All Forum Posts by: Alecia Loveless

@Jessica Privitera When I bought my first SFH we carefully rehabbed it and furnished it. Friends wanted to rent it and so we did and they always paid on time. The wife had a local business and the husband had a good job. They always maintained the lawn and when we spoke with them everything always was great.

Fast forward to a year later the wife’s business had collapsed and they moved out as scheduled.

Upon taking over the house again we found all our furniture ripped and broken from careless use and the side and back yard were covered with broken glass from hundreds of beer bottles being broken.

We were devastated that our baby had been trashed. As this was prior to the internet as we now know it we had no support group. We determined the best thing to do would be to sell and not be landlords. So we sold.

The new owners spent days cleaning the lawn, repaired the furniture and threw the property us for rent on the newly created AirBnB platform.

For years they made bank as a pioneer in the STR market. I believe they eventually sold for a huge profit and 1031'd into a larger property.

We quit real estate investing and it took me 23 years to start again. It is my one regret in life that I quit as I missed a huge opportunity where beautiful property was selling for $30-$40K in my area. Today my portfolio would easily be $15M or greater if I’d continued investing 23 years ago.

To avoid any problems with your tenants I’d hire a property management company for 1 year to take care of the issues. Let the tenants know out of state management isn’t working and just let the management company enforce the rules and evict if necessary.

Often we need to be reminded we’re not running a charity but a business and if we can’t treat our property like a business we either need to sell it or hire someone else to run it.

@Lee Banks I learned by reading. There’s a ton of good books on investing out there. I still read a ton of business and real estate books going on 5 years doing this.

Brandon Turners podcast A Better Life with Cam Cathcart has covered a ton of real estate related topics and ideas. It’s about a year and a half old so there’s maybe 120 episodes. Not all of the episodes will be up your alley but they will broaden your horizons to a lot of different investment types and concepts that might speak to you.

Real estate investment groups can be helpful. The closest one to me is 2 hours away so I’ve only ever been to 1 meetup that was held locally and was primarily realtors and people in banking.

@Trevor Thrall I would also consider a diversified real estate portfolio. I’ve got multiple properties in several areas all of which are still fairly local which means if something happens in one community I’ve got locations elsewhere to help compensate.

I also have invested in less expensive properties as opposed to just one big property. I’ve tried to maximize locations that will appreciate in value as well as cash flow. Not that you can ever know this for sure given the fluidity of real estate markets.

I'm primarily in relatively upscale buildings which helps minimize my repairs and maintenance. Obviously if you have NNN most of the repairs will fall to the tenants and not to you.

@David Cook this is why we’ve started using water based polyurethane on our hard wood floors. One quick light sanding and you can apply a fresh coat.

@Troy F. Contact the listing agents managing broker immediately and if you don’t get a satisfactory answer immediately contact your state and local real estate boards.

Delay the closing until this is resolved.

I’ve never put in a contract anything about the security deposits. My last deal was my first off market deal and when I contacted the sellers wife about the deposits she said that that was a given as part of a multi family sale and they’d write me a check at the closing as I requested because money was tight and I didn’t want a credit where I’d have to come up with the funds out of pocket later.

@Brooks McCarvel The courses that I took in college that were the most useful to me throughout my 30 years of entrepreneurship were my real estate courses.

When I was taking them from the University of North Texas I was hell bent on transferring to a school far far away from my hometown.

If I had stayed at UNT I would likely have majored in real estate and gone down a different path.

As it was those real estate courses got me interested in the field and provided me a foundation of knowledge to support a real estate investing career in my early twenties (which I ended up quitting and is my one life regret) and my current real estate investing career that started 5 years ago.

If it exists I’d recommend some sort of business degree that has a real estate connection. Even if your career never leads you to being an agent it will provide you with the basis you need to pursue your thoughts of having a property management career.

As far as investing in the short term I feel investing close to home (50 mile radius) is the best option because you have a superior advantage by knowing your market. I think if you already have a good base knowledge of your market it makes it that much easier to become an expert on your market which will ultimately give you a huge competitive advantage.

@Gp G. I think if you hire a second PM the first PM will terminate your contract.

IMO you might be liable to pay both PM regardless of which rented the unit.

I’m in an area with a serious deficit of housing and it’s still taking me at least 3 weeks to secure a good tenant. I think in many areas it would seem likely it might take 2 months or more.

If you provide excellent housing and excellent service it is likely that your turnover rate will be lower resulting in less future vacancy.

@Gregory R Ley I would draft a letter to all 4 sets of tenants (so you are not singling anyone out) that clearly states what your noise policy will be going forward.

Then be sure to follow through with all complaints.

You may need an attorney who specializes in landlord issues to help draft something.

I have found that when I’m dealing with a complaint in a multi family that by contacting everyone they become aware of what will happen going forward. Then if necessary I follow through with swift, firm action and the problem usually resolves.

I’m not sure you would want to include this in the letter, that is where you would defer to your attorney, but you might inform the “victims” that if there is a problem they need to contact the police. Especially if your jurisdiction has a noise ordinance.

@Voley Martin Make sure you get updated insurance costs. I don’t have any policies anymore that are less than $2400/year.

And for reference my sister is dealing with a run down house in Louisiana that has a value of about $95,000 and she shopped multiple policies with multiple insurance companies and the best rate she could get was $2500. I understand it’s a different market but I think $1200 is a pipe dream.

If the figure of $1200 is being floated on the listing it’s highly possible the current owner is locked in and grandfathered at this price and even if you get a policy with the same insurance company your policy will be significantly more expensive.

@Hillary Buckingham I’ve seen some posts about a few good books for agents on how to grow your business and improve upon your sales.

Unfortunately as I’m not an agent I didn’t read these books and can’t remember their titles.

I’d join the brokerage that is the best fit personality wise for you and spend all my spare time networking. Join the chamber, maybe find a couple of boards to sit on, attend local sporting events and talk with people while you’re there.

Word eventually gets out and you’ll start generating solid leads.

I don’t know your exact market but where I’m at the top agency makes Facebook and Instagram posts daily. Aside from them there’s only 1 other agent I can see that posts regularly. Building a social media following is one way to generate name recognition and to start establishing yourself as an expert in your field.