All Forum Posts by: Todd Pultz

@Nate Sanow

@Ethan Partee I agree with Nate! Most realtors do not understand investments. First you have to find a realtor that either primarily only works with investors and can show that, but ideally find a realtor that has built a successful portfolio themselves. When you find a investor/realtor you have to weed them out quickly by asking them casually what their goals are personally for investing! Why? You do not want their crumbs when they keep the good deals if you’re both focused on the same thing. Example, as a investor I’m focused on larger multifamily family add at this point in my career, so I would not take on another client wanting to focus in the same area. However, I would take clients looking for anything else. You have to have a realtor that’s not afraid to tell you to walk and one that does not give a crap about making a commission check because they are successful elsewhere!

@Brendon W.

@Andrew Rosenbaum as a former police officer, please listen to Brendon. While I agree with the folks on here to start eviction, post inspection and then make entry and change locks, only you know your personal abilities and only you know if you can handle yourself if things go sideways!

Not sure there, but in Ohio we can take a unit back if it’s been abandoned for 10 days, but we need to show utilities are off and/or no one is actively living in unit.

Let me disagree with @Patricia Steiner for one second though even though I know this was not your question. Her advice not to buy properties without keys and not to take sellers problems on. This is solid advice if your buying turnkey, but quite contrary to how some of us get crazy deals with value add multifamily. We want the landlord to have all kinds of issues, this only motivates them more and allows us to get deeper discounts. It’s not hard to stabilize a property when you buy it jacked up! Don’t ever be afraid of this

@Cheryl Moore frustrating for sure! But I know your pain as we focus and specialize in challenging neighborhoods. Over the years we’ve taken diffrent approaches, but this depends on your level of comfort. However, somebody mentioned it earlier, but we stay close to our housing inspectors and zoning office as they have more pull sometimes than the police. Here is a basic strategy we follow. I’m former law enforcement and I’m more comfortable than most in these areas. I also run a security firm that specializes in apartment security.

First, we talk to the owner and give him straight talk. Either he cleans the property up or we will make it our daily mission to get his property nuisance and abated! Then we tell him we would like to buy his property so he can avoid all of this. He can do much more than evict. He can have a proactive towing policy. He can begin trespassing non tenants from the property. He can begin issuing quality of life violations to tenants such as drinking in common areas, not controlling their visitors etc. then he has to follow-up on every issue. Hold him accountable or make his weeks irritating as hell because you bug him non stop about his issues.

He can create new rules stating all of the things that will be enforced. Our house rules for our more challenging properties require any visitor to have ID with them at anytime and cooperate with management/security at all times or be trespassed. Visitors are required to be with a resident at all times and can not loiter.

We spend a tremendous amount of time at the property and we let our presence be known. Keep in mind if they know what you own they may start messing with your stuff. We talk to every person we see outside and let them know we are receiving reports about a lot of illiegal activity in the area and are working closely with local authorities and want their help addressing the issues by reporting them to us directly. YES, I have these conversations with the drug dealers and criminals themselves. We offer monetary rewards for singling out the issues anonymously .

Then we mail a letter to the residents including the ones in buildings we don’t own. We state the same as above and tell them about the footsteps project we began where the street crimes unit, drug task force and vice units have direct feed to our cameras to monitor the activity. We again offer rewards for anonymous reporting or gift cards.

We present all documentation we receive to the neighborhood police officer and zoning/housing

I bring out my drone and fly the neighborhood when the traffic is the heaviest

Larger properties we will utilize 3rd party security to protect our properties. Depending on your area, there may be a security firm that has pool patrols where they lump multiple properties together and do several checks at each a night. The other owner could share cost with you if he really wants to change his property.It’s all about presence!

Just a few thoughts! Your best option, buy the building and control it!

@Nam Trang ****does NOT mean more repairs and evictions******

@Nam Trang your looking under the wrong market or managing incorrectly if you really believe that! 2% rule and way above is hit every day in the Midwest and it does mean more repairs and evictions!

@Michael Noto

@Randy Bates

Randy, I’m going to disagree with Michaels statement here a bit and if I read it wrong, my apology upfront. “Landlords who attract tenants with something to lose not affected by pandemic”? “Landlords with more questionable tenants affected”? This statement sounds as if our C class areas are the ones struggling, but that could not be further from the truth in our market here in Ohio and for the majority of my friends around the country. Our C areas are thriving and we are business as usual including our market rent C class units that have no subsidy.

Think about what was essential workers during shutdowns.......contractors, maintenance workers, custodians, mechanics, these are my tenants and they did not stop working! And if they did, they found a side hustle!

Now, not being affected by the pandemic is more about the type of manager you are and how well you have developed relationships and structured your rentals to be well balanced. Let me explain.......you need to have a network in this game and a team! Most people forget about local churches, homeless shelters, mental health organizations, addiction treatment organizations, Dodd organizations, community action organizations, etc. you can use these groups for various reasons like if a tenant is struggling with rent, we have had church partners step in a pay rent. We’ve moved tenants in that did not have a lot of furniture and the homeless shelters, churches etc have stepped in to provide items for their unit. We partner with mental health and Dodd to move their clients in while they pay 40-60% of rent.

