All Forum Posts by: Amy Davidson

I've just signed up with https://www.sperlongadata.com     

For up to 30 houses, or so, they charge something like 25 a month and 1 dollar a month per tenant.

Their pitch is that you can go back 6 year and 11 months to collect old debt as well a do monthly reporting.  They say that as long as the debt is verifiable and a valid debt, you don't need their permission to report them for non-payment and if any tenants threaten to sue they provide a toll free number for tenants to call if they have any problem with the reporting.  

I only signed up 2 weeks ago and it's taken most of that time for them to get my credentials verified with the agencies, so I haven't reported anyone yet.     

This week I AM going to start notifying tenants, past and present, so that they can decide to set up a payment plan of they want to avoid being reported.   I'm assuming that the letter alone will be enough for 30% of tenants to start paying little by little, but I'd be happy to report back if there's any interest.  

I've just set up to do a cashout refi with a VERY well known hard money lending company, and suddenly they're pulling a bait and switch on the terms, etc.   I'm doing 7 properties which means I've fronted the bill for 7 appraisals, 7 surveys (!!!) and 7 sets of title work that my lawyer was doing, so about $1000 - 1200 out of pocket per property, and I don't want to do business with this lender.   

My lawyer says all the title work will be valid for about another 6 weeks if I want to switch lenders, but I'd like to avoid paying and waiting for appraisals again.   

Does anyone know of a lender that will use appraisals that they didn't order and pay for?    I know it's a long shot, but I'd appreciate any leads.   

Many thanks,

Amy

I used cozy.co and now I'm trying to get used to Apartments.com.

It's not SO intuitive, but I'm getting used to it.  The biggest problem is that, just like a check, it takes days before you know that a tenant tried to pay with insufficient funds in their account.  At least I don't get a bank fee from Chase when tenants "Bounce" their Apartments.com payment.  

I do like that Apartments.com makes it so easy to write the leases and the extensions.  

In the greater Tampa Bay area I've seen that Section 8 will often pay more than I would ask for on the free market.   Have you verified the rate Section 8 will pay for that one-bedroom Section 8?    There is a small chance that it would be comparable to the Fair Market 2 Bedroom rate.   

I don't know how familiar you are with Section 8, but they often require the tenant to pay a portion of the rent.  It's also worth checking in advance to see what portion Section 8 will cover.  If they're paying 100%, you're guaranteed to get full payment every month which may also make it worth receiving slightly less initially.  

One last point, with my Section 8 tenants I haven't had any issues with yearly rent increases of 5%+ even during Corona.   I just fill out the one-page request at least 2 months before the end of the lease, they ask no questions and just increase the payment amount.  

Pros and Cons to mull over.  

I would tell the seller that you're reducing your offer by the amount of a full repipe and rewire, because you have to assume the unit you can't see is as bad, if not worse, than the units you could see.   That will probably get the seller to be more proactive in getting access to the property.

This sounds like a pain in the neck to get through the process of buying, but it'll also be a pain in the neck for other people, so hopefully that'll work to your advantage and discourage others from putting in any offers at all.  

It will probably also prove difficult to get the leases and the estoppel agreements as well so you should probably start early on those.  Again, if you don't get those, you can just assume that the tenants paid 2 months' rent as a deposit that will have to be returned, so you can reduce that from your offer and then they'll probably appear quickly.  

I'm afraid that I recently failed at my BRRRR appraisal rebuttal. My contact at Lending Home said it was the most thorough and well-documented rebuttal he'd ever seen, and it included an appraisal 50K higher done only 3 months earlier, but I just got a no. Unless I wanted to start the whole process over with a new appraisal, and a new appraisal feel, I just had to suck it up -- which I did.

I tell you all that not to discourage you because it's worth the investment of just one hour, but so that you're prepared with a solid Plan B in case it fails.     Best of luck!

I just want to say thank you to @Karl Dela Cruz for posting this question and to everyone who contributed to this post that I happily stumbled upon at just the right time.   After reading the several different perspectives, I was able to decide upon the right course of action for my Section 8 house with formerly beautiful hardwood floors, and I feel confident in the decision.    Thanks!!!

I've raised all my rents to varying degrees since March and haven't had too much pushback.    Some tenants I've shown the increase in the tax-bills over the last year and raised their rent by the same percentage as the property tax increase.  

Another tenant, who has been in place just 1 year and was already paying top of the market rent, had a "token increase" of $4.50 just so he gets used to the fact that there will always be increases in the rent.  

I recommend an increase of at least 1% so that you have to sit down and have a conversation with everyone.   However, the 10% you mentioned might be pushing it to do in one go.  Perhaps you could start with a 3-4% increase and let them know your intentions to gradually raise the rent to approach market rents.      Just my 2 cents.   Keen to see what the others say.

Hey Steve -- I have only one loan out and the borrower pays through Cozy at my request because it's easier for me with all my renters using it, too.   I remember reading on Cozy when I first signed up that they reported receipt of over X number of dollars ( I think $20K, but can't remember for sure) to the IRS.    That being said, I don't believe they've actually done the paperwork they said they would.    In any case, that shouldn't matter as long as you're reporting as you should anyway.  

If anyone has any reason why Cozy SHOULDN'T be used for HML interest payments, I'd love to hear it as well.

Thanks!

Yes, I use Rently.com as my automated lockbox provider. I enter vacancies on Rently.com and they send it out to all the major sites. Unfortunately, Zillow has started charging for SFH listings in Florida, and probably other areas, so they don't automatically post to Zillow any more.

Rently.com charges $30 per lockbox per month with a minimum of 2 boxes, and it annoys me when I don't have any vacancies, but it really has been a game-changer for me and the amount of time it has saved is significant.