All Forum Posts by: Brenda Whittaker

@Anthony R. That was SO WELL SAID.  You are absolutely right.  It's a business and I have given way too much away, compromising the whole reason for doing this in the first place.  The tenants have already decided to go, and were on a month to month so it is quite sudden for me.  Not prepared to rehab.  It wont' need a whole lot I hope, but I have another job at home to deal with too and the last two I did took a solid 6 weeks to fix up.  I have to sell.  I don't want to do this anymore.  I'm ready to move on to other things, that I might actually be good at.  Haven''t found them yet though, ha ha ha ha ha.  Now I have to put together a rehab project.  And I don't want to. I know I can do as-is but those offers are too low.

Bonham TX 20 miles east of Sherman. Thanks so much. I will be looking at what FHA compliances are such as heat/ac unit, roof, and whatever else might help an end buyer obtain financing, plus flooring and paint of course. I like Home Depot but will need someone for details and to help watch over the place. I also need a shed install, and general clean up. December - January.

@Jon A. thank you.  Now the huge challenge of travelling to renovate for a sale.  It is extremely difficult to travel and the last renovations I did took 6 weeks to complete.  If anyone here has suggestions on hiring help from afar, for a place that is a little Mayberry town with lots of incompetence and cheaters, let me know. 

UPDATE - So I told my tenants I would have to raise rent $200 in order to not lose money any more and that I would not do that but may have to sell and that I needed them to let a broker inside for a BPO.  They gave me their 30 day notice.  Anyone know a great handyman in north Texas!!??

What is missing from that business formula is compassion.  This world is all wrong.  It's so ruled by oppression it's mindblowing.  People can so easily be controlled and brainwashed for profit that way, supply and demand, such as when supply is squeezed to a minimum simply to create a higher price.  A giant evil corporation can hire an unscrupulous ad agency to brainwash people into wanting something then jack up the cost of it because it's wanted.  What kind of evil is this?  Why does everyone allow this to happen?  Mid 20th century saw a cigarette company hire a marketing demon that convinced the women of that time that smoking cigarettes made them independent and glamorous, doubling their profits.  Bad enough with things people don't need but if people are in need of some basic life sustaining substance such as food or shelter and the supply is restricted just so some businessman can live in a bigger mansion, you have an extremely evil greed system.  People are out in the cold where I live because of demand, and that will never be ok.  The 80's brought about the horrible self serving ME FIRST mentality, we are supposed to be growing, learning, helping humanity and realizing by now that life is most meaningful and purposeful when we cooperate, not compete, when we assist others, not oppress them for profit.  It's wrong.  Just because thats the way it works doesn't make it right.  Everyone needs to wake up, good people are suffering and no one cares beyond their own pricey possessions. 

@Kyle Smith The reason I joined BP was because it's an excellent education resource center and I am still in the business like it or not.  I have found lenders and contractors and other much needed tools here.  When I joined I had 3 rental properties, and I needed a real estate forum.  Ok?  Thank you for your response, I do agree I need to find something without the heartache.  @Jim Cummings Thank you so much, and yes those are terrific suggestions.  I sure appreciate all of you here, thanks for talking to me. 

@Jonathan R McLaughlin Bingo!  Your last paragraph is what i was looking for, some creativity.  That is a great idea about paying for their first month at another place, that's a wonderful idea.  I think I will do that.  Not sure what you mean by selling to out of state investors?  I declined an offer from an investor.  So I don't know what you are referring to by "dont' kid yourself."  I think the best thing to do for the financial end is unfortunately get the tenants out and fix it up for an end buyer.  It needs about $20K if I include a new roof and AC system, flooring and paint.  Appraiser has it at $73K even though the market has it at more like $65K which is infuriating because I thought you can protest tax rate when you get the bill but they said it had to be back in April when I supposedly got a value notice and they cut you off at 30 days to protest, for no reason except for exactly what did happen to me, people who dont know any better then get cheated by ridiculous property tax that they are powerless to do anything about.  My tax doubled!  DOUBLE from just last year!!  It's entirely unfair, its a rip off and I don't want to play anymore.  I'm sick and tired of being robbed. This is the greediest business on the planet, and I am way too good of a person to be involved in it. 

@John Teachout  MISTAKE above, I meant YOU have a very good point about harming tenants with rent shock.  Sorry for the typing error.  Thank you John for your response. 

@John Teachout  GIVE the house to the tenants?  I need the rent to pay my own mortgage! I would be on the street without the income or the sale.  I could not afford to give away the only investment I have.  And to answer why I got into real estate is in a lot of the above conversation, I love rehab, not numbers.  My passion has always been, even as a child, to fix up run down houses and make them beautiful and useful again.  I stop at all of them and look in the windows.  I dream of what to do with them, design improvements in my head.  I LOVE to renovate homes!!!  And when I got started, actually 25 years ago, it was possible because houses were 50K in bad shape where I live, so I happily did business right in my own neighborhood until China took over California and Californians began to invade Arizona, upbidding everything on the market in a buying frenzy and inflating prices so it was no longer possible to find anything worth renovating, (Come on, we ALL know that is what is happening but no one wants to admit it.), so I went to a less expensive state and renovated and rented out 3 more until now the infection of greed has taken over that state as well.  I wish I could just fix up houses without the business end of it all.  I hate business, I love fixing up houses. I did not get into it because I enjoy spreadsheets and numbers and taxes and percentages and laws and rules and regulations and rip off contractors and greedy tax collectors and rip off agents. Does that make sense as to the why I got involved in the first place?  Also I have a very good point about how I may have actually harmed these nice old people by creating an inevitable rent shock.  I never thought of that.  You are correct in that wherever they now go, they will face a huge increase that they were not prepared for.  It's still very sad.  Incomes do not go up enough to cover skyrocketing housing costs, like I keep saying, a roof is a basic need and should be affordable to more well deserving people.  I can't understand why I seem to be the only one who can clearly see this and who cares. 

@Jim Cummings  Why?  Are you insinuating I'm some sort of nutcase because it bothers me that people are having trouble affording housing?  This is baffling.  Why would you say something so insulting?  Was that really necessary?