Besides section 8, which is the only thing people on here talk about, a lot of these places will subsidize rent and the inspections are nothing! But, in class C we tend to have a lot of tenants with SSI or SSD plus they get one of these subsidies, so we were in a much stronger position than the class A and Class B operators that truly had many people out of work that could not pay rent and were already living above their means!

Do not be fooled, how you manage your rentals determines how you did and are doing during the pandemic! Example you ask? Investor on here I met months ago asked me a few weeks ago to take over management of his properties here locally as he is out of state. Last management told him nobody would pay rent and there was nothing they could do because of COVID! ********! I’ve had his property for three weeks and collected over half of his rent and filed eviction on another tenant. That property will start cash flowing next month, promise!

And buying??? Yes! buy right now and take advantage of all those freaked out by the pandemic and waiting for the apocalypse to come. If the numbers worked last year and they work today, they will work tomorrow!

Real estate is more about YOU and how you run your business! And how you run your business! Did you hear me........And how you run your business! Do not be a person that makes excuses for why their not successful or struggling in this game!

My morning 2 cents for you!

@Tyler Kortz this is only my opinion, so hear it for what it’s worth and ignore it if you don’t like it. I know a lot of people on bigger pockets talk a big game and tell us how hard they are and rule their tenants! (Exaggeration) but, that is not how this game is played. Real estate is about relationships and you will make it further through developing those even with your tenants. We run less than a 3% vacancy annually with the majority of our units and units we manage for others in challenging C areas, but it’s because we treat our tenants right! We provide them with as many options to pay rent as possible with our Buildium software being our preferred method through credit card or ACH. But they can also drop their rent to our office, they can mail it to our office, they can pay through various retail branches. For gods sake, if they want to send it through a freaking messenger pigeon, I’ll take it.

Your being a bit stubborn and in my opinion setting yourself up for failure long term. If she is paying tenant and not a problem, give her the ability to pay rent how she needs to as there are so many options. If she’s going to bring you a money order, she can take that same money order and deposit it in your bank account

Arguing over not taking a money order is a waste of time and counter productive. I think I read your increase correctly and it works out to like over 2k extra a year? If that’s the case, and you won’t spend that turning the unit and evicting, then stand your ground, but remember what your sworn testimony to the eviction judge is going to be...............judge: “sir do you affirm the tenant is delinquent in rent in accordance with their lease.” YOU: “yes your honor, they are delinquent because I refused to take their rent in the manner they wanted to give it to me after I bought their building and immediately raised their rent a few hundred dollars without making any improvements to their unit because that is the advice on bigger pockets and everyone on bigger pockets said I don’t have to take money orders if I don’t want to and tenants will get in line if I send them a firm letter and stand my ground”

Just my opinion!

@Dave Poeppelmeier congratulations my friend on this huge accomplishment! For me and so many others, that leap from what we knew as W-2 to the unknown where we are the complete net and control every move was pretty damn nerve wracking! But........REI done right is the ticket! Truly happy for you. And to some that are reading this reply who are watching the game from the press box.......get your *** down here on the field and let's blow up 2021 together!

@Abby Link the conversation has to be more detailed than hearing a city is A great location to invest in. While that is great, your decision has to be based on your personal goals and what you want to accomplish. Do you want to pursue properties that will have higher appreciation in the long run, but cash flow less now? Do you want to invest in cash flow properties that will have average appreciation, but you can replace income on? You need to decide that first.

You will have plenty of people try to sell you their services as a realtor etc., but if your not going to become a realtor and you want to invest out of state, this is a critical decision and you have to get this right. My tips.....do not choose any realtor that relies solely on commission checks and does not have a decent size investment portfolio themselves otherwise they will push marginal deals at you and scoop up the great deals for themselves or another investor with higher priority. Once you find an investor/realtor, make sure they are not going after the same strategy you are or you will only get the crumbs. Example, I pursue large multifamily currently and do not buy for hold anything smaller than a 16 unit and they have to be value add. With that, I will not be a realtor for anyone that is looking at the same strategy, but I have tons of clients we buy duplexes, triplexes & quads for. And I have clients we buy turn key large multi-million dollar properties for. See, none of those conflict with my strategy.

I started investing in 2012 and built a large portfolio, but I only got my realtors license a year ago. I highly suggest it. Access is easier and you can act faster. You meet more people and get access to lots of off market deals through relationships. Best part is that it is another stream of income. I do not advertise or market as a realtor and only work with people I’ve developed a relationship with, but I made 45k in commission just in November. I’ll make 65k minimum in December unless something crazy happens. I only got my license so I could save myself money and handle my deals, but now it’s a separate stream of income as well, so you make the decision if you should get your license or not!!!! I wish I would have years ago. 
Now, my suggestion to you is that if your looking for cash flow, you stay away from primary markets and start looking at secondary markets in the Midwest where you can buy turn key quads for 120-130k and cash flow 1k a month. That’s an easy way to build a strong portfolio, but again, realtor is key and you need someone that owns the off market game!

don’t be fooled by imposters! Lol

@Jimmy Chao I’m with Greg and Nathan! Stop, do nothing else until you consult your insurance company. Do not get caught up being a road side lawyer. You pay for insurance and this is why, they will give you the proper direction and they have teams of lawyers on hand for these things.

I’ve been there over the same thing. Luckily I had cameras that disproved the story, but it’s not fun at all and takes time to resolve.