All Forum Posts by: Allie Dickson

Just pinging this conversation so maybe someone will chime in. I'm curious also.

Thanks you for your input, Brad. I'm hoping our state will end these moratoriums soon.

I'd love to get a rental right now but I'm hesitant because Oregon has a very tenant-friendly rent moratorium in place. Does anyone have experience with this on how we can protect ourselves as landlords?

 My understanding is that tenants can use the moratorium for 6 months and then they have to "catch up" on the rent. It seems unlikely that they could ever come up with a lump sum to pay back 6 months of rent. What's to stop them from just walking away with the landlord holding the bag?

Congratulations on your purchase, Nick! 

Paint is your friend. Interior paint will do wonders for your place and is the cheapest upgrade you can make. If you need to replace flooring there is some really nice looking linoleum made these days that really looks like wood. Are the existing cabinets in decent shape? If so you could paint them or refinish them. If there's room in the budget you could change the countertops to a nice granite. Think light neutral colors and tones that would appeal to a wide range of buyers. 

I hope this was helpful. Best of luck with your project. :D

Hey, Martel. You might search for investors, realtors, property managers, and contractors in Cleveland on Bigger Pockets first. Perhaps you can get some good leads through this platform. If you don't get a good start there you could find the top property managers in Cleveland based on their online reviews and interview many of them to see who is the cream of the crop. Get their opinions on rental amounts for the subject property and if it's a good area of town to rent in. Once you pick a couple of PMs you can use them as a resource to find great contractors. A good PM should know many good contractors. I would get bids from about 5 different contractors and see how they compare. Ask them to give you itemized bids so you can understand how they break down their charges. 

Have you read Matt Greene's book "Long Distance Real Estate Investing"? If not, you MUST read. I'm basically paraphrasing it. It's amazing! 

Best of luck on getting the deal done. :D

I make it a policy to NOT rent to friends or acquaintances. If things go sour it will ruin your friendship and with acquaintances it makes the mutual friend(s) feel awkward. Some friends tend to take advantage of the situation. It is more difficult to enforce the tenancy agreement or raise the rent every year with friends. Also, the friend may not report problems with the property because they don't want to "be a pest" therefore causing some deferred maintenance. We rented to a "friend" and when we asked them to move so that we could sell the property they tried suing us. Yes, for real! You can't make this stuff up. It was a mess and is the reason we don't rent to friends or acquaintances anymore.

In your situation, think about whether the upsides outway the potential risk of renting to them. Hope this helps.

@Ralph R. Wow, Ive never heard of that. I will definitely be looking into it. Learning new things daily! Thank you, Ralph!

They have breached the contract so you could seek legal counsel. Although, you could try one more thing first. Write an addendum to the contract that extends the timeframe in which you can purchase the property. When you submit the addendum you could include a few pieces of the paper trail which show you have some evidence for a case. I would keep this message very cordial. Then if you still don't get a response you could mention that you'll be talking to a lawyer. That statement alone might make the seller reconsider messing with you.

I'm so sorry that you're going through this @John Hall. I hope you get it sorted out in a smooth manner. :D

I hate to say it, but you may want to call a lawyer. I hope you have a paper trail of all the correspondence.

Are you getting a loan? If so, you'll have to come up with cash to make up the difference between sales price and appraised value or negotiate the sales price down. Try the latter first. A good argument for this is "you'll only be able to get as much as the appraised value from another buyer getting a loan, so you might as well stick with me since we are so close to closing." 

If you are paying cash, you'll have to ask yourself: "Is it really worth it to overpay for this property?"

Hope this helps! :D