All Forum Posts by: Sophia Maler

Hello dear gurus,

I bought a property in California in a 50+ community for my elderly parents about 5 months ago.  The property was rented out to a single woman until the end of the year.  When I bought a property, I immediately wrote a paper letter to the current tenant saying that I had no intention to continue the lease after Dec 31st, and that they can move out earlier with a 30 days notice in writing. I also sent her the same to her emails address.

On October 30th, I received an email from the tenant that she is moving out on Nov 15th and that she puts the check in a mail.  When I got the check, I found that the check for only half rent (clearly stated on the check).

I contacted the tenant via email saying that I never agreed to accept the pro-rated amount. She responded saying "clearing the check is legally binding as a consent to accept the prorated rent".  I demanded a check for the rest of the month. She refused to pay. I met her at the property on Nov 16th. The carpet was still stained and she refused to surrender the key saying that she will leave it in the drawer of the apartment when she has a chance to clean the carpet.  Technically she is still using my unit and responsible for all the utility bills, etc.

She also told me that she moves next door and she wants us to let it go a "be a good neighbor".  I still have her security deposit that does not cover fully what she owes me.  Can anything be done?  Any advice will be appreciated. I really want to clear this since she is turning the table on me after breaking the lease terms.

This thread is a wonderful idea. I tried to ask the same type of question a few days ago (http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/20/topics/62296-new-investor-with-cash)... But I felt that people got upset with me because as a newcomer I didn't know what I want!

Hello, I have a general question.
What should I watch out for when my first property is not my primary residence?

I live in a rental in SF Bay Area, CA. Investing in my area is out of question - the Bay Area market favors renters.

I suspect my topic was possibly discussed on some other thread before but I can't find anything...

Jon, I really appreciate your responses. My approach is always spend a lot of time in a research before jumping in. Any business requires subject matter expertize, persistence and time investment, and REI is not an exception. At this point I'm just learning the options.

The main reason why I want to try REI is - it really interests me, not because I believe in hypes associated with it.

I'm currently located in the SF Bay Area where cost of entry is very high for an inexperienced investor, and I have to be creative.

I have both cash and SDIRA as well as other sources (properties overseas which I can borrow against is needed). The purpose of this thread was to figure out what the newbie should be considering and how much money should be available in form of cash. For example I could buy tax liens using SDIRA money, I can also turn it into cash for the first house I buy (I never owned a property in US before). I can't really tell you what my strategy is because I don't know. If I knew I would not be asking!

REI is definitely a possibility. Not sure what the current ROI though. This info is hard to find.
And no, my money is in self-directed IRA ... in case there are kidnappers out there :-)

My contact seems to be doing well - he has a lot of buyers contacting him for contracts, and he needs either

1) Get extra help finding more deals to satisfy the demand OR
2) Make more on each deal he finds by reaching out to a larger buyers community via online auctions, etc.

Since I have more experience in online sales/marketing I could probably help him more in targeting buyers rather then sellers. I'm not suspecting he is after my cash because we never discussed money, just extra help he needs.

I thought my question was simple, but guess not.
I asked for ideas on what I can do with CASH which is currently just sitting under mattress. I can invest 200-400K of my own money. Managing things in general OK with me if I didn't have other options, but one of Jon's ideas was 20 mobiles houses... which will be probably too many for someone like me who never owned even one house...
I'm looking into rehabbing, need to learn much.

Anyone has experience with yurt homes? I heard they are tough to get financing for. But can you rent them out?

Robert, I had the same question as you, and the answer I got was 200-240K in passive investment are likely to produce ~2K monthly positive cash flow. It probably will greatly depend on the geographic location and time investment on your side. Since you are willing to manage your properties yourself, you can comfortably count on 20% cash-on-cash return.