I factor that in.

Nice place Bob. Just a bit of advice, that paint job is awful nice for a cheap rental. Next time you may want to go with a Country classic white from Walmart for $64.00 per 5 gal bucket. You might also want to save some time and money by painting all of your trim the same color as the walls. Makes it a lot easier, cheaper and faster then painting the trim a different color.

Also, what kind shape is your flat roof in? I have had nothing but problems with flat roofs in our area.

There really isn't any huge difference to bidding on a HUD then a REO. Your broker submits the bid on line and then, if accepted, they over night your paperwork and your proof of funds. You do not have to do anything more. Sounds like your broker wants you to do the work for them.

According to their policy.. The tenant must leave in good standing or they will loose their section 8 voucher.

I recently had a Sec 8 tenant move out. He is a single father of 4 and I actually liked the guy and respected him. He was suppose to move out on 12/31. So I went over to the house at around 8 pm to make sure he was leaving and they were moving stuff out at that time. I told him that I would give him New Years day to finish up and to call me for the final walk through.

I went over New Years day and he was no where around. I went into the house and it was a mess. Trash laying every where and now that every thing was out of the house I could see that the kids drew all over the walls. The youngest boy bedroom smelled of urine, appearently he wet the bed so bad that it soaked into my carpet and hardwood floor. The older girls glued posters to the walls. They broke my storm door. The whole house had to be scrubbed and then repainted and he still had stuff in the basement and the garage.

So I went to work on the 2nd and while I was working he showed up. He asked what I was doing and we went at it at that point. He claimed that he was coming back to clean everything that day. After damn near coming to blows, I told him to get the rest of his stuff out of my house and garage and get off the property. He showed up later that night with his worthless kids and grabbed the rest of there stuff.

So not thinking I would get anything in return other then his security deposit, I sent his case worker and her manager an email describing everything that took place and listed all the damage. To my surprise, his case worker called me and insisted that I provide her with a figure on the amount of damages. When I told her roughly $800 dollars, she insisted that it could not be that low. So I told her that I would send her an itemized list of damages.

She said that he had to come in on Monday and they were going to make him put down a deposit and setup a payment plan so he could make monthly payments to me for the damages. She also stated that if he doesn't pay he will loose his section 8 and if I failed to tell them when he missing a payment, I would be barred from any further Section 8 contracts.

I'm not sure how this is going to play out, but I was very surprised that section 8 didn't even want proof of damages or reciepts. I do have a good relationship with them, but I wonder how many landlords actually take advantage of this policy.