All Forum Posts by: Austin F.

What do you want out of your life?

If you value money over everything else, then live as cheap as possible for as long as you can stand it.

If you want to have an awesome life right now, then take a higher percentage for your lifestyle.

The real trick is keeping disciplined enough to stay at the perfect balance. When you're putting 10k a month into your LOC payoff its really easy to go out for a $50 dinner instead of eating spaghetti again.

Cancel someones lease 2 days before they're supposed to move in? That's a dick move.

Quote from @Bill B.:

I rarely jump to California’s defense, they have more problems than most. But, Yeah. Stop building in places like Michigan where they have to import 90-100% of their gasoline and heating fuel. It’s totally unsustainable. 

Michigan is relatively limited in most energy resources and imports 97 percent of its petroleum needs, 82 percent of its natural gas and 100 percent of coal and nuclear fuel from other states and nations. These imports account for about 72 cents of every dollar spent for energy by Michigan's citizens and businesses.

Where does most of California's energy come from? California is the nation's top producer of electricity from solar, geothermal, and biomass energy. California's greatest solar resources are in the state's southeastern deserts where all of its solar thermal facilities and most of its largest solar PV plants are located.

Maybe if it’s gets cold enough you’d be willing to trade them some of your water for heat and go-go juice for your planes, trains and automobiles.

Shots fired. An excellent point.

Luckily for Michigan it is much easier to transport heat (through power lines or natural gas pipelines) than is it to convince Jesus to send more snow to the Rockies.

Maybe stop building in unsustainable places?

Many have asked and it still hasn't been delivered. Maybe this time???

Hey BP, looking for a little guidance on the new deal I just signed, mostly in order of operations, and how to handle tenants.

Just signed on a 14 unit place, think cabins and a house. One 4 bed house, two 2 bed cabins, eight 1 bedroom units (5 in a single building) and 3 studios, two of which need major reno. The numbers are very healthy, so not worried about that.

The tenants are currently at about half market rent or lower, of low quality, and on m2m, or verbal leases.

My original plan was to vacate the entire property and do all the reno and landscaping in one big push with the goal to get the units back on market by August (college town, school starts Aug 31 so much easier to fill units before then), but my contractor is concerned with that timeline citing labor and materials factors.

Which leaves me with trying to do it unit by unit, probably starting with the 4 bedroom (the hardest unit to fill) and then working into the 2 bedrooms. My concern here is that tenants won't want to leave and will cause delays, or that I run through my timeline and end up with vacant units in the fall and winter.
Another concern is that I manage remotely, and getting existing tenants on my property management system will be difficult. I do not have a system in place for cash collection, or section 8 (which some tenants are).


What would BP do? Try and find a different contractor who can hit my timeline? Relax and extend the stabilization window?

If they are being difficult, tell them when you will be there (with the proper notice required) and then enter your property and take care of the business.

"I understand your concerns with people being at your home while you are not there, unfortunately this is the only time available to get this done. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter."

This guy is taking advantage of your empathy. 

DO NOT renew his lease.

DO NOT get sucked in to any more minor complaints.

DO fall back on your lease; if it is the tenants responsibility say so and be done.


Next time he has a minor complaint say

"I am sorry but it seems as though this rental is no longer satisfactory to you. I am giving you the opportunity to break your lease and find a new unit within 30 days, I am sorry my unit is not up to your standards."

If he is violating his lease in any way you can serve him notice, but be very sure about the laws surrounding this action.

Could it have been grandfathered in? I would try again with the zoning folks, but you also don't want to bring code enforcement down on you so be mindful of that. 

Quote from @Scott Wolf:

Quote from @Phillip Martz:

Thanks but I'm really talking about paying cash for it and not getting the phase 1. What's the potential danger if I do this?

 The potential danger is getting stuck with an environmental clean up that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Or a potential buyer being turned off because it didn't get a phase 1.

That is a minefield, and the downsides FAR outweigh the potential savings.