All Forum Posts by: Bill B.

I use State Farm in Minnetonka for my townhome on lake Minnetonka. 

I think it’s a new trend of people’s profile investment info getting posted in forums by technical error or bad instructions. ive seen quite a few lately. 

I may be in the minority but I avoid scratch and dent for a rational or maybe irrational fear. 

My fear is once a tenant sees a dent or scratch on the appliances they have zero interest in avoiding or fear of scratching/denting the appliances more. When a tenant sees new, or like new I feel they know any new dents/scratches would be obvious. The savings on one appliance is usually less than a weeks rent so getting a tenant sooner can pay for itself. (I also include all stainless appliances and fridges with ice makers and door dispensing ice/water.) I’m sure many people would argue against the expense of stainless and or hassles of in door water/ice fridges  

In maybe a related or possibly unrelated tangent, I haven't had a vacancy in more than 3 years and the average length is over 5 years spread over 12 SFR Vegas properties.

I’ve used prestige roofing twice with good results. 

I’d be interested in collecting an opinion or two from people that have made this choice before...

I've collected about a dozen SFR rentals and I'm considering selling one. They've all had the same tenants over 3 years and most have 1-3 years of lease left. So I have good financials and history for them.

If you were going to sell 1 would you sell it to a future homebuyer thinking you might get more money? Or would you sell it to an investor thinking they might be more interested in the income numbers than paint color or other nit picky things? Can I get as much from an investor or at least close?

My fear chasing the homebuyer is I have to kick a solid rent paying tenant out at lease end, probably do some make ready, then live without rent while marketing and hope the sale goes smoothly. That alone could cost $4-5k in lost rent alone. 

Thanks. 

2 bad examples out fo 3k don’t sound so bad. :-) (since I’m sure those we’re the only 2 you could think of.)

@Jay Hinrichs

Man Jay, you’ve worked with some scummy people. Hopefully it’s just because you’ve worked with so many people. You certainly don’t come across as jaded. 

Cash flow per unit before and after Managment isn’t going to be affected by the number of units as the fees are per unit.  They’re idealing going to take a percent of rent (8% in Las Vegas) and maybe a placement fee ($300 given to a realtor in Las Vegas). I managed the first 5 myself just to know what should be involved, what to look for and so on. I have 13 now and only manage 2 that have been with me for 5+ years. 

They’ve paid for themselves in my situation in reduced stress, raised rents and more importantly. Enforcing and collecting late fees. (They keep half.) in 15 years with 13 properties they had to start 2 evictions. One moved out before court date the other paid all the fees for being late and filing. 

Are those rent reductions usually apartment related? I rode through the Las Vegas market "downturn" and never stopped raising SFR rent every year. This was "middle of the road" housing going from low $1100's to $1300's $25 - $50 per renewal.

My father in law had to start and run the local rural water association in MN farm country when a few square miles of houses/farms all had their wells run dry the same year. They had to run water from a lake 26 miles away and split up the costs or abandon their homes. (A few couldn’t wait for the project to complete and literally walked away. My father in law bought another home outside the drought to get by until it was finished.)

Personal wells don’t have this problem but any rental, especially mobile home parks can suddenly be required to meet stricter epa rules since your providing water to unrelated people.