All Forum Posts by: Bill Rainsburger

I'm one of those people who tear down bandit signs. If they're up high I spraypaint over the phone number. The worst kind of for neighborhood home value is graffiti. Second is bandit signs, especially the WE BUY HOMES kind. They tell everyone driving thru that the neighborhood housing market is depressed.

Also, they're illegal.

Also, you're not intending "to aid people in distressed situations", you're in business.

In the game Monopoly, more serious players mortgage any properties they don't plan to build houses on. This gives them cash to build houses on their other properties.

Debt is just a tool like a chainsaw, and if used improperly it will hurt you just like a chainsaw.

I'm not in the business so maybe this is a stupid question - how do some realtors make enough money to live on ? I can think of 4 kinds of realtors, and of these #1-3 make a living:

1) Those that do a lot of houses that are fairly expensive. The busy realtors in the affluent parts of town, in other words.
2) Those that do a bazillion low-end houses, including REO's, etc. They may do hundreds or thousands of houses in one year.
3) Those for whom it's a second job. They that got their license but never made a go of it, and never will.
4) Leaving those who that sell "some" houses, in the middle price ranges. A few average priced houses a month. Where I live (east side of Indianapolis) houses are slow to sell, and $150,000 buys a lot of house.

I wondered because I was looking around at realtors and got a recommendation from the guy across the street. I think she'd be ok but wondered how someone with only 20 listings can make a living. The outfit she's with keeps slightly more than half the commission. So if she lists or sells a $125K house on a 7% commission (standard here), she gets about $2,000.

The lease says clearly that the landlord is not liable, even in cases of the landlords negligence. This is the standard contract for this locality. Given the unconscionable nature of this clause, this locality tilts significantly in favor of the landlord. Landlords might say that the tenant doesn't have to sign such a contract, but when 99% of local apartment complexes use the same lease language, it's hard to find a place to live without surrendering.

I suggest you're missing the point of the question. Let me broaden it to a hypothetical case in which the landlord's maintenance staff has attempted to repair plumbing in a vacant upstairs unit in a 40-unit building. The maintenance person makes some sort of mistake, a leak results, and the downstairs unit starts becoming soaked just after its occupants have left for work in the morning. When the downstairs unit occupants get home in the evening, they discover half an inch of water standing in the kitchen, and that much water also soaked into the carpet and pad throughout the rest of the apartment. The only way to dry out the carpet and pad is for the tenant's belongings to be moved out of the way, so vacuums and dryers can be deployed. Now, who moves the furniture ?

The original case presented is the same. The landlord admits the unit had been badly flooded by rainwater in the past, yet did not disclose that information to the tenant. The landlord is in violation of city code which states that "No basement may be used as a habitable room unless floors and walls are impervious to leakage of underground and surface run-off water." There is an extraordinarily obvious crack, several feet long, that goes all the way through the slab, which is perfect for letting ground water rise up into the apartment.

In some localities, cases like these tilt in favor of the landlord. In others, in favor of the tenant.

Due to heavy rains an apartment that's below ground level is waterlogged. Carpet and pad are soaked. A crew is pumping out water and running fans, has removed 1000 gallons so far in 24 hours. The areas under heavy furniture, boxes, etc are still squishy and the place can't be dried out without moving all the furniture and belongings around, so that the carpet can be pulled up and fans and pumps put in place.

Landlord will not move furniture and belongings in order to dry out the carpet, they consider it the tenant's obligation.

Who's responsible for moving the furniture around to get the apartment back to being inhabitable ? (State of Indiana)

Thank you all very much ! Regarding renting to friends and family, this would be a dear friend, and friends seem more trustworthy than family members.

The comment about "coinsurance percentage" - that's the first time I've ever had it explained...funny since every once in a while I ask my agent why my homeowners insurance shows a replacement value of $180k, on a property worth only $110K including land.

Hello, I'm in Indianapolis and considering becoming a landlord, in a very limited way, we have a friend of the family that could use their own place to live. In many parts of Indy you can buy a decent small house for about $25-30,000 cash. I'd charge just enough rent to cover my taxes and insurance, plus a small return on capital, and a small chunk for expected repairs, so about $250 a month.
Now the newbie part of me kicks in, I know I need a landlord insurance policy, how much roughly would insurance run on such a property ? Assuming same limits I have on the house I own and live in, so like 1000 deductible, 300k liability. I do not need replacement cost, if the house burns down I'd just like what I paid for it.
(I realize this approach may sound nutty but it would also be a way for me to learn to be a landlord without committing massive capital)
TIA !