All Forum Posts by: Alex Ballesteros

Welcome Alex!

I was where you are 1 year ago. While I waited to get my entities set up to start investing I learned a ton. And I had the same mentality you did with this statement on your post "I'd like to find a property that I can fix up cosmetically to raise the value of the home & provide me with cash flow in order to start saving for my next investment." 

My realtor taught me about the BRRRR method, David Greene has a book on it, definitely learn about it because it will save you time. This helped me get into analyzing deals to know I could get my money back out in 6-9 months and keep investing it, rather than wait years to save rental cash flow to buy my next deal. Like that I could get my money moving faster, and cash flow at the same time, PLUS own a property for free pretty much after refinancing it.

Definitely study as much as you can and learn from others with experience as Nick and Cameron said.

Hope this helps and good luck on your journey!

Andres

Also, I found this

In some circumstances, yes—California landlords can require their tenants to pay rent in cash only when the tenant has given the landlord a check that bounced or placed a stop payment on a check within the past three months. When a landlord chooses to require cash payment, the landlord must give the tenant a written notice stating that the payment did not go through and informing the tenant that the rent must be paid in cash for a certain period (the period cannot be more than three months). The landlord must also attach a copy of the bad check or other type of instrument to the notice.

https://www.nolo.com/legal-enc...

We only accept a cashier's check for first, last and security deposit in order to get the keys and sign lease. I believe I read that you know where this lady lives? If so, it is definitely not a scam. If by 'cash' you mean 100 dollar bills it is probably a scam.

It doesn't smell like it's not a scam...

Alex- This is not common practice. Most companies or apartment complexes will have all payments online and avoid cash or checks. Cashiers Check for same day move ins are the only exception- funds need to clear prior to move in. 

Applications are very thorough and will include all of the information you listed- typical. 

Either Love it and ask lots of questions or leave it. 

We don't ask for cash but I have heard of other landlords who do because of the chance of a check bouncing after the tenant has already taken possession of the rental.  Once a landlord has been bitten this way and has to evict, they want to prevent it from happening again.

Hi Alex. I agree with many of the responders. Though, I wouldn't say pre-qualification is entirely worthless. I believe pre-qualification allows you to shop for different mortgages by different lenders---seeing which ones offer the best deal. I believe a good strategy would be to get pre-qualification, say, from 6 lenders, and move forward with pre-approval with your top three. And from those top three, choose the best mortgage deal being offered.