All Forum Posts by: Adam Bartomeo

The are a lot of Zombie houses in Cape Coral, hundreds and maybe thousands. This is where the build has taken advantage of some many investors and subcontractors that they can no longer get money to continue work nor will anyone work for them. Beatie and Delta are 2 of the biggest problems and both of these builders worked with Rent to Retirement. Most of the investors that I am working with have hired attorneys and are getting out of their contracts. There are about 20 Zombie houses that are on the market right now and there will be a lot more coming.

NEVER hire a real estate agent. Hire a reputable property manager! They will do 10 times as much as an agent.

Laws prevent distribution of rents until they are realized. Most leases are written monthly and therefore advanced rents sit in an escrow account. Every month the monthly rent is taken out of escrow and paid to the owner. Although, a lease could be written differently we have never, nor have I ever heard of anyone doing it differently. 

We ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, write a new lease.

Screening tenants is all about having systems and criteria in place. This helps you to make a decision and form an opinion on whether the tenants risk factor. Based on the risk you can rent, deny, or find a way to make it work by asking for higher security or advanced rent. The criteria that we look at and prefer is 600+ credit, no felonies or repeat misdemeanors, no evictions, income equal to or higher than 2.5 times rent.

Never go with an agent! Hire a PMC to find the tenant. Agents know nothing about finding tenants.

I will not work with them in SWFL. I know several investors here locally that feel the same way. They hire very pushy people who don't know their *** from their elbow.

Any timeline that a contractor gives you has to have an added buffer of 25% - 75% of the total timeline - 4 weeks really means 5 - 7 weeks. There is always something that comes up that pushes the timeline out further and further.

We expect our contractors to work whatever hours they want as long as they accomplish the goal at or under budget and on or before the time they quoted.

Why would you ever forgive the balance? Put them in collections and get as much from them as you possibly can!