All Forum Posts by: Aarron Light

Keith:

I'm a fan of multiple buckets. I pick  - continue trading in the account and also buy another rehab project with your equity. Wash rinse and repeat.

Agreed, some tenants just need to be acknowledged.

Yes, I make the contract with the provider and pay the bills. Be sure to raise the security deposits in case of flake outs. BTW I've done this for nearly 6 - years with several properties and have not ever had an issue or complaint.

Add a water usage charge on top of the monthly rent when you renew your contracts. Water is cheap! Just charge the hair salon the balance of the bill after you back out the residential use. A family of  2 - 4 usually uses on average 3,000 - 5000 gallons per month if they have a washer. Unfortunately for you, there is no incentive to conserve on the tenants part. So, it's up to you to make sure (as someone commented) and inspect your property regularly, mind your meter and check for leaks. 

Yes every month I give the spreadsheet showing their share along with the statement from the utility company 

I have several properties that have a shared meter. What I do is put a sub-meter on each tenant's sub-panel or feed. The best device I have found is the EMon DMon (and no I don't have any affiliation with the company). This will require you to break out the bill each month and proportion each tenant's usage to the bill, but it does work and if the tenant doesn't like it too bad! Next! Cost around $1000 so it will take you time to recoup. This also allows me to break out my common area usage if I have any.

If the contract is signed sealed and delivered you must honor it. If you want out you must speak to each party and get to a written agreement of the parties. All must be in writing so when you head to court your *** is covered. Be sure you don't let your desire to get your ideal tenant to forget to dot the I's and cross the t's. 

yeah I'd agree with most here who say two weeks is too short a period. But given time I would definitely give the cash off with a 40% discount and quick closing. 

@Jenifer Levini . LOL, I'm a retired General Contractor from San Francisco Bay Area. Those regulations drove me to leave CA. I think it would be hard to find a home to be torn down. When I worked in San Francisco we would never have thought about tearing down as they do here in Houston. It was a real eye opener when I started remodeling in Houston and heard the words "That's a teardown!"

!st - Congratulations on a great buy! Secondly, I love that you shared your wisdom gained. I had never heard the "Start focusing on equity, not cash flow" before and at first it took me a bit to understand. Yes, I would agree that if the market tanks 50% and you have good equity you'll come out the other end just fine. I would still not ignore my cash flow because without it you may turn negative in a bad market as we saw in 2008-09.