All Forum Posts by: Jeff G.

I took your advice @Rick H. I just picked up a copy of Magnet Marketing on eBay. 

~Jeff

@Ryan Dossey gotcha. How often do you follow-up?

Someone suggested here to follow up 5x per month. But that feels excessive. I want to get deals, yes, but I don't want to make a pain in the *** of myself in the process.

@Ryan Dossey what is a "mix letter" exactly?

@Rick H. I don't completely follow. A solid 90% plus of my probate leads are [next of kin, executor] c/o [some lawyer from a crappy fourth tier law school] at [the lawyer's office or PO box]. 

Or, do you mean mail the executor (like that, above) but don't call the lawyer on follow-up — call the executor if I can determine their number via skip tracing, etc?

I just want to be sure I'm not missing the boat here.

Is there any benefit to directly calling the probate lawyer and/or next of kin to register your interest in the estate's property instead of sending a yellow letter?

If you do send a letter, is it best to send something other than a yellow letter?

Trulia has an "okay" crime map built in. It's not perfect though.

I want to pick up my first rental property by the end of the year. I'm getting some cash together, which will take a few months, to buy my first SFR; all cash if possible.

I've been scouring Zillow / Trulia and Saginaw and Bay City have caught my eye. I've seen some respectable looking houses for ~25k. A few appeared rent ready, but most needed some work. I'm out of state (CT) but I'm originally from Michigan so investing there has some appeal to me.

At this stage I'm putting together a "punch list" so I can act as soon as I have the money together. What do I need to know about that rental market that isn't obvious on Zillow?

Some more specific questions:

• Which parts of the city should I avoid? I don't mind somewhat rough, I grew up in Flint so I'm not exactly easily intimidated, but I do mind "war zone" and not getting paid on time.
• Even a "rent ready" house is going to need something before I put a tenant in it. My thought was replace any carpet with inexpensive engineered hardwood, make sure the place is well painted, and slap some epoxy on the basement / garage floor and be done with it. Is that the right line of thinking?
• What are some "rules of thumb" when dealing with the mechanicals? I'd much rather replace a furnace / water heater upon acquisition and expect to not have any issues for x years than wonder when a Cap X event is going to happen.
• Any recommendations as to a good property management company? 
• For CYA purposes my first impulse is to require tenants to have renters insurance

  — if they cause a fire it gives me someone to go after with deeper pockets than a tenant. Would that be a problem in these markets?

• Is there anything specific I should do to keep good tenants longer?

I'm sure there is a bunch of questions I don't even know to ask. Anything anyone can add that's about the rental market, maximizing cash-flow, etc. would be welcome even if it's not in my list of questions.

One last question... is there anything specific I should do to improve the house's equity? I do plan to get a mortgage on it and "wash rinse repeat" at a reasonable clip. I'm not looking for a long term appreciation play, just cash flow.

PS. I'm listening to Brandon's book on rental property now.

You already have the eviction, so that's good. The next thing you need to do is take that eviction and use it as the basis to obtain a judgment against the tenant for the unpaid rent and any property damage their deposit didn't cover when they moved out.

Once you have a judgment you're in a better position because they collect interest and, unlike most other debt, are renewable. This means you go after the tenant for the money long after most other debt would expire due to the statue of limitations.

Take the judgment to a collection agency: Google for "Judgment Recovery" to find one. They'll be able to move forward with additional collection attempts and, with that judgment, do things like levy bank accounts and garnish wages to get you your money back.

Collection agencies make money by taking a cut from whatever they collect.

Personally, I'd charge them. The damage is real. That you were going to replace the carpet makes no difference. 

Also, damn, kids playing with fire in a rental property scares me too! Was this a multifamily?

You might want to require renters have renter's insurance going forward. This will give you someone to recover damages from other than the tenant if some kid really does burn the place down. I have a friend that owns some multifamily homes and one of his tenants had a kitchen fire and he wasn't out much money because he got most of the repair costs back from their insurance company.

Wow, @James DeRoest I hope the SOB had a very good umbrella policy.