All Forum Posts by: BOB CRANEY

@Rob Murden Bottom line here is this should have been clearly stated in your sales contract and any security deposits should have been assigned to you at settlement and paid from the sellers proceeds. You should have gotten a breakdown of how much was being held for each tenant and anything less that a full security deposit should have been investigated and confirmed by the signed lease and/or a call to the existing tenant. If you already closed and this wording was in your contract then you better lawyer up and get the title company involved because it will be way more of a PITA since the seller has closed the transaction

@Colleen F. Those High Efficiency washers sound good in theory but they don’t clean well at all. There are multiple YouTube videos that show a red rag in a load of white rags in a HE machine. The red rag barely moves at all when the cycle is running due to such a small amount of water and poor agitation, both of which you need to actually clean cloths and rinse out all the soap completely. A good quality washIng machine like a speed queen with a coin box is the only way to keep someone from doing all theIr frIends laundry for some extra cash.

@Tab Teehee Here is a hack that costs a little upfront but will save you in the long run. I put 3“ chair rail trim in almost every room of the house. 95% the area that needs to be repainted is is at chair rail height and below. With the chair rail as a break point in the wall I only have to paint that area down on turnovers. I have taken to painting that lower section in a darker complimentary color because is hides scuffs and kids fingerprints better. Go with a better grade paint like SW Superpaint in satin for the easy washability. Call your local store and ask to speak with an outside salesman who can give you much better pricing than the Counter guy based on your volume.

Big ticket items are expensive and usually more difficult and disruptive to install when a tenant is living in your unit. Your thinking for a long term buy and hold needs to be 15-20 years. Its a lot easier to plan ahead and look for a property that is priced low enough to allow you to do a major rehab upfront prior to renting it. The reason this make the most sense is that you are able to finance all your high priced items into your mortgage and then your ready to go 15-20 years without any major surprises and hopefully less ongoing maintenance along the way. Choosing finishes, flooring and major mechanicals that are quality and long lasting will save you money and headaches over your ownership period. 

There are not many single family rentals that can support large capital expenditures paid from cashflow every few years and still remain reasonable profitable. If the cashflow cannot support regular major upgrades every 3-5 yrs will have to come out of your own pocket, ouch! 

Rents in your market are what they are. You should have done a good market survey with some boots on the ground visits to your competition to see the range of what you can get for the product you are offering. I think many would agree that 2BR/1BA in a Miami class A unit will not be the same as class B to B+ of the same size in that same area. You need to try to work the analysis problem backwards and figure what is the best rents you can get for the level of renovation you plan to do. If you know your renovation costs like you should then you can look for a property that will fit your plan to renovate upfront and still leave you with a decent NOI while financed with a 70-75% LTV loan. Once you have done a few of these you will have nice tight numbers for the whole process that allows you to know quickly if a property your looking at will fit your mold. After that its like Monopoly for real.

A licensed plumber/gas fitter can tell you how to do this for free. You need a licensed expert who will actually be doing the work.

You have been found guilty of being a hypocrite. You give example after example of repairs done by this guy with your knowledge before or after it actually occurred. Quite convenient for you when it suited your desire to not have to spend your own money for the materials or labor. When he did a less than professional job , suddenly your all upset. If he has been doing this for 10 years and you have allowed it with no formal, written reprimand and request to not make material changes and improvements then you are not going to be able to use that argument in court and if you do you should be ashamed. The tenant is now threatening you with the system it sounds like he may have some knowledge of. If I was you I would retain a lawyer for your court appearance and give him a heads up on the bigger picture. In court the judge will rule on the Nina payment of rent. The tenant can always file some other frivolous claims of non habitability and other stall tactics to stay as long as he can. Most tenants are bluffing and don’t know they eviction process near as well as they claim. Work the system and deadlines as tight as you can and if you don’t know what those deadlines are get a rent court attorney or agent familiar with your county and pay them to do it or you will get screwed even more by time. I would not offer the tenant a penny more than he is due after he moves out and you have done your inspection. If you have written your lease correctly then all your attorneys fees can legally be deducted from his deposit or you will get a court judgement that includes the rent plus attorneys fees.

Do yourself a favor and make a move in checklist that must be completed when the tenant signs the lease and before move in. No tenant should get keys and access to the rental until all the obligations of the tenant are fulfilled. If they are allowed to decide whether they want to call the power company to get service in their names or not, more often it will not happen by the move in date. Suddenly you will find out the tenant has poor credit and the utility will require a $500 deposit to open the account. Guess who doesn’t have that money just lying around!! Call the power company immediately and tell them to cut off the service. Your tenant has know for the last few years they were not paying for the utilities and said nothing. That tells me they are dishonest but it doesn’t change the fact that they should reimburse you for the back utility bills. Send them a certified letter explaining the situation and include the copy of your lease with that clause highlighted. Your inaction does not release them from the obligation to pay for the utilities. Propose a payment schedule over 12 months or so to get repaid. You will likely not get your money and they will move out if you try to evict. At that point I hope you have a good fat security deposit because that’s what I would use to reimburse myself for the unpaid utilities. Get smarter and more formal about how you run your business or get out of it.

You are renting them an apartment not trying to give them a mortgage or sell them a car. If you have screamed 45 prospects and all have bad credit scores you are obviously in a bad area. Find someone with income that qualifies and see if you can get a double security deposit. With that much money at stake most tenants will work hard to stay on time. If they don't, you have enough money to get them out without losing your shirt. Try to find someone with a good strong rental history at your price point that's the real key. How do they prioritize paying rent over everything else

am growing my self managed rental portfolio and am up to 12 units in 8 buildings with a monthly gross of around $14,000. I have always figured an amount for future capex, vacancy and ongoing maintenance and repair which is small stuff(not capex sized things). I am trying to figure out the best way to manage these contingency funds within my banking and accounting system. For those with similar or larger portfolios how are you manging your contingency funds. • Would it be best to hold it in separate bank account apart from my operating account or just make it a separate account in Quick books with the funds actually still co mingled with everything. Should these funds be held in a interest bearing account to offset effects of inflation? • How would you access , account for these funds when used and under what circumstances should you "tap " the account. Ex.  Should it be drawn from for an extended vacancy or to get a rough property rent ready? • I have been figuring 7% for Capex due to the fact that my properties are rehabbed really heavily/completely but i want to put a total dollar cap on the amount i should be holding if i reach that.  • What % of property value would be a good rule to max out for total dollars held in contingency for a particular property 

do you have a contact email on your investor junkie page?