All Forum Posts by: Alex Juarez

@Bruce Lynn yea, I guess I might be overthinking it. Ive never really done a cold call for a property before, but I’ve been watching some live cold calling videos on YouTube. I’ll give take some notes and give them a call to see what happens.

Yea, that’s what I was thinking about the price being too high to make sense as a rental. I was thinking about fix and flipping, not sure why I didn’t even consider wholesaling. I might have to study up on that more, I’ve been focused on rentals.

Thanks Bruce!

Alex

Hey BP!

So a few months ago I found out a sweet old lady had passed away. I know she had no family in Texas, and no children. The house went through probate, and I found out some relatives from out of state split her property up amongst themselves. I'm interested in the property, but not sure how to approach it. Only one of the relatives filled out the application. I'm sure with enough digging I can find a way to contact him, but I'm not sure what to say when I do. From quick comps it looks like the house can go for upwards of $300k fixed up. It being on the higher end, I'm not sure that renting it out would be the best strategy, unless it's purchased at a great price. Either way, I'm interested in the house. 

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated! 

Thanks BP!

Alex 

@Bruce Lynn thanks for the input!

Yea that’s something that’s also crossed my mind. In my questionnaire they put they’d sign a 36 month lease, but I don’t put too much weight on that knowing they could get orders to relocate and that would be that. I looked up what the average time was for army families to move around and google says its 2-3 years. Still though, like you said, they could get an assignment and I would start over.

Hey BP!

So, I have a question about qualifying a tenant. I haven't called references and past landlords yet, but everything else checks out except for I'm a little confused about what to make of the credit report. 

I'm not sure if I can post parts of their credit report, so I'll try to explain what I'm seeing.

 They have make 3x the rental income and have a 660 credit score (my minimum is 600). They only have about $183 of monthly payments. a total debt of 12k, with 9k of that being student loans. This wouldnt bother me, but it's the way they're labeled that raises red flags and is causing confusion. There are about 6 different instances of "US Dept of ED/Gsl/Atl"  and all of them are showing as "closed" but all of them are also labeled as "account seriously past due date/assigned to attorney, collections, or credit grantors." There are two of those that have a current balance and payment status as "seriously past due" the rest show a "paid/ zero balance". i havent asked her about this because I'm still trying to make sense of what it means. It looks like she's still "seriously past due" on these, but what's throwing me off is why is it showing "closed" if she still has a balance on it? I've tried googling this but couldnt find much on it.

Anyways, the prospective tenant is in the army and has mentioned that rent wouldnt be an issue since they receive a housing allowance, so seeing this student load debt being past due doesnt scare me off too much but just wanted to ask yalls opinion on this. Oh, and the open date of the student loans showing a balance on them is from 2016 just btw.

Thanks BP!

Alex

Thanks for yalls responses! I'm going to go ahead and just tear it down and re-tile it. I got a quote for for both the hallway restroom and the master shower walls, it came out close to $1,200. I can get them re-tiled for almost the same price, so I'm going to go that route. 

Thanks!

Hey BP!

So I'm currently doing some work on a house and I've been going back and forth with this idea of refinishing vs retiling for a sfh rental. It's in the Katy area if that matters, but I'm trying to decide on what option to go with. 

The hallway bathroom has some tile that would need to be repaired and it has a cast iron tub that has a few chips in it. The tub has a small leak, but I believe the leak is from the metal drain that has deteriorated and there's a piece of it missing that forms the seal. I'm going to replace that tonight to confirm that's where the leak is from. The question is whether I should refinish or re-tile. I'm leaning towards the refinishing and from what I understand it sounds like this is something that shouldn't be a DIY task. I researched a few companies here in Houston, but was wondering if someone could recommend one? I found one called Bathtub Refinishing Pros. I called yesterday, but received a text today from a different number saying they were with a different company (Fantastic Restorations), apologizing for missing my call yesterday. This made me a little hesitant to even call them back. 

If anyone could recommend a company for this, I would greatly appreciate it. 

I'm also attaching pictures here of what it currently looks like. The major reason I don't want to re-tile this (besides the cost and labor) is because this is the hallway bathroom, and I feel like if I made upgrades to this bathroom then I would have to update the master bathroom (which is fine). 

Side note, I'm also considering refinishing the vanity top cause the sink bowl has some scratches in it. Do yall think its worth it or is that something I should just replace or not even bother with? 

Thanks!

Alex 

@Michael Dang thanks! yea I plan on visiting a few this Saturday. I tried their website, but it doesn't really have much information as far as what they have in inventory. 

@Pat L. the doors look nice, but $25 for a nice looking microwave! That's awesome! I didn't even think to look for open box type items. Will definitely shop around for those as well. 

Thanks guy!

Alex

Thanks everyone for yall's input!! 

I did some research and did find a builders surplus store and a door clearance center here in Houston. They advertise some pretty cheaply priced doors, so I'll make a trip out there this weekend. Definitely going fiberglass for the exterior now after reading yall's comments. 

I'll also check sears and facebook for appliances. I was on craigslist earlier, and saw some decent appliances for a decent price. 

Thanks everyone!

Alex

@Kyle Strouse Awesome! Thanks! I was leaning towards fiberglass since it's not a huge price difference for the one I'm considering. 

Hey BP! 

So I am going to need to replace two doors in a rental and wasn't sure if there were better places to get them from besides Home Depot or Lowes? 

I need to replace one interior door and one exterior (back door). I did research and found the steel is the budget friendly door, but comparing prices between steel and fiber glass on Home Depot, fiber glass doesn't seem that much more expensive. If I'm understanding it correctly, fiberglass doors are better than steel, but I don't know why? Is that true, and could someone explain why? The difference in costs for the door I'm considering is about $40, so I'm thinking about just going the fiberglass route for the exterior since it's supposed to be better. 

As for the interior, does it really matter what kind of door I get as long as it looks nice? 

If there's a brand or type of door yall could recommend I would really appreciate it. 

Also, for the appliances, do yall know of a better place to shop for them than Home Depot or Lowes? I was thinking about just looking through craigslist to see what I could find for cheap. I really just need a washer, dryer and microwave. Has anyone gone the craigslist route? 

Thanks!

Alex