All Forum Posts by: Jeff G.

Pro Tip: as @Christopher Phillips rightly points out seller financing is often take the form of 3-5 year balloons. Some investors negotiate a longer time frame (say, 10 years) and then call the seller back at the 25%-50% mark and make the case that "this isn't a life changing amount of money...." how about an early exit at a reduced rate? Some people swear by this approach as they are often able to get the seller to agree to a steep discount at that time that they never would have agreed to up front. Every deal is different, this may or may not work for you.

@Darwin Crawford, every noob should read this post.

In Detroit proper, I seriously doubt it. The place is a war zone. @Kimberly B Bell the last time I was in Detroit I was on 8-mile where Detroit divides off from Southfield. If I want to get a sandwich I had to talk to a Subway "sandwich artist" under ballistic glass. The whole area is one long depressing stretch of liqueur stores punctuated by used tire stores with regular stretches of urban decay.

If you're interested in MI for turn key purposes, check out Grand Rapids. I know for a fact there are turn key operations in that city. Good luck.

That depends.

The ideal solution is require the tenet to setup automatic bill pay. If you're dealing with the lower end of the economic spectrum, you may want to set up Pay Anywhere to let your tenants pay you electronically with a cash deposit at any nearby 7/11.

@Jason Monroe I mean areas where the police will arrive, eventually... perhaps several hours after you've called them. Or, perhaps they won't go after dark. 

Hey @Michael Noto, long time no speak.

Yeah, CT has a lot of good places to invest in if you're careful. The biggest problem is managing the ridiculous tax burden. I've passed on many "deals" because they weren't deals after taxes were factored in.

@Alex Olmo, do you mind sharing what state that semi-war zone property is in?

Very cool @Craig Tomlinson,

Two questions: 

One, what is the process for filing a letter of vacancy in your jurisdiction? I have never heard of these. This could be a useful tool for a lot of folks.

Two, so when the police did show up and informed these (ahem) rat bastard that they were trespassing how did that go down? 

Several of us on this thread are no doubt picturing a very confused expression on a low-life's face who was expecting 90 days of rent free living. 

@Patti Robertson, I don't know that I would have thought of PayNearMe. That's an interesting idea. 

I don't 100% follow your statement:

We've even figured out a way to put "received with reservation" on the receipts printed there. 

Can you explain that a little better? The only thing I can think that you might mean is that you're not allowing a partial payment to fully satisfy delinquent rent and you don't want their receipt to be construed that way in housing court. That's just a guess... am I on the right track?

Well, damn. Now I'm 99% sure they are the scammers here. Yes, please get a PI involved in this. He should be able to dig up enough evidence to show these people are serial squatters. If he can do that their (surely forthcoming) sob story to the judge about how this is all a big mistake will fall on deaf ears.

It caught my eye too. Full disclosure, I have not had any luck actually acquiring any student housing at this point. Where I live, most people who have reasonably desirable houses near a college or university know what they have and don't want to give it up. I'm not saying that to discourage you, on the contrary, you may have better luck.

I've done a lot of research. Here is my game plan going into it, should I ever land a student rental:

A Joint and Several Liability clause in the rental agreement. What this means, in plain English, is if you're renting to 5 tenants and 1 skips out the remaining 4 students are responsible to make up the difference. This will save you no end of headaches.

Parental co-signers on the Lease. Johnny might not care about his credit, but its probable his parents will. If you really run into problems you could recover lost rent through the parents. This is powerful, because what college kid (or recent grad) really has money? Almost none, so going after them financially because they defaulted on rent probably won't help quickly enough to matter to you. Presumably, their parents have deeper pockets.

Make them all get renters insurance. This will give you 10-15 grand per tenant to go after in the event of serious damage to the property due to accident or stupidity on the part of the tenant. As a side effect, this will also protect their stuff if something goes wrong with the place that you're ultimately responsible for like an electrical short or a burst pipe. You can usually work this right into the lease without a problem, talk to a lawyer about specifics.

Make it clear that there is a 12 month lease. Yes, they get the summer off of school (typically) but they're still responsible for the rent. Lots of college students want to cry because "they didn't use it" during the summer. Who cares, you signed a contract, pay the rent.

Location, Location, Location. Try to get within 1/2 mile of the educational institution's student population you're targeting. Why? You can advertise it as "within walking distance" of the university. Remember, college kids are broke and don't want to play for things like gas and car insurance. So, being within walking distance is a huge plus. This has been the very hard part for me, finding something reasonably priced with 1/2 mile of a college or university in decent shape has been hard. I really do wish you good luck.