All Forum Posts by: Thomas Williamson

I can tell you how Georgia operates, based on my experience. I've had several evictions, and I've filed suit against two former tenants. In all of those cases I sought monetary judgments against the tenants. The way to recoup the loses and enforce the judgment once received, is to garnish the person's wages. If I know where the person works, then I will file for garnishment with their employer. I've used this successfully to recover money owed, along with penalties for my trouble. I'm currently garnishing a former tenants wages that I evicted in September. In Georgia once you get the judgment, then you have to file separate paperwork through magistrate court for the actual garnishment. The person can request a hearing to fight the garnishment (which won't work for them once a judgment has been issued) or they can do nothing and their employer has to abide by the garnishment.

It's a bit of a pain in the beginning, but worth it when the checks start rolling in later. If we're talking a few hundred dollars after subtracting out the deposit, I won't worry about it. Good luck.

Word of caution, here in Georgia anyway. I've looked at the inventory for some of those companies here in GA, and the areas they buy and sell in are areas I wouldn't want to own property in. Before making the purchase, make sure you know what kind of area the property is in.

Word of caution, here in Georgia anyway. I've looked at the inventory for some of those companies here in GA, and the areas they buy and sell in are areas I wouldn't want to own property in. Before making the purchase, make sure you know what kind of area the property is in.

Not sure if I missed this in all the threads, but did the perp die? I can also tell you as a police officer, I don't care how many donuts someone puts out, (damn I hate donuts) if it's a war zone, I'm not going in by myself to patrol. That's where watching where you invest is paramount. I refuse to buy M/F in a subdivision where there's ton's of other M/F owned by other landlords, with properties that are out of my control. This is true for single family as well. If the neighborhood is a bad neighborhood, it's not worth it. It's too late for you on this one Ray, but let this serve as a wake up call to all would be investors.

Here's a Quiccccccccccccccck Tiiiiiiiiiiiip for everyone. If you're unsure of the neighborhood or area you're about to buy in, go the local police precinct that services that area and talk to any of the road officers about it. You'll find out real quick if it's a property you want to invest in. Also, you can contact most police departments and give them the property address and ask for a report of activity there. Most police departments now use CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) and they can pull up all activity at any given address that they responded to.

Just because a property is cheap, doesn't mean it's a good investment. I hope all works out for you Ray.

As long as suggestions are being tossed around. It would be nice to get rid of old accounts that haven't been active in years. @Joshua Dorkin @brandon turner I love the search feature to find members close to me, but there's a ton more inactive people than ones who are really active. I know you don't want to arbitrarily start deleting accounts, but if they signed up several years ago and never posted, then maybe they should be deleted. That's the only thing I would suggest that would make the search feature even better. That way a user doesn't have to try and sort through who's active and inactive around them. I love the site and love the podcast, keep it up guys.

Welcome Levi, and congratulations for taking action. I purchased my first four plex this past July. I paid 157,000 for it, and put another 80,000 into it for rehab. I was lucky from the standpoint that there were no existing tenants to deal with since it was a foreclosure. My building was built in 1983, and had pretty much been neglected for a good number of years which is why I spent so much on re-hab.

As far as raising your rents, be careful. I knew the going rents in my area were 700 to 750 max for the same type of properties. I thought with all the new re-hab and nice finishes I could push the starting rents to 800.00 per month. No such luck, after no interest I had to drop the rent to 775.00, still no interest. It wasn't until I dropped the rent to 750.00 that I started getting interest. As of now only two of the four units are rented (I'm also be extremely careful about who I rent to since it's M/F).

All that being said, I would gage your market closely and if tenants can get the same property as yours cheaper, then they'll do that, so be careful about wanting to raise the rents. One thing I'm curious about, is why the different rents for each unit? Are all the units the same or different? If they're all the same, then over time as lease renewals come up, I would try and get all of them up to at least 625.00 per month. Good luck.

I've experienced this as well. Property was listed on the MLS for a while across from one that I already owned. I tried to make an offer and the agent said the previous owner was challenging the foreclosure of the home, and there were title issues they were trying to clear up. I'm not sure why they left the home on the MLS as "active."

Welcome to BP guys. I live in Atlanta, but I'm from the north side of Houston, Humble / Kingwood area. Good luck with your investing, you're in one of the best markets in the country! I'm looking at shifting gears your way as well. Atlanta is a very difficult market now.

Funny you mention this, I've noticed on several homes I've sold lately that the disclosures are now asking if any of the drywall was made in China.

Nat a website that I use along with Craigslist is Postlets.com

https://postlets.com/

Postlets is a fantastic site, and best of all it's free. When you post your add with Postlets, it automatically blast the ad out to lots of other sites like Zillow, Hotpads, Craigslist, Trulia, etc. I get leads from all of those sites when I post on Postlets. Another thing I do is make a quick video of the property inside and out, and upload that to YouTube. Once its on YouTube, I copy the link for the video and put that link in the ad for the property as well. I found that cuts down on tons of questions. I tell them everything they need to know about the property in the video. The other great thing about the video, is it also cuts down on the number of showings. I tell people watch the video, then go to the property and look at it and the neighborhood, and if you're still interested, then we'll schedule a showing.

As far as signs in the yard, I quit doing that. I really believe signs are market specific and neighborhood specific, so it works for some but not for others, so for me a sign in the front yard really isn't a big deal anymore. Good luck.