All Forum Posts by: Adam Rey

Good Morning,

Appreciate any guidance in advance. For the past several years I've owned the same single family home as a rent that had its own liability insurance policy and I carried my own personal umbrella policy. No issues for several years. Then this recent renewal my property insurance agent switched the underlying insurance provided so the property insurance documentation changed slightly. To my untrained eye it looked the same, all limits and coverage looked identical. However the name/type of policy seems to have changed. Old one was titled "PROPERTY PROTECTION POLICY" and the new is "Commercial Insurance Policy". My Umbrella provider does not want to renew my personal umbrella policy given this new documentation as they say it was written incorrectly. They say I need a "landlord" policy and not a "commercial" policy. In the past they were fine, just the new title seems to have convinced them its incorrect. They're saying since I own the property in my name it counts as personal property even though its a rental, and I should not have a "commercial" policy. 

Any guidance on how to handle and what policy is the correct one to have? To the amateur this seems silly as it seems like only the name has changed, but I totally understand that could potentially make a big difference. 

Thanks so much,

Adam

I am looking to purchase my third property. My first two were basic SFRs. In screening several small multi families I have run across a phenomena I can’t wrap my head around. Twice I have run across locations where the property just sold in the last 2-3ish Years. Both times when I asked the seller why they were selling so quickly they gave very squishy answers such as “changing strategy” or “reevaluating portfolio”. I don’t know what to make of this but my gut says it’s a red flag even though both properties meet all of my other investing criteria. What would you think if you knew nothing else about a property except that is just sold to another investor within the last 2-3years? Means it has problems? Opportunity to get it on the cheap? Any questions you would ask?

Thanks in advance!

Adam

Have a house under contract that during the general inspection it was recommended to have a foundation engineer inspect the foundation because of some cracking inside above doors and walls that could mean the foundation is shifting or settling. The engineer inspected the exterior foundation and thought it looked okay. However he said the current owners wouldn’t let him look inside even though he repeatedly ask, and so the inspector wasn’t totally comfortable with the condition since he couldn’t inspect the indoor cracking above some doors and walls. My agent says he hasn’t seen this before but worries it means they’re hiding something. They let the general inspector inside but won’t give a reason why they didn’t let the foundation inspector inside. Anyone have any thoughts? Even the experts are telling me they aren’t sure.

Good Afternoon, 

Hope this finds everyone well. Does anyone have a good property manager in the Huntsville, AL area? I had previously been told AHI Properties was good. However I've left them two voicemails and 3 emails to zero response. So wanted to consider other options. 

Thanks,

Adam

Definitely am familiar with and invested in REITs. However with them having a huge run for a straight decade, interest rates rising, and valuations looking stretched I would like an alternative. With AppFolio potentially property managers may keep switching even if the market tanks because it’s just way easier to use online software than paper. Really curious if anyone has an opinion as either an investor in AppFolio or is a user of their software.

One way I've been considering lately to invest in Real Estate is through AppFolio stock. 

Stock price: APPF (NASDAQ)

Many BP members are probably familiar with AppFolio. They're a common property management platform that many people seem to use and like. I do not own the stock currently, but am considering purchasing. With the market really tight for great deals I'm trying to brainstorm other ways to make money in real estate. The transition from paper based management to cloud based digital management seems like a great opportunity. 

Anyone have any thoughts on AppFolio as a customer or investor?

Best,

Adam

Thanks a lot for the info everyone. He showed proof of funds and provided further references so we compromised on an 8 month lease with 2 months deposit, and will write a normal 1 year lease next summer with proof of job and a cleanliness house inspection. Also will have the advantage of having the house be available during the summer in the future versus the dead of winter. Thanks again everyone!

Good Afternoon BP universe. Working on my first single family rental in Charlotte, NC. Wondering about a prospective tenant who is squeaky clean other than saying he is moving to the area recently to look for work, but hasn't found a job yet. He is willing to prepay 1 year of rent. I can think of no good reason to approve this person or why someone would be willing to do that for "legit" reasons. Read the BP book Guide to Managing Rental Properties, and it seemed advised against tenants of this prepaying nature. To me willing to prepay a year of rent without a current paystub offering job screams drug dealer. However background and credit checks and references do seem to all be clean and positive. Previous paystubs show his job had previously made well over 3x the monthly rent. My gut is to deny the tenant and cite the current monthly 3x income requirement, but was looking for a second opinion to ensure I'm not crazy.

Sincerely appreciate any advice,

Adam

I have no personal experience with Memphis invest, but researched them when looking at my first property. I looked at them, homeunion, and rootstock. I personally went with rootstock partially because I was leery about having the seller of the turnkey property also be the property manager. PMs already don’t usually have their interests aligned with yours. Theirs is to have costs and turnover be higher for you. So it seemed even additional potential conflicts to have that person also be the property seller. Nothing against Memphis invest, I’ve heard decent things. But I was just leery as it seemed to present even additional conflicts, as they could make more money by selling a home that would likely need more turnover and repairs. We’ll see on the rootstock, I just got it so I don’t really have much to report beyond the buying process. Even after a year of looking I just really struggled to find an affordable deal near my home(Boston), so I decided to give rootstock a shot rather than be the person who whines about the market being expensive, and then never gets started. I don’t expect stellar returns.