First Out Of State Rental Property Completed

[David Jiang]

Hi fellow BP Investors,

First, I want to thank BP. After reading and connecting with fellow BP members. I purchased first out of state rental property.

Through BP, I found HOUSTON area real estate investor friendly agent George Ghiorse who helped us making numerous offers to get this first out of state deal completed.

This property is in Houston Texas and I bought it for $84,000 with 20% down. The house passed appraisal and inspection for a 30 year mortgage. We have to do a lot of repairs and I was able to rent it out for $1175 to a nice family moving in next weekend.

For rehab, We used general contractor Remodel and Model in Houston area. They helped us getting the property ready for rent. They did a great job even though we are not in Houston personally.

I believe that it is very critical to find investor friendly agent for out of state investment. I highly recommend George Ghiorse for purchasing rental properties in Houston area. Without George’s help, I do not think that I can purchase and rehab this rental property.

If I could do it, anyone can.

Thank you!

David

[Wendell De Guzman]

@David Jiang , good. I suggest though that you participate closely in the screening process in your next property. Remember: property management companies are after getting the first month's rent as their leasing fee so they are not as tough in their prescreening process as an owner would. I've been victimized before by a PM company that just put tenants in my 36-unit apartment building but those tenants turned out to be dead beats. I since learned from that tough lesson and I instituted the following screening criteria: (not necessarily in order of importance)

1. No evictions in the past 5 years

2. Gross income has to be 3-4 times the rent

3. majority of the income has to be stable (if most of the income is child support or commissions - I would deny the applicant even if #2 is met)

4. between 2 tenants with similar profiles, I will choose tenant-prospects who have less 30,60, or 90-day lates (based on their credit report)

5. no felony in the past 5 years

6. not a convicted sex offender

7. between 2 tenants with similar profiles, I will choose tenant-prospects who have less unpaid bills & collections (e.g., credit card, medical, etc.)

All of the above can be found if you run a criminal background, rental history & eviction check and credit report. If the property management company does not agree or does not do these checks, I will run in the opposite direction.