All Forum Posts by: Tom C

Correct James...

At,

I can only follow up with this. Stay out of the land lording business. You are exactly why my job is so much harder. I have to work twice as much to show my tenants that I am not a slum lord and that I will treat them like a paying customer.

I have a tenant that volunteers at the Mission every Saturday washing dishes, simply because they helped his family out when he didn't have a job. Will he screw me over at some point, possibly, he is only human, but until he does, he is just as equal as I am. Just because he cannot afford a home and has to rent, is no reason for me or anyone else to look down on this man. He is a single father raising 3 girls and one boy, because his wife ran off 4 years ago. In my opinion, he is a much better person then I could ever be.

I guess it depends on the section 8 person. I was willing to drop my rent by 50 bucks a month in order to accept the person. He works full time, so according to their calcuations, I was only able to charge him a certain percentage of his income based on the 3brd home. The only problem I have with section 8 is the hassle of the inspection, mainly because it requires that I take a day off work to be there. You really need to look at the renter who is applying and consider your market conditions. I use section 8 as another source of customers, nothing more.

It's a good way to get some of our tax money back.. :)

CT,

It seems like this car has been giving you a lot of aggravation. Is it the car or the fact that your tenants are screwing with you?

I think you need to play hard here and tell them that you are being forced to have the car towed, if it is not removed by a certain date. Then tell them that you will have no choice other then to charge them for the tow bill and they will have a daily impound fee to pay the tow company if they ever want the car back.

You may also want to give them the number of a local scrap guy that will give them 200 bucks for the car.

Either way, you either need to let it go or force the issue to a conclusion. There is no point in letting this issue keep you up at night.

You know you could capitalize on this ghost story. In a recent rehab, I was crawling around the attic and found an old paper bag stuffed between the ceiling joist. When I opened it there was an old doll in it. I did some research on the doll and couldn't find much on it. A dealer told me it was worth maybe 50.00 dollars. I put on EBay with the heading "Haunted Doll?" and told the story of how I found it. I had 6 bids on the doll and made $150.00 bucks.

There are a lot of freaky people out there that will pay for a little excitement in their life.

I always start with a rehab list in Excel broken out by room and by time I am done, it always expands by at least 20 or 30 rows once I am done. It's the small things that are always missed, but end up taking up a few extra weeks to finish.

Although, if you are rehabbing to sell, many of those small things aren't quite as necessary as if you are rehabbing to rent and are required to have your home inspected by the city and/or Section 8.

Thanks Mike.. I only have one section 8 so far.

Mike,

What do you do when section 8 pay part of the rent, but the tenant doesn't pay theirs? I have my deposited directly into my business account from section 8, which means I cashed the check. Haven't ran across this problem yet, but its sure to happen.

Which part, the kidnapping or mother inlaw?

Jared,

Don't quote me on this, but I believe that the $1 program applies to governmental and nonprofit agencies, and they can purchase the property for $1. Usually, the property is beyond repairable at that point and I believe it is used as a way for a city to take control of the property and demo it. Churches can take control and do other things with it. I think that this is the last stage of the HUD listing process, after they were unable to sell it any other way. HUD also has their public servant bid program and Hurricane programs.. Anyone who works full as a teacher, cop or firefighter can also get the homes for 1 dollar, but it must be OO and you must work full time.. No sub teachers or volunteer firefighters. Between the HUDs and REO's

I keep my agent pretty busy showing me homes. I really like the HUD's from the stand point it is always a surprise when you walk in the door. Some of them are excellent, while some I have walked in are covered with mold. The last HUD I looked at was perfect on the outside and was listed for 24K.. I was ready to bid on the spot. I walked in and everything was covered with mold. In the basement was 2" of raw sewage.

This was 4 months ago. They finally sold the place just last week for 10K. The ARV on the home will be around 47K, if it can be rehabbed. I would have never taken that kind of risk and headaches for a lousy 4K profit, if that is even possible. More then likely some bonehead from out of state bought it and never seen the inside. Happens a lot in my area