All Forum Posts by: Tyler Ansell

Tampa, FL I'm currently renting a $1,350 in a 3/2/2 C+ area.

@Jeff Wallenius Keep an eye out for "fire sales" haha

Driving for dollars – Learn from a fireman

One of my best friends is a fireman and the most fascinating thing I learned from him is their version of “driving for dollars” study method. During your first year at the station you have to pass some pretty strenuous tests, one of which has heavy focus on the directional and geographical capabilities of the firefighter and how well they know their area. I’m sure you could do this 100 different ways but my friend is very hands on so this worked awesome (and it was a bit of fun too!).

He would grab a stack of blank paper, some colored pens and we would head out after I got off work. The plan is simple, draw your own map. Page by page we built maps of the entire area he was responsible for knowing.

When your oral test questions were: “There’s a heartattack at 142 Heartbreak Lane. You’re at the Sunset Apartments on another call…get me there before he dies.” You really, really have to know your area. We hear it all the time on the podcasts that you need to know your market. If you knew it so good that an address came up on MLS and you knew where it was without googling, how much of an advantage would you have over the next guy? What if you knew neighborhood details too…

We would pull to the entrance of the neighborhood and jot down some notes in the corner of the page ie “Eagle Point, 2 lights south of the Walmart on Kennedy. Small sign, no turn lane. Pool and clubhouse at the front. Old houses, all 1 story. Lots of big flammable trees.” What notes would you write if you were looking for houses in that neighborhood?

We would drive everything street by street, pulling over anywhere we could to make more notes and draw our streets. I took this method to finding houses driving for dollars but instead of locating hydrants I found addresses to send letters too and research their status. This led me to my first investment purchase and hopefully you can use these tips to improve your driving for dollars game too.

Tyler (not a fireman)

We rent to a good chunk of college kids between December and January at the turn of the semester to kids starting in Spring. Other note, normal tenants don't operate on school schedules so their leases could be expiring all the time, granted not 50,000 of them in August like the students haha.

We have these all the time in our college complex (570 beds). Obviously you have the wording in the lease to enforce them to leave. Proving they are "living there" is kinda tough.

We look for the following indicators and notate each either in their file or via letter to the tenants:

Extra vehicles

Seeing boyfriend without tenant

If you're in the unit, boyfriend there without the tenant (note: we usually make them leave with us and we lock them out)

Boyfriend calls or comes to your office for anything

Check unit for 2 toothbrushes and extra shoes. Always the killer. Who leaves their toothbrush somewhere they don't stay at a bunch?!

Again-NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE. It's hard to prove.

I'd definitely cut them a break on some of it. We include most utilities to a certain point, "cap" but if there was a significant air conditioning issue for example we'll knock off a little more. 

Just be glad you found and can fix the leak before that $400 water bill turns into $1000 worth of water damage.

If you're going to have someone on an individual lease then yes, individual locks on the bedrooms. Keep in mind the bathroom issue that was mentioned before.

Check state regs on Unrelated Occupants living in the same dwelling. For me it's max 3.

I would check state regs but we use 7 day notices with opportunity to cure, then if after that 7 days the issue happens again contact your attorney and proceed with a 7 day notice without cure. Word the 7 day strongly so that they know if not corrected within that 7 days they can face violation, as well as if it happens again at any time after you can immediately revert to a "without cure" notice and get them out. 

It's a much tougher eviction because you'll need solid evidence of times and dates you spoke to the tenant, emails sent, notices posted, labeled photos of evidence. Vs. if they didn't pay they didn't pay...

I went to one, it was a power packed energentic hard sales seminar that culminates in a smash sales "I have 6 and billy in the back has 3 first 9 people to us RIGHT NOW GET IT" 

Had people running up credit cards literally in hand...