All Forum Posts by: Tyler Phalen

@Bryan Clement

Cozy.co is pretty good, but TenantCloud is also free and has all the features of cozy plus more, such as being able to fully customize your application. Also has reasonable pricing plans if you want even more features. I highly recommend it.

@Yi Zhao

I had a similar issue with some previous tenants of mine, fortunately I was living in the other unit at the time, so the issue didn’t cost me a good tenant.

Unfortunately it seems that it’s a bit late to be acting, but I think it would be best to get rid of a tenant that smokes in your unit even after losing a tenant.

The best way to get rid of them would have been to send them a formal notice for each time the other tenants complained citing in the notice which part of the lease they were violating. I’m not familiar with your state laws, but I don’t think you really need evidence. If you do, you can use the other tenants complaints as your evidence. After the first notice, the second or third one should have been a lease termination giving them a number of days to move out.

That’s how I did it, but it’s very dependent on your local laws.

In my case the tenants were violating two clauses of the lease. One being the smoking and the other was someone living there that wasn’t on the lease. They were inherited tenants. I gave them the notices and termination and they left.

That’s great! Wasn’t sure what GC was when I first wrote, but after reading further I’m assuming general contractor. So, you definitely know how to fix up houses, you should find a fixer upper and build some sweat equity into it! 

The VA is like any other loan designed for purchasing your primary residence. So you can buy SFH all the way up to a quad Plex. Except you aren't required to provide a down payment and the APR may be a bit better. I don't know all the ins and outs of it though and I would highly recommend Finding a really good mortgage broker who isn't going to charge you a bunch of crazy fees. Ask around and maybe try to find one that is a vet or gives good deals to vets.

Good luck and good work, 

, Tyler

You’re in a great position! Depending on your family situation, but if you are single or if you can get your spouse on board I would look at house hacking. House hacking is just using loans designed for purchasing a primary residence in order to buy investment properties. This means you will need to live in it.

I would highly recommend using your VA and looking for a four-Plex. Four is the highest number of units that qualifies for this type of loan, but you can also look at 2 and 3-unit houses.

If you’re handy find one that is a bit of a fixer upper to get a better deal and use the 40k to fix it. Live in one unit and rent out the other three, if they need fixing then you can work on the one you’re living in and slowly work your way through each unit.

Once you've lived in it for the necessary amount of time required by the loan and you've saved up you can move on to another one. At that point you could REFI and use your VA again. You could pretty quickly build up a good portfolio.

, Tyler

I use TenantCloud and you can connect a bank account, you have to pay at least $9 a month in order to do it though. The pricing plans are very reasonable. Honestly I really like TenantCloud! They are always adding features, they just added a leads tracking tool. It manages your leases digitally, tenants can even sign digitally. It also has finance tracking features and maintenance ticket system. You can download finances or even connect it to quick books. Lots of great features, give it another look.

, Tyler

@Susan Wilhite

Marketing to one specific demographic directly goes against fair housing laws. If you think your house would be more attractive to a specific demographic then just market it normally and they will show interest more than other groups if it actually is.

Showing a preference towards any group in your marketing would be a violation of fair housing policies, don’t do it.

Guess I should caveats this, I’m not an attorney but I’d recommend consulting one or at least reading up on fair housing laws before you do this.

You’re right, that is definitely getting into an area that would get you into trouble. Thanks, I did miss that part 

@Mary Mitchell

I don’t know about her other posts but those aren’t familial questions. They’re questions of supplemental income and do not go against fair housing laws.

@Jaden Adams

Have you considered switching to some kind of blue collar certification program instead. You can do that for relatively cheap and still pursue real estate at the same time. The cert will help you get a good paying job that will really help get money for investing. Also might help immerse you better into the real estate world and teach you invaluable skills that will help save money in the long run, if you choose something like contracting, electrician etc.

Not speaking from experience but if I were to do it over again, I would go this route.

Personally, I dropped out of college and joined the military. Now I can go to college for much cheaper if I want and I get decent pay, with potential for a high paying civilian job. I’m 23 and already have two cash flowing doors, and am on track to get six more next year.

You’re already ahead of your peers by simply considering other options. Most just go deeply into debt for a degree that doesn’t make financial sense.

@Joseph Firmin Thanks, I knew I was forgetting some things. I am focusing more towards buy and hold rental properties that cash flow, so I think this one probably misses the mark a bit. There would be little to no cash down though, with the VA loan, seller contributions, and no repair cost. That ARV on the report was imported from zillow as the estimated current value of the house, so doesn't really mean much